Each year on August 25th, people across the United States observe National Whiskey Sour Day.
Traditionally garnished with half an orange and a maraschino cherry, a whiskey sour is a mixed drink containing whiskey (often bourbon), lemon juice and sugar. Whiskey sours are shaken then either served straight or over ice.
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” – Mark Twain
An alternative to the traditional whiskey sour is the Boston sour which is made by adding a dash of egg white to the recipe. Another variation is the Ward 8. This beverage has a base of either Bourbon or rye whiskey with both lemon and orange juices and grenadine syrup added for sweetness.
The first mention of a whiskey sour was in an 1870 Wisconsin newspaper.
After opening, a bottle of whiskey will remain good for five years.
An unopened bottle of whiskey can be kept for over 100 years and will still be fit to drink.
Both “Whisky” and “Whiskey” spellings are correct. Whisky is specific to Scotch Whisky, and Whiskey is Irish.
Whiskey is the official state beverage of Alabama.
Legend has it that Jack Daniels ran away at the age of 6 and learned to make whiskey from a Lutheran minister.
Have a whiskey sour with a friend this evening. While you enjoy your cocktail, explore the history of whiskey, its production, and trade. The documentaries Straight Upand Scotch: The Golden Dram will give you a look inside both Bourbon and Scotch.
(Remember always to drink responsibly and never drink and drive.) Use #NationalWhiskeySourDay to post on social media.
Each year on July 19th, people across the United States fill their glasses with a rum-based cocktail and toast to National Daiquiri Day. So, raise your glass and join all of the others in this celebration!
Daiquiri is a family of cocktails whose main ingredients are rum, citrus juice (typically lime), and sugar.
Tasting of sunshine and beaches, it might be hard to believe how the Daiquiri came to be. Back in 1898, men blasted away in the mines of a small community off the coast of Cuba during the Spanish-American War. One American engineer, Jennings Cox, supervised a mining operation located in a village named Daiquiri. Every day after work, Cox and his employees would gather at the Venus bar. Then one day, Cox mixed up Bacardi, lime, and sugar in a tall glass of ice. He named the new beverage after the Daiquiri mines, and the drink soon became a staple in Havana. Eventually, someone added shaved ice, and sometimes lemons or both lemons and limes were used.
In 1909, Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, a U.S. Navy medical officer, tried Cox’s drink and subsequently introduced it to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C. The popularity of the Daiquiri then increased over the next few decades.
The Daiquiri was one of the favorite drinks of writer Ernest Hemingway and President John F. Kennedy.
While the Daiquiri is sometimes served frozen, combining it in a blender eliminates the need for manual pulverization. Commercial machines produce a daiquiri with a texture similar to a smoothie, and they come in a variety of flavors, too. Using a frozen limeade to create a daiquiri will provide the required texture, sweetness, and sourness all at the same time.
Gather your friends and mix up a few daiquiris. Make them blended or on the rocks. Frozen Peach, Strawberry,Pina Colada, or even a Mermaid, you’re sure to find a flavor you’ll love. Margarita, Mojito, and lots more. Enjoy them as a mocktail or find a recipe for a daiquiri flavored dessert. (Remember always to drink responsibly and never to drink and drive). Post on social media using #NationalDaiquiriDay.
Celebrate all your favorite cocktails on March 24th. National Cocktail Day ushers in all the best ways to savor a beverage at the end of a long workday. Whether you like a fruity drink, blended or on the rocks, this day is for you. Mocktail, virgin, or the real thing, celebrate the lemon, lime, bitters, liquors, and liqueurs that make your favorite beverages the best in your bartender book.
It’s probably no surprise that nearly every month on the calendar celebrates a cocktail. The only exception is April, and since it’s National Alcohol Awareness Month, it makes sense to take that month off.
A cocktail contains a spirit or a mix of spirits. While a beer is not considered a cocktail, there are beer cocktails where beer is added to a distilled ingredient. The same applies to wine.
The other months pay homage to histories, ingredients, and the makers of some legendary cocktails. January begins the year dedicating a day to the Bloody Mary, and there’s also a day for her Canadian counterpart, the Bloody Caesar, in May. January also devotes an entire week to Mocktails. In February, you can celebrate the Margarita and Kahlua. March brings us International Whisk(e)y Day, among others. Skipping back to May, you can imbibe in both Palomas and Mimosas for your celebrations.
June and July compete for the most cocktail-related days. From Martinis and Bourbon in June to Pina Coladas and Daiquiris in July, the two months cover the spectrum. There are even a few bottles of wine in between. Not only do they celebrate specific cocktails but they also celebrate the places we enjoy them. National Dive Bar Day in July invites us to celebrate the places that serve our favorite cocktails, even if it’s an ice-cold beer.
