What kind of mixed drinks would they have been drinking on the Titanic?

April 15, 2012 8:16 AM

What kind of mixed drinks would they have been drinking on the Titanic?

We're going to a Titanic dinner tonight to commemorate the 100th anniversary and I'd like to order a drink that would be time period appropriate. Would they have been drinking anything besides straight liquor?

posted by fellion to food & drink (6 answers total)

Well here is the first class dining menu, they mention wine and port, I know punch was popular at the time, as was champagne cocktails.
posted by The Whelk at 8:27 AM on April 15, 2012

A Cocktail For The Titanic
posted by veryape at 8:27 AM on April 15, 2012

As for cocktails, a 1911 menu from the Olympic ( Titanic’s sister ship) lists the Manhattan, Tom Collins and John Collins. “Those were the cosmos and appletinis of the time,” says Toby Maloney of Alchemy Consulting.

Other drinks can be tied to a Titanic passenger who perished, John Jacob Astor IV. Around the time Astor merged his Astoria Hotel with his cousin’s Waldorf Hotel in New York City, the Bronx was invented. Other cocktails crafted there include the Rob Roy and the Robert Burns.

-Titanic cocktails
posted by vacapinta at 8:30 AM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

More Edwardian cocktails anything with egg white or the like would read as an archaic cocktail.
posted by The Whelk at 8:31 AM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Here's a book on mixed drinks from 1915
posted by empath at 8:36 AM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Martinis" of that era were much sweeter than today's, with red vermouth playing a role. A "Perfect Martini" is specifically adorned with half-white and half-red vermouth, in a much higher proportion to the gin than (most) martini drinkers today would prefer.
posted by IAmBroom at 8:56 AM on April 16, 2012