Prohibition was the nationwide ban on producing and selling alcohol in the United States, in effect from 1920 to 1933 under the Eighteenth Amendment. Its influence on cocktails was enormous and paradoxical. It drove drinking underground into speakeasies, pushed many bartenders and their knowledge abroad, and popularized the practice of masking rough bootleg spirits with juice, sugar, and citrus, an ancestor of a great deal of what we drink today. A striking number of classic cocktails, and the culture of the modern bar itself, trace directly to this era.
Why It Matters
A surprising amount of cocktail history runs through Prohibition, including the mixing techniques and flavor logic that make drinks work at all. It is also a useful reminder that drinking culture has reinvented itself before. The alcohol-free movement is simply the latest reinvention, driven this time by choice rather than by law.
Where You'll Use It
Understanding the origins of the classic cocktails you are now making alcohol-free.