Quaker's Cocktail

Brandy, rum, raspberry syrup, and lemon — named for the temperance-associated Quakers (George Fox, mid-17th century), two-spirit formula from 18th-century punch.

The Quaker's Cocktail is a pre-Prohibition mixed drink whose name invokes the Religious Society of Friends — the Quakers — in what appears to be a wry irony, given the movement's well-documented association with temperance advocacy. Quakers, founded in mid-17th-century England by George Fox, had by the 19th century become significant participants in the American temperance movement, and the Pennsylvania communities they established were among the earliest American settlements to debate alcohol consumption. A cocktail named for them either reflects the same ironic humor that produced the Presbyterian (a ginger ale and soda highball whose name also referenced a temperate denomination) or draws on a more obscure association. The drink's formula — brandy and rum with raspberry syrup and lemon juice — echoes the colonial punch tradition that was one of the defining drinking customs of early American society, where two-spirit combinations were standard. Combining two base spirits in a single cocktail rather than relying on a single spirit was a technique inherited directly from the 18th-century punch bowl, where rum, brandy, and other spirits were frequently combined. Raspberry syrup — produced from reduced raspberry juice and sugar — was a standard 19th-century bar ingredient that contributed both sweetness and color to drinks.