Signature Cocktails from Around the World

We often bring up wine at Life’s Journey Travel, but not every place you visit is a bustling wine region. However, most places do have a signature cocktail or two, and there’s often a good story that goes along with it. Today, we’re bringing you the backstories of 5 signature cocktails from around the world - plus links to recipes so you can try them out for yourself!

Negroni - Florence, Italy
This is one of the few cocktails whose origin has a documented history. The year is 1919 and Count Camillo Negroni enters a Florentine bar. The Count, a fellow who had traveled to the United States and spent time as a cowboy in the Wild West, orders his favorite cocktail: an Americano. But he asks the bartender to give it more teeth; the man obliges by swapping the Americano’s club soda with a healthy dose of gin. Thus, the Negroni was born.

Caipirinha - Brazil 
The zesty Caipirinha has a muddled history. Some people think that it was intended as a remedy to the Spanish flu in the early 20th century--it originally contained cachaça, green lemons, honey, and garlic, instead of sugar. Others say it simply got started in the regions of Santos and São Vicente, because that’s where the first cachaça distilleries were.

Manila Sunshine - Philippines
Like the Singapore Sling, the Manila Sunshine is also a cocktail dreamt up by a hotels seeking to engage more visitors. In conjunction with the Philippines Department of Tourism, the Makati Shangri-La hotel added the Manila Sunshine to its repertoire in the hopes of attracting more foreign visitors. What makes it unique? Its base of lambanog, or coconut wine. Add to that some pineapple and mango juice with some triple sec and rum and you have yourself a taste of the Philippines!

Pimm’s Cup - London, England
Pimm’s Cups also began as a medicinal tonic. James Pimm, owner of a 19th-century oyster bar in London, marketed his new recipe as a drink to improve one’s health. It got so popular that he began selling the drink around the world. It’s still immensely popular, especially at the Wimbledon tournament.

Sazerac - New Orleans, United States
Some say that the Sazerac is America’s first cocktail. That may or may not be true, but what is known is that Antoine Amédée Peychaud, a native to Haiti who landed in Louisiana, created the drink. Peychaud ran a drug store in the Big Easy and offered his clients toddies mixed his own bitters and Sazerac cognac. The rest is history, but it’s now the signature cocktail of New Orleans.

Thinking about making one of these? Let me know how it goes!