Let’s not overlook the role of women and home entertaining in the story of the cocktail. Nicola Nice tells the story of how women brought the cocktail home, as a part of regular entertaining - how they entertained during Prohibition and into the cocktail party era. She explains it in fascinating detail in The Cocktail Parlor: How Women Brought the Cocktail Home.

Nicola writes about these themes regularly in her blog, The Hostess Diaries. She describes it as “a blog dedicated to the culture of cocktails and hospitality, as told through the lens of women’s history.” It is a perspective about drinking and drinking culture, especially as it is related to drinking cocktails, that shouldn’t be overlooked, if you are interested in the cocktail and its history.

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