Fruit Cocktail
From Falsipedia
Origins of the Fruit Cocktail
The fruit cocktail was invented in the mid-nineteenth century by great American mixologist Denton Sullivan. He had seen great advances in the mixing of alcohol and fruit juices over the early to middle parts of the 1800's. He deduced that there could be value to the combination of solid fruit components added to his favorite alcohols. His initial foray into the art of the fruit cocktail was the Prune Slider, a challenging mixture of vermouth and mashed prunes. Though the prune slider was, as he wrote in his mixology log books, "a miserable concoction tasting as if one wanted to expel the mixture simultaneously from both sides of the digestive pathways," Sullivan persevered until he invented the Grape Splash. Simplicity itself, the Grape Splash, was two parts vodka and one part black grapes, bunched. It was hailed as the drink of the decade and provided fruit cocktails with a foothold in academic mixology circles.
Rising Popularity of Fruit Cocktails
Though academic circles embraced the fruit cocktail, it took almost an entire century for the mainstream public to discover the joy of the fruit cocktail. The public's discovery of the drink came after the advent of the passenger aircraft and the rise of tourism in the Pacific islands of Tahiti, Bora Bora and the Polynesian belt. The native bartender had problems understanding the concept of drink garnishes, and often times placed large chunks of fruit directly in their tropical cocktails. This failed attempt at garnish actually swept the Pacific islands, becoming known as Tahitian style cocktails. The craze leapt from the island to the cruise lines and airplanes that serviced them. In the 1950's the craze landed as Tiki bars started to spring up in many cities across the United States. It was as the tourism culture met the academic realm in college communities that the Tahitian style cocktail became a tropical fruit subset of the already established fruit cocktail.
Other Side--Effects of the Fruit Cocktail Craze
As the fruit cocktail was added to restaurant bars, the fruit cocktail followed the likes of the virgin daiquiri, the Shirley Temple and other non-alcoholic cocktails with the virgin fruit cocktail. This drink was made with a sweet syrup or fruit juice and proved a very popular way to get finicky children to eat their fruit. The virgin fruit cocktail is served as an edible treat now, and is canned by the likes of Dole and Del Monte and is even a popular component in school and hospital lunches. Many people today do not realize that the modern fruit cocktail grew out of an alcoholic beverage.
The common slang term of "blowing chunks" comes directly from the chunky fruit pieces seen primarily in fruit cocktails. Often times, tourists unfamiliar with the potency of the fruit cocktail were gulping them down so fast that they weren't even chewing the fruit chunks. After they had four or five of the strong tropical drinks, they would become nauseous, expelling the mixture from their stomachs. This was referred to by the burgeoning surfer community on the islands as "blowing chunks." As surfers traveled to many of the locations that the drinks did, the euphemism for vomiting came with them.
