Technically speaking, cocktails have been around since long before Prohibition. According to VinePair, these mixed drinks arguably got their start as punches, served in big bowls containing liquor and mixers, sometimes served up in appropriately-named "punch houses."
VinePair argues that Prohibition naturally hurt American bar culture, and that it was really World War II and the postwar period that saw professional bartenders returning to American shores. However, Smithsonian Magazine makes the case that cocktails really got a bit of a kickstart from Prohibition. But imbibers who downed one during the less-than-legal days of drinking in the United States needed to be cautious. All of the alcohol being consumed was, naturally enough, unregulated. Some of it could come from seriously funky sources, from a backwoods still to a neighbor's vaguely-washed bathtub.
Bootleggers even sometimes used industrial alcohol, which had been loaded up with nasty-tasting adulterants to discourage illicit use. Their attempts to make that alcohol palatable were uneven at best. Unscrupulous producers reportedly added toxic ingredients to mimic genuine flavors, like rotten meat to make "bourbon" or antiseptics to produce "Scotch." Especially unlucky speakeasy patrons might end up drinking embalming fluid, according to "Last Call."
To mask the taste of less-than-ideal booze, many bartenders used mixers like juice or honey. Unlucky drinkers still faced serious consequences. Some might endure frightening hallucinations, others would become dangerously ill, and a significant number of Americans died from tainted drinks (via Slate).
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