Cocktails: Technology

The soul of the American cocktail is ice. Ice was a luxury enjoyed only by the wealthy early in the nineteenth century, so the artificial ice machines were especially important to cocktail development. By the 1880s artificial ice was affordable at even modest drinking establishments.

In the 1830s another development that dramatically changed the distilling industry was the invention of the Coffey, or column, still in Ireland. This permitted distillers to produce spirits faster and more cheaply than ever before. This new technology precipitated the emergence of the large commercial distiller.