‘Mixed drink’ because the word ‘cocktail’ sounds like it’s talking about sex, not drinks. Its etymology doesn’t help much. The word used to be an adjective describing a horse with a docked tail, and how it got to mean a mixed drink has something tenuous to do with adulterated spirits. There’s another story that they were named for egg-cups, the French word for which is ‘coquetier’. You choose.
Anyhow. One of the best mixed drinks I ever had was a margarita at the Gatto Gordo, a beach(ish) bar in Key West. None of this bar-mix nonsense, you could see the fresh limes sitting right there. The tequila menu was several pages long.
Another was the mojitos in Cuba. All the mojitos. No matter where you went, fancy hotel, humble street bar, they made perfect drinks with a good-sized spring of mint, crushed just enough to flavour the drink without turning the mint to black mush. I know about the black mush thing from failed duplication attempts back home.
A general word of praise to all the places that make a proper martini, which to my mind means eensy little flakes of ice floating in it. Do they have a special freezer that makes the cubes colder than what a home-fridge can do? Extra credit to the bars that use decent olives, not those big huge woody ones that look flashy but taste horrible.
