Message 22837 of 39188 in General Discussion

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This is a very interesting thread, and it echos some of my own thoughts on 
several levels. Like others here I would like to see a data base of drinks 
that credit the creator along with the year of creation and some additional 
information for color. So much has been lost over the years.

Southern Comfort went through a phase where they issued drink booklets that 
did just that for drinks created to utilize their product. Since these were 
promotional booklets I have to wonder if anyone at SC still even has copies of 
them. I also have to wonder if some of the other mfrs ever bothered to keep 
information on the drinks that won their national competitions each year as I 
haven't seen anything out there. (A number of mfrs used to sponsor 
competitions each year in the 50s, 60s, and 70s with some tender's creation 
receiving national promotion for a year.)


The issue of who created what first is slippery. When I was working at 
creating something new, I had several levels and a number of days involved in 
taste testing. By the time I was ready to name it and self promote it, a 
number of tenders had learned how to make it, including ones that might work 
shifts at other establishments. If one of them failed to give credit to the 
source and their customers thought they were the source then I could find 
myself making my own creation for someone who insisted their bartender had 
created the drink. I'm sure this happened to many people throughout the ages. 
It gets even harder if something takes off big before the creator gets some 
kind of documented authority for his or her creation.

If Miss Charming decides to put credited recipes in her book, how does she 
even begin to prove to herself who invented even ten year old drinks, let 
alone 100 year old drinks? I could show her the stuff I got from Early Times 
for the "Chances R", but how would she document drinks created by tenders who:

- may be dead?
- don't know her and don't know she is publishing a book?
- may not have any documentation?

I don't have any documentation for many of the drinks I created either, and 
frankly, most of them have slipped into obscurity anyway. For that matter, 
even the drink I won a national competition with isn't in any current drink 
book I've seen.

Pal seems to have the same problem as he doesn't have any way to credit the 
creators in his drink recipes. The question I would ask, is how do we do this? 
It may be possible for new drinks to some extent, but the older ones become 
almost impossible.

The issue of modification is even harder. Look at all the drinks that are sort 
of like a Collins or a Sour. Is a Cuba Libra nothing more than a rum and coke 
with a lime? I'm not sure I'm up to deciding that so who is going to be the 
judge and jury on this? I know I don't want to be the one to put a look of 
pain on a proud tenders face when I say, " Oh, this is sort of a sour except 
for the lime and the fact it has soda water in it and it is served on the rock 
in a Collins glass".

Would I like to see creators given credit? Absolutely. I hope someone with the 
time and resources to do so decides to tackle the project. Personally, I like 
knowing that the Scarlett O'Hara was created in New Orleans at Antions (sp) by 
a tender whose name I've forgotten by can look up in an old Southern Comfort 
booklet.

Chance