Cheers to the Museum of the American Cocktail

If you think Washington's hot, try New Orleans in July. When the Museum of the American Cocktail reopened its doors on Monday in that city, the temperature hit 96 degrees -- plus humidity.

It may seem fitting that a town legendary for its raucous Mardi Gras celebration would house a museum about drinking, but it makes even more sense when you see the list of NOLA-born cocktails: the hurricane, mint julep, grasshopper and the Sazerac, which Louisiana lawmakers just named New Orleans' official drink. (Ah, Louisiana politics.)

And my favorite theory about the etymology of the word cocktail involved the Americanization of a French word, a regular and colorful occurrence in Louisiana. The story goes that the first mixed drinks, poured in New Orleans in the early 19th century, came in egg cups called "coquetieres." Over time, that word got sufficiently mangled to become "cocktail." Voila. The cocktail is sometimes called America's first culinary creation, and the museum chronicles the evolution of the ingredients (from bitters and bathtub gin to Red Bull and Tanqueray) and displays an array of mixologist tools (antique shakers, swizzle sticks) and recipe booklets as old as 1862.

The MOTAC is housed in the Southern Food & Beverage Museum on the riverfront, just a few blocks from the French Quarter. Visitors can follow a visit to the museum with a Gray Line walking tour in the French Quarter called New Orleans' Original Cocktail Tour, a 2 1/2-hour visit to famous bars and restaurants (drinks included).

What I find strange is that Gray Line is also one of the companies still offering Hurricane Katrina tours, at $35 a pop. But it shouldn't surprise me: That capitalist spirit is, like the original cocktail, 100 percent American.

By Christina Talcott |  July 23, 2008; 6:22 AM ET  | Category:  Christina Talcott
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