Introducing, the Cocktail of the Century

Forget your Singapore Slings, Harvey Wallbangers and Tequila Sunrises. The quintessential cocktail of the 20th Century, and still in the lead early in the 21st, is the martini.

That's according to sales of a gajillion of them worldwide, with the martini outpacing all other drinks by a wide margin. If you want that ranking formalized, here it is: The martini finished No. 1 in the Anchor Hocking "Drinks of the Century" survey of 150 members of the United States Bartenders Guild, the exclusive U.S. affiliate to the International Bartender's Association.

Anchor Hocking, celebrating its 100th year of glassware manufacturing, commissioned the survey as part of its anniversary celebration as well as part of Las Vegas centennial celebration and, of course, as a way of calling attention to its line of cocktail glasses.

"The view from behind the bar tells us that the martini is adored by Americans more than any other cocktail," says Tony Abou-Ganim, a well-known mixologist. "Martini lovers may argue over the merits of vodka versus gin, olives versus onions, but they all agree that the emblematic martini glass, elegant in its design and classic in its simplicity, is the only way to serve
a perfect martini."

The survey also defined 10 additional cocktails that define each of the decades between 1900 and 2000, with a few milestones to further define the period for you . They are:

1900-1910
Drink: Old Fashioned
Milestones: Wright brothers take flight, Henry Ford makes the Model T, Cubism emerges.

1910-1920
Drink: Singapore Sling
Milestones: Einstein's theory of relativity, steel invented.

1920-1930
Drink: Bloody Mary
Milestones: Charles Lindbergh's solo Atlantic flight, penicillin discovered, the Jazz Age.

1930-1940
Drink: Manhattan
Milestones: Great Depression, golden age of radio, Swing music emerges, Art Deco at its peak.

1940-1950
Drink: Mai Tai
Milestones: World War II, the Cold War, the NBA begins play.

1950-1960
Drink: Vodka Martini
Milestones: Sputnik, rock and roll, the Beatnik generation.

1960-1970
Drink: Whiskey Sour
Milestones: The Beatles, Muhammad Ali, 007, Woodstock, Martin Luther
King's "I Have a Dream," the lunar landing.

1970-1980
Drink: Long Island Iced Tea
Milestones: The Sexual Revolution, detente, "Jaws," Microsoft founded.

1980-1990
Drink: Sex on the Beach
Milestones: Yuppies, Apple Macintosh, cable TV, Hip Hop goes mainstream.

1990-2000
Drink: Cosmopolitan
Milestones: Launch of the World Wide Web, the threat of Y2K, Nelson Mandela freed.

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