Like art, music and literature, the cocktails and favored beverages of an era are often intrinsically linked to the history and culture of the time. Delve into the origins of your favorite cocktails and you’ll find a fascinating glimpse into the psyche of a bygone era. The creation of mixed drinks in particular is routinely linked to events in history.

There’s widespread dispute about how the formal concept of the cocktail was born. The name, according to researchers, possibly came from a Revolutionary War-era American innkeeper named Betsy Flanagan, who joked with her American and French patrons about serving a roast chicken feast with birds stolen from her English chicken farmer neighbor. Legend has it that goading finally did the trick; Flanagan served the chicken, and when diners moved to the bar, she garnished their drinks with tail feathers from the enemy chickens. The resulting “cock tail” drink name spread quickly.

That’s not to say the mixed spirit drink was previously unknown; the Mojitio, today made using white rum, sugar cane juice, lime, mint and carbonated water, was popular among Cuban pirates in the 16th century. More crudely fashioned with mint, lime, rum and sugar, the drink was called “El Draque” after Sir Francis Drake and was created to tone down the bite of the more rustic rum used at the time.

The refreshing gin and tonic was originally created with a more medicinal purpose in mind: concocted by the 18th century army of the British East India Company in India, the drink contained quinine, used to prevent malaria. The bitter bite of the tonic of the time was matched by green notes of gin, making it more palatable.

The French 75, a still-popular cocktail made from Cognac, Champagne, lemon juice and sugar was originally conceived by World War I flying ace Raoul Lufbery. Lufbery wanted his Champagne with a kick and the drink was named after the French 75mm howitzer artillery piece. Whether French soldiers heading to battle had a nip of it to boost courage as is reputed is debatable, but the French 75 gained popularity among civilians quickly after the war and remains a favorite sip to this day internationally.

The Prohibition Era in the 1930s spawned myriad cocktails, some of them good enough to become classics, some of them downright appalling. The Bees Knees, a mixture of gin, honey and lemon, was one to last: easy to throw together and with minimal ingredients, the illegal cocktail featured honey–added to kill the smell of alcohol.

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