QKB

PALOMA
🍸🏴‍☠️🍍

The Paloma may be the most popular tequila drink in Mexico.

And yet — nobody knows exactly who created it.

For years, many people credited Don Javier Delgado Corona of La Capilla with inventing the drink.

The problem?

Don Javier himself denied it.

What historians do know is this:
the Paloma likely exploded in popularity during the 1950s, right around the time Sq**rt grapefruit soda spread across Mexico after arriving from the United States.

And culturally, it made perfect sense.

Tequila was everywhere.
The Mexican heat called for long refreshing drinks.
And grapefruit soda mixed perfectly with agave spirits.

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Classic Paloma
• 2 oz Tequila Blanco (60 ml)
• Grapefruit Soda / Sq**rt
• 0.5 oz Lime Juice (15 ml)
• Pinch of Salt

Serve over ice in a highball glass.

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Simple.
Refreshing.
Almost transparent.

The complete opposite of the Margarita.

And today, many bartenders consider the Paloma the true everyday tequila drink of Mexico.

Have you ever had a real Paloma with Sq**rt?

ECLIPSE
🍸🏴‍☠️🍍

The Eclipse is one of those cocktail names that keeps coming back through bar history.

Because the word itself suggests something visual:
shadows, color, mystery, light disappearing into darkness.

And two versions became especially important.

The first appeared in 1927.

Harry Craddock created the Eclipse Cocktail to celebrate the total solar eclipse visible across England that year.

It was later published in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930.

The grenadine was poured first, settling at the bottom of the glass.
Then the spirits were poured gently on top, without mixing.

A dark red shadow beneath lighter liquid:
an eclipse inside the glass.

And there was an olive at the bottom.
Representing the moon passing in front of the sun.

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Classic Eclipse (1927)
• 1 oz Dry Gin (30 ml)
• 2 oz Sloe Gin (60 ml)
• Small amount of Grenadine
• Olive

Pour grenadine first.
Layer spirits gently on top.

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Decades later, the Eclipse returned in a completely different form.

In 2009, Leo Robitschek created a modern Eclipse during the New York cocktail revival era.

This time, the inspiration was different:
a lunar eclipse.

Served in a rocks glass with deep smoky red-orange tones, the cocktail reflected the color of the moon during a total lunar eclipse.

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Modern Eclipse (2009)
• 2 oz Añejo Tequila (60 ml)
• 0.75 oz Aperol (22.5 ml)
• 0.75 oz Cherry Heering (22.5 ml)
• 0.75 oz Lemon Juice (22.5 ml)
• Mezcal rinse or float

Serve over one large ice cube.

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One inspired by the sun.
One inspired by the moon.

How many cocktails can say they were inspired by astronomy itself?

ARNOLD PALMER & JOHN DALY
🍸🏴‍☠️🍍

The Arnold Palmer may be one of the most famous non-alcoholic drinks in America.

Just iced tea and lemonade.

The drink is named after Arnold Palmer, one of the greatest golf legends of the 20th century.

During the 1950s and 60s, Palmer regularly ordered the mix at golf clubs and restaurants.

According to the story Palmer himself often told, he was sitting at a club in Palm Springs in the early 1960s when he ordered his usual tea-and-lemonade mix.
A woman nearby overheard the order and told the waitress:
“I’ll have that Palmer drink.”

And the name stuck.

But American drinking culture eventually created its own alcoholic version:
the John Daly.

Named after John Daly — another famous golfer, but with a completely different image.

Arnold Palmer represented elegance and country club culture.
John Daly became known for ci******es, gambling, partying, and heavy drinking.

So the joke was obvious:
take an Arnold Palmer…
and add vodka.

The John Daly was born.

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Arnold Palmer
• Iced tea
• Lemonade

John Daly
• Iced tea
• Lemonade
• Vodka

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One became the symbol of classic country club refreshment.
The other became the chaotic, boozy cousin from the sports bar.

Two golfers.
Two personalities.
Two drinks.

All built from iced tea and lemonade.

WORLD WHISKY DAY
🍸🏴‍☠️🍍

World Whisky Day didn’t come from a distillery.
It didn’t come from a brand.

It came from a 21-year-old Scottish student named Blair Bowman.

While on an Erasmus exchange in Barcelona, he noticed something simple:
gin had its own day…
but whisky didn’t.

So in 2012, while studying at the University of Aberdeen, he created one.

The first edition took place on March 27, 2012.
According to organizers, around 20,000 people took part across 30 countries during that first year.

From the second year onward, the celebration moved to the third Saturday of May.

Today, World Whisky Day is celebrated across the world:
Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia.

And historically, whisky shaped modern cocktail culture more than almost any other spirit.

In the early 1800s, American bars were already serving Whiskey Cocktails:
spirit, sugar, water, and bitters.

The structure strongly resembles what would later become known as the Old Fashioned.

By the late 19th century, whisky dominated saloons, hotel bars, gentlemen’s clubs, and train bars across America.

Bourbon became deeply tied to American cocktail culture.
Scotch became a symbol of luxury.
Irish whiskey was once the most famous style in the world before its collapse.
And Canadian whisky boomed during Prohibition because it crossed the border.

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Classic Whiskey Cocktail
• 2 oz Whiskey (60 ml)
• 1 sugar cube
• 2–3 dashes bitters
• Few drops of water

Stir with ice.
Express lemon peel.

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One spirit.
Hundreds of styles.
Centuries of history.

And one of the most important foundations of cocktail culture itself.

What whisky would you pour tonight?