there exist myths concerning the invention of the first cocktail ever. I found 3 stories dealing with the birth of that special drink:
Story no. 1:
widow Betsy Flanagan had a pub in Elmsfold / New York whos visitors were mostly french soldiers. These guys spread rumors that Ms Flanagan had an affair with an Englishman from the neighbourhood that was breeding cocks. One day she was fed up with all these stories and went to the Englishman's farm where she ripped off some cock's tailfeathers. Finally she prepared some mixdrinks for the french soldiers and graced them with these cockfeathers. One soldier commented the drink with the words: "Vive le coq’s tail!"
Story no. 2:
It's again about the same widow Betsy Flanagan. It's said that during a jolly party in her pub one french soldier whom she served a mixdrink insisted "Vive le coq’s tail!" because of the fact he found that the drink was as delicious for the palat as a cockfeather was for the eye.
Story no. 3:
once again Betsy is starring. So this time she served George Washington and his officers the mentioned mixdrinks. Washington weared a hat which was graced with tail feathers from a cock by chance. So the officers held a toast with the citation: "To the cock’s tail".
I think there are some more stories about the first cocktail.
