Betsy Ross

Cognac, ruby port, curaçao, and bitters — named for Betsy Ross (born 1752), whose flag story wasn't documented until her grandson's 1870 Historical Society account.

The Betsy Ross Cocktail is a patriotically named pre-Prohibition brandy drink whose title references one of early American history's most famous figures — and most contested origin stories. Betsy Ross, born Elizabeth Griscom on January 1, 1752 in Philadelphia, was a seamstress who is traditionally credited with sewing the first American flag at the request of George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross in 1777. The story, however, was not publicly documented until 1870, when her grandson William Canby presented a family account to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania — nearly a century after the alleged event. Historians debate whether Ross made the flag, though her work as an upholsterer and seamstress in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary period is well documented. The cocktail named for her appeared in early 20th-century American guides, combining cognac with port wine, curaçao, and Angostura bitters. Patriotically named cocktails were popular in American bar culture around the turn of the century, when national pride was heightened by the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the country's emergence as an international power. The formula itself — cognac, port, curaçao, and bitters — draws on the Founding-era tradition of blending Madeira, port, and French brandy that defined wealthy Colonial American drinking, making the patriotic name and the drink's ingredients coherent in the same historical moment.