Nothing gets the party started quite like having a cocktail.
They're fun, fruity and boozy and always go down a treat when you're hitting the town.
But some of our favourite alcoholic beverages have quite bold names – and there are surprising reasons why.
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Each year, Brits enjoy an eye-watering £604m worth of cocktails, but the meaning behind them is not often well-known.
From the porn star martini to the zombie, certain cocktails have names which are rather unusual.
Ready-made cocktails brand, The Cocktail Co, revealed the real meanings behind the names of some of the nation’s favourite cocktails – and some are really random.
Porn star martini
The somewhat scandalously-named porn star martini originally found its way into the cocktail scene in 2002 by Douglas Ankrah – who admits it was actually an accident.
Inspired by a visit to Mavericks Revue Bar Gentlemen's Club in Cape Town, the cocktail was created as "a stylish and confident drink…[that's]… pure indulgence, sexy, fun and evocative".
Douglas named it a porn star martini because he felt it was "something that a porn star would drink".
It was created to push consumers out of their comfort zones, and it did just that, as it's now the second most popular cocktail in the UK.
Cosmopolitan
There are a number of different tales on how the cosmopolitan came to be, but perhaps the most famous one is that a bartender called Neal Murray created the cocktail in 1975, when he added cranberry juice to a Kamikaze cocktail.
The first drinker to try the cocktail declared "how cosmopolitan" upon trying it – giving it its namesake.
Bramble
Created in London in 1984, the bramble has been a staple to many bars and cocktail lovers for nearly forty years.
Originally developed by bartender Dick Brasell in "Fred’s Club", Soho, the drink was inspired by nostalgic childhood experiences on the Isle of Wight, such as blackberry picking.
The cocktail famously takes its name after bramble bushes on which the fruits grow.
Zombie
The zombie cocktail was created by Donn Beach when he opened America's first tiki bar in Hollywood following the end of the Prohibition in 1933.
The story is that Donn concocted the zombie to help one of his regular customers overcome a hangover before going to a business meeting.
Several days later the customer returned frustrated and told Donn the cocktail had made him feel "like the living dead, it made a zombie out of me" – inspiring the cocktail’s name.
Unsurprisingly, Donn’s customers were then limited to how many of these drinks they could order, due to the potency of them.
Espresso martini
Espresso martinis have become a true classic.
Originally called a Vodka Espresso in the 80s due to its two main ingredients, this iconic beverage was initially made by bartender, Dick Bradsell, after a request from a customer for a drink that would both "wake me up and f*** me up".
It was changed in the 1990s to suit the martini-drinking crowd of the time, and so the Espresso Martini was born.
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