December 21, 2025

Christmas special 2025: Anyone for cocktails?

50 minutes

Christmas is here, and after a brief hiatus due to a hectic workload, Chris Fernandez-Packham returns with the traditional festive special. This year, we raise a glass to the Victorian origins of the cocktail—a “Golden Age” of social and technological evolution that saw the transition from traditional British punches to the precision of the American “sensation-drink”. From the “Ice King” who shipped New England ponds to Calcutta to the middle-class women of Chicago claiming public spaces one Manhattan at a time, we explore how spirits, science, and social change collided. We conclude, as always, with a classic Victorian ghost story: The Shadow in the Corner by M. E. Braddon.

Key Topics Covered:

The Original Manuals: Comparing Jerry Thomas’s legendary Bar-Tender’s Guide (1862) with the defensive British response in Drinking Cups & Their Custom (1869).

The Science of Bitters: The medicinal origins and industrialization of Angostura and Peychaud’s bitters.

Technological Breakthroughs: How the Coffey Still revolutionized spirit consistency and Frederic Tudor created the global ice trade.

Cocktails and Gender: The role of the cocktail in helping middle-class women claim public spaces in 19th-century Chicago tea rooms.

New Orleans Chemistry: The multicultural melting pot that gave us the Sazerac, the Absinthe Frappé, and the labor-intensive Ramos Gin Fizz.

Royal Habits: Queen Victoria’s daily Scotch-and-wine habit and her curious refusal to use ice.

Festive Ghost Story: A reading and analysis of The Shadow in the Corner by M. E. Braddon.

Works Cited & Sources:

Jerry Thomas: The Bar-Tender’s Guide / How to Mix Drinks.

Henry Porter & George Roberts: Drinking Cups & Their Custom (1869).

Emily A. Remus: “Tippling Ladies and the Making of Consumer Culture” (The Journal of American History).

Angostura Bitters: “Our Story”. https://angosturabitters.com/our-story/

Scotch Whisky Magazine: “Whisky Heroes: Aeneas Coffey”.

Statista: “U.S. Alcohol Consumption Per Person”.

Big Edition: “Queen Victoria’s Food Habits”.

Smithsonian Magazine: “Did New Orleans Invent the Cocktail?”.

“A Brief History of Ice.” The Alcohol Professor, 19 Mar. 2018, www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/blog/2018/03/19/a-brief-history-of-ice. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

“Commercial Ice – Cambridge Historical Society.” History Cambridge, historycambridge.org/innovation/Ice.html. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

“Planning and Control in the 19th Century Ice Trade.” Accounting Historians Journal, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1984, egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1196&context=aah_journal. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

The Ice King: https://fee.org/articles/frederic-tudor-the-entrepreneur-who-brought-ice-to-calcutta/

Sazerac Recipe and History. New Orleans & Company, www.neworleans.com/drink/cocktails/sazerac/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

“The Sazerac Story.” The Sazerac Company, www.sazerac.com/our-company/our-story.html. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

“What is a Coffey Still?” Whiskipedia, 22 May 2020, whiskipedia.com/fundamentals/what-is-a-coffey-still/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

The Emergence of New Orleans Cuisine.” The American Menu, 5 June 2024, www.theamericanmenu.com/2024/06/the-emergence-of-new-orleans-cuisine.html. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

“History of Craft Cocktails in NOLA.” Where Y’at New Orleans, 20 Nov. 2024, www.whereyat.com/new-orleans-craft-cocktail-history. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

“History of the Cocktail.” New Orleans & Company, www.neworleans.com/things-to-do/history/the-history-of-the-cocktail-and-new-orleans/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.

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By Chris Fernandez-Packham (Victorian History Lover/Queen Victoria Fan)

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