Frozen Cocktails Can Be Traced All The Way Back To Prohibition

If you're ever sipping on a frozen cocktail and wondering who you should thank for inventing such a deliciously frozen way to serve alcohol, you can (somewhat ironically) thank Prohibition for that delectable daiquiri. Well, at least in an indirect way.

Back in the Prohibition era (from 1920 to 1933), the only option for Americans to drink legally was to head to another country — and lying just 90 miles off the coast of Florida, Cuba was a popular option for this. There, a bar called El Floridita had become popular for its frozen daiquiris — not to be confused with a regular, unfrozen rum-and-lime daiquiri. The frozen version uses similar ingredients (a fruity liqueur like Maraschino may sometimes be added for more flavor, though), but adds crushed ice and is made in a blender. 

Whether or not El Floridita created the frozen daiquiri isn't totally clear (history suggests that this kind of slushy-style boozy beverage originated in Cuba at that time, but it's unclear if there's an inventor to be credited) — but in any case, this Havana bar gets credit for popularizing them. Prominent Americans like writer (and noted gourmand) Ernest Hemingway were known to visit the bar. Hemingway would head to Havana from his home in Key West, Florida, putting away several of those drinks in a night. Those enthusiastic Americans likely brought the frozen drink back to America — and its popularity was helped along by the evolution of the blender, which made mixing these refreshing drinks a lot easier.

The frozen daiquiri isn't the sole ancestor of today's myriad perfectly-blended frozen cocktails, though. It's believed that frozen drinks existed as far back as ancient Mesopotamia. However, until modern electric refrigeration was invented in the early 20th century, ice was a luxury in the drinks world. It would have to be "harvested" and stored in naturally cool ice houses so it would melt slowly and could be used into the summer months when cold drinks were more desirable — and due to the difficulty of transporting it, it wouldn't be available in places like the South that didn't ice over in winter.

For these reasons, frozen drinks didn't really start taking off until the 1900s, when ice was readily available. They were helped along by the invention of the blender in 1922 (although it didn't start becoming really popular until the '30s), making ice crushing into a simple task. Other frozen drinks surfaced independently of the daiquiri — for example, the frozen margarita is believed to have been created in Texas in the late 1930s, riffing on the newly-created perfect margarita recipe. However, it didn't take off until the '70s, when automated machines could dispense them with the flip of a handle. So, long story short: No matter your preferred frozen drink, you probably have some enterprising appliance inventors to thank for it.