On the topic of branded alcohol and mixed drinks, I got interested in the rise of both a ways back and did some digging, much of it by way of the Google Books ngrams viewer.
The part that wasn't particularly surprising was that mixed drinks and cocktails, along with associated terms ("cocktail hour", "cocktail party") largely date to U.S. Prohibition, when bootleg (and low-quality) hard liquor had to be mixed with other ingredients to become drinkable: http://goo.gl/EBXM87
What was more surprising was that the vast majority of branded alcohols dated to no earlier than the 1950s. Baccardi Rum is a notable exception showing up in the 1920s (http://goo.gl/it9vOc)
Schmirnoff: 1950, on the nose: http://goo.gl/j0yle3 http://goo.gl/YxXJ9i
Remy Martin, Beefeater, Gordon's, and Bombay Gin: 1950s: http://goo.gl/qX6JEY
That "traditional old Number 7" Jack Daniels? 1970s: http://goo.gl/JWVLG6
And an "Irish pub" is really a 1990s phenomenon: http://goo.gl/vLwvTn
And if you look at many of today's "trendy" brands, most are creations of the 1980s, 1990s, or later: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120306152857A...
"Mixology" itself -- also largely a creation of the past 20 years: http://goo.gl/1hVsEU
And whiskey, the American version at least, was largely created to allow movement of an otherwise unusable product -- frontier grain -- to the population centres of the East Coast.
Your "sophisticated drinks" are an ad-man's creation.
The part that wasn't particularly surprising was that mixed drinks and cocktails, along with associated terms ("cocktail hour", "cocktail party") largely date to U.S. Prohibition, when bootleg (and low-quality) hard liquor had to be mixed with other ingredients to become drinkable: http://goo.gl/EBXM87
What was more surprising was that the vast majority of branded alcohols dated to no earlier than the 1950s. Baccardi Rum is a notable exception showing up in the 1920s (http://goo.gl/it9vOc)
Schmirnoff: 1950, on the nose: http://goo.gl/j0yle3 http://goo.gl/YxXJ9i
Remy Martin, Beefeater, Gordon's, and Bombay Gin: 1950s: http://goo.gl/qX6JEY
That "traditional old Number 7" Jack Daniels? 1970s: http://goo.gl/JWVLG6
And an "Irish pub" is really a 1990s phenomenon: http://goo.gl/vLwvTn
And if you look at many of today's "trendy" brands, most are creations of the 1980s, 1990s, or later: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120306152857A...
"Mixology" itself -- also largely a creation of the past 20 years: http://goo.gl/1hVsEU
And whiskey, the American version at least, was largely created to allow movement of an otherwise unusable product -- frontier grain -- to the population centres of the East Coast.
Your "sophisticated drinks" are an ad-man's creation.