The rest of the year covers all our chilled and heated cocktails. By December, we readily reminisce National Repeal Day and the Bartenders who keep that era and the skills alive.
We have only skimmed the surface of the cocktails celebrated on the calendar, so National Cocktail Day allows you to celebrate whichever one you like!
Explore cocktail ingredients or read a bartender’s manual.
Learn the finer elements of mixing cocktails and expand your home bar.
Visit a speakeasy or take a tour of your favorite distillery.
Host a cocktail tasting session. Create a classic menu with a professional bartender who provides history and describes the nuances behind the ingredients.
Attend a cocktail tasting party. You will learn more about how and why ingredients are combined the way they are.
Visit your local bar and pick your bartender’s brain. Some like to share their techniques. Ask them what their favorite cocktail is. And, be sure to tip them well for their advice and service.
Try making a mocktail. Especially on those weeknights when work is busy, and you need to keep up. Many of them infuse nutrients many of us are lacking. Keep these recipes on hand for your friends who are designated drivers, sober for life, supporting a friend, or for any reason.
As always, ANY TIME we are indulging in spirits and alcohol, DON’T drink and drive. Designate a sober driver. Call a taxi, Uber, Lyft, or friend.
When you celebrate, share your favorites by using #NationalCocktailDay on social media.
National Kahlúa Day on February 27th recognizes the rich, cream coffee liqueur that also serves up a great many delicious desserts! This alcoholic beverage adds to cocktails and adult flavored desserts equally well. To celebrate, you may want to use Kahlua, a coffee-flavored rum-based liquor, to flavor your ice cream or another dessert such as cheesecake or cake. It also tastes great in coffee, hot chocolate, creamy cocktails, as a shot or on the rocks.
Pedro Domecq began producing Kahlúa in 1936. In 1994, the company merged with Allied Lyons forming Allied Domecq. In 2005, Allied Domecq was partially acquired by Pernod Ricard which merged with the Swedish Vin & Sprit (V & S Group) in March of 2008.
Kahlúa is made from coffee and rum, so it does contain caffeine. Kahlúa is found to be used in a few notable cocktails, including the following: B-52, Baby Guinness, Black Russian, Mudslide, White Russian, Espresso Martini, and Caribbean Mudslide.
The day can be celebrated by baking with Kahlúa flavor. Kahlúa lends a delicious and rich flavor to desserts of all kinds. It elevates cakes, mousse and so much more. If you like chocolate, that’s an excellent place to start.
Of course, you could serve up a beverage or two, as well. (Remember always drink responsibly and never drink and drive) and use #NationalKahluaDay to post on social media.
What National Trivia Day on January 4th celebrates those who accumulate and hoard tidbits of useless trivia? National Trivia Day, of course!
Each year, the holiday recognizes the collectors of unconnected, irrelevant data, facts, history, and quotes in the recesses of their brains. They are the ones who usually proffer these sometimes astounding bits of history when friends and family least expect it.
The word trivia is plural for the word trivium.
In ancient times, the term “trivia” was appropriated to mean something very new.
Nostalgic college students in the 1960s, along with others, began to informally trade questions and answers about the popular culture of their youth. After writing trivia columns, Columbia University students Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky created the earliest inter-collegiate quiz bowls that tested culturally (and emotionally) significant, yet virtually useless information, which they dubbed trivia contests. Trivia (Dell, 1966) was the first book treating trivia in the revolutionary new sense, authored by Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky. This book achieved a ranking on the New York Times bestseller list.
Over time, the word “trivia” has come to refer to obscure and arcane bits of dry knowledge as well as nostalgic remembrances of pop culture.
In North America, the game Trivial Pursuit peaked in 1984, when consumers bought over 20 million games.
Steven Point, Wisconsin, holds the largest current trivia contest at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s college radio station WWSP 89.9 FM. During the April 2013 event, the university hosted the 44th annual contest. Typically, 400 teams participate, ranging from 1 to 150 players. The competition, which is open to anyone, spans 54 hours over a weekend with eight questions each hour.
The first season of the popular television trivia show Jeopardy! premiered on March 30, 1964.
NATIONAL TRIVIA DAY HISTORY
Robert L Birch of Puns Corps. founded National Trivia Day. The first celebration took place as early as 1980, a year before the popular board game, Trivial Pursuit, debuted.
HOW TO OBSERVED #NationalTriviaDay
Are you into trivia? Challenge someone to a trivia contest. Attend a trivia night or host one at home. Show off your trivia savvy. While you’re at it find out how much you know about the National Days. See if you can answer these questions. Some of them, we aren’t even sure of the answers.
Is there a food holiday on every day of the year?
How many chocolate holidays are there?
We love our pets. Do you know how many pet holidays there are?
What’s the oldest National Day on the calendar?
How many technology days are on the calendar?
Be sure to share some brain teasers on social media use #nationaltriviaday.
