Service! In the early days of the colonies and then the United States, molasses was more plentiful than barley, and rum more common than beer Rye and barley spirits were also being distilled in the northern colonies by 1700, and Kentuckycorn whiskey by 1780 After the Revolutionary War, the new American government tried to raise revenues for its war debts by taxing distillation, and in 1794 the largely Scots-Irish region of western Pennsylvania rose in the short-lived Whiskey Rebellion When President Washington called out federal troops to put it down, the rebellion went underground and “moon-shining” became entrenched, especially in the poor hills of the South where the small amount of corn that could be grown would fetch a better price if fermented and distilled This evasion led the federal government to form the Office of Internal Revenue in 1862 Sixty years later, the national taste for hard liquor was an important stimulus to the temperance movement that culminated in Prohibition Recent Times: The Rise of the Cocktail It was in the 19th century that mixtures of distilled and other alcohols, or cocktails, became fashionable before-dinner drinks in Europe and the Americas This development led to a mind-numbing explosion of inventiveness: bartenders’ manuals now list hundreds of different named cocktails The origins of the preeminent cocktail, the martini (gin and vermouth), are disputed; it may have been invented several times in different places The gin and tonic comes from British India, where gin helped make antimalarial quinine water more palatable In the United States, one of the first famous mixed drinks was the sazerac of New Orleans (brandy and bitters), while Winston Churchill’s mother is said to have incited the creation of the manhattan (whiskey, vermouth, bitters) at a New York club Prohibition and harsh ... New Orleans (brandy and bitters), while Winston Churchill’s mother is said to have incited the creation of the manhattan (whiskey, vermouth, bitters) at a New York club Prohibition and harsh ...movement that culminated in Prohibition Recent Times: The Rise of the Cocktail It was in the 19th century that mixtures of distilled and other alcohols, or cocktails, became fashionable before-dinner drinks in Europe and the. .. places The gin and tonic comes from British India, where gin helped make antimalarial quinine water more palatable In the United States, one of the first famous mixed drinks was the sazerac of New