5 Spirited Ways to Celebrate World Cocktail Day 2024It’s World Cocktail Day on 13th May. The perfect excuse to expand your cocktail horizons, have some spirit-forward fun… perhaps with a dash of ANGOSTURA® aromatic bitters.

Cocktails have been raising our spirits for more than two centuries now. The first printed definition of the modern cocktail was recorded on 13th May 1806, when editor Harry Croswell wrote that it was "a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters". Our cocktail horizons may have expanded radically since then, but the definition still holds… and ANGOSTURA® aromatic bitters remains the mainstay of pretty much every cocktail bar worldwide.

World Cocktail Day is celebrated each year on 13th May to commemorate the occasion, but there’s more than one way to mark the auspicious day. If you find yourself in a cocktail rut (always order a negroni? Margarita too good to swap out?) make a point of doing one new cocktail thing this World Cocktail Day. Here are five ideas to shake up your cocktail habits:

Add one new bottle to your home cocktail cabinet

Examine your home cocktail cabinet (or kitchen shelf) with critical eyes. Which bottles sit gathering dust while others are regularly replaced. Is there a cocktail you’ve always wanted to make with them but lack one crucial spirit, mixer or bitters? Pick one bottle to add to your bottle collection that will bring it all together and give you cocktail-making scope. Maybe it’s a sweet vermouth you need to perfect your Manhattan? Perhaps you’ve always stuck to vodka-based cocktails and are ready to branch out with a new spirit? Or maybe expanding your bitters repertoire with a bottle of ANGOSTURA® orange or cocoa bitters is all you need to ring the changes.

Learn one new cocktail-making technique

Why not push your home cocktail-making boundaries and add one new technique to your repertoire. The intricacies of fat-washing might be best left to professional mixologists, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t learn the ins and outs of shaking, muddling, or cooking up your own simple syrups.

Find out the origin story of your favourite cocktail

Cocktail lore is full of great stories, some of them factual, others most likely embellished. Read up about your favourite cocktails and bring a whole new dimension to your enjoyment. For instance, did you know that the Tom Collins is said to have emerged after a popular prank swept New York City in the 1870s… people would wind up their friends telling them that a bloke called Tom Collins was insulting them in a nearby bar, sending them storming into the bar to demand the whereabouts of this villain! He was of course totally fictitious, but barmen soon created a drink called Tom Collins to capitalise on the practical joke.

Order the wildest cocktail on the menu of your favourite cocktail bar

So your bestie bartender makes a mean margarita… and it’s just too good not to order? Get out of your groove and look for the most creative cocktail on the menu. Or ask them to shake up a surprise for you. Watch and learn, stretch your cocktail tastebuds, and discover new flavours and new mixology techniques as you become a more informed cocktail connoisseur.

Organise a collaborative cocktail party at home

Hosting a cocktail party sounds like a whole lot of work… worth it to celebrate an occasion of course, but not something to spontaneously throw together. Get together with a few cocktail-minded friends however and it can be informal and easy as stirring up a Sea Breeze! Four to six guests is perfect for this. Each person nominates a different signature cocktail and brings the ingredients (host supplies the ANGOSTURA® aromatic bitters, there’s no need for everyone to bring their own bottle!). Take turns to make your cocktail over the course of an evening. Add snacks, tapas or takeaways, throw in a glitz-glam movie (featuring cocktails of course… andit doesn’t have to be The Great Gatsby) and you have a suitably spirited World Cocktail Day celebration with the minimal of effort.

For more information on the Angostura range and delicious food and cocktail recipes please visit www.angosturabitters.com.

Follow Angostura South Africa on Facebook /Angostura South Africa and Instagram @AngosturaZA for fun facts, recipes and brand updates.