Week 4 Introduction Thread: Vintage/Classic

Week 4 will run from January 21st to January 27th. This week's theme is vintage/classic cocktails. Cocktails have had a long history, with the first written mention of "cocktail" as a beverage appearing in The Farmers Cabinet in 1803. Cocktails continued to grow in popularity and gained significant popularity during the Prohibition era in the United States (1920-1933), when wine and beer became less available than liquor-based mixed drinks. The popularity of cocktails finally dipped during the late 1960's, until they would regain popularity during the modern cocktail era of the 80's and 90's and the craft cocktail era of the early to mid-2000's onward.

This week, we're going to shine a light on some of the classic, old-school cocktails that formed the foundation of cocktail culture. Your challenge is to make a cocktail that originated in the pre-modern or prohibition era of cocktails. You might make one of those classic cocktails whose name everyone knows but gets seldom ordered in modern times, or you might make a forgotten cocktail recipe from times past and give it new life. In either case, this week is a love letter to where cocktails began.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

• Try one of these classic cocktials, preferably one you haven't tried before
• Try one of these prohibition era cocktails