Although people tend to call anything in a V-shaped glass a cocktail, the drink traditionally is required to have spirits, sugar and bitters.

Here are some other facts about the drink, courtesy of Ted Haigh, curator of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans.

• Originally, the cocktail was considered a morning eye-opener. Some speculate that's how it got its name -- for a rooster (cock) heralding the light of day.

• In New Orleans, legend has it Antoine Peychaud served his blend of bitters and brandy in egg cups known as coquetiers in French. The word later was corrupted to ''cock-tay,'' and finally to cocktail.

• In the 1800s, bitters were used as medicine. Peychaud's Bitters' label still reads, ``Good for what ails one irrespective of malady.''

• Martinis and Manhattans weren't created in the United States until vermouth began being imported from Europe.

• Two of the earliest recorded enhancements to the cocktail were a sugar-crusted glass lip with fruit peel (called a crusta), and the addition of absinthe.

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