Cocktails first made their appearance in the early 1800s, and their precise origins are a bit murky. Some say that cocktails were first mixed in New Orleans, while others claim that they were invented in Philadelphia. One story even claims that cocktails were created by a man named Jerry Thomas, who was a bartender in California.

However, the most likely story is that cocktails were actually invented several different times in several different places. The first cocktails were likely a …