Sherry Cobbler

History

The drink of choice in American taverns from the early 1800s was the Mint Julep (then called a Mint Sling), but its dominance was usurped by the Sherry Cobbler, which emerged during the 1830s and, by the end of that decade, dominated.

Cocktail historian David Wondrich unearthed the earliest known reference to a Cobbler in the 1838 diary of Katherine Jane Ellice, the wife of a Canadian government official who discovered the cocktail while touring upstate New York resorts, describing it as "delicious and easy of composition."

The popularity of the Sherry Cobbler was not limited to the USA, and it is this cocktail that drove "American bars" to open in cities around the world throughout the second half of the 1800s. The Sherry Cobbler is also frequently referenced in literature and cartoons during the period, from Charles Dickens' 1843–44 The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit and Jules Verne's 1865 From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune), to an 1847 illustration in the satirical Punch magazine by artist John Leech.

The Sherry Cobbler also notably appears in the first known book specifically aimed at bartenders, Jerry Thomas' 1862 The Bar-Tender's Guide. "Like the julep, this delicious potation is an American invention, although it is now a favorite in all climates." As Jerry Thomas says, "We give an illustration showing how a cobbler should look when made to suit an epicure." As with other illustrations from the time, this depicts the cocktail served with two straws.

Although the oldest known drinking straw, found in a Sumerian tomb, dates from 3,000 BC, the first straws used to lessen ice contact with the sensitive teeth while drinking Sherry Cobblers were just that: 'straw', usually rye, or even hollow pasta (macaroni or vermicelli). The hand-rolled paper straw wasn't patented until the 3rd January 1888, and as David Wondrich says in his Imbibe Revised Edition, "the Sherry Cobbler was the killer app that brought it into common use." That and the poor dentistry of the time!

The use of ice in drinks was little older than that of the straw, first widely used in the 1820s, a mere decade before the Sherry Cobbler emerged, and it is theorised that the Cobbler is named after the small cobbles of ice it was chilled with, in an age before the advent of machines producing finer crushed or even snowy ice.

Emperor Napoléon III's 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris attracted seven million people to experience exhibits from countries world over. Along with machinery projecting engineering prowess, the American stand featured a bar serving American cocktails such as the Mint Julep, Brand Smash and, most popular, the fashionable Sherry Cobbler. The exhibition ran for seven months, with the bar purportedly going through five hundred bottles of sherry a day.

The Sherry Cobbler's popularity continued to the end of the 1800s and beyond, with Harry Johnson writing in his 1888 New and Improved Bartender's Manual, "This drink is without doubt the most popular beverage in this country, with ladies as well as with gentlemen. It is a very refreshing drink for old and young."

Sadly, like so many great things in American cocktail culture, Cobblers never really emerged from Prohibition as a popular category.