Mardi Gras isn’t a day; it’s a season. Okay, officially Mardi Gras is specifically the Tuesday before Lent begins in the Catholic liturgical calendar, but it’s the culmination of carnival, a period of revelry that stretches back to Thanksgiving eve of the preceding year. And in Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras isn’t just a celebration—it’s a lifestyle.
Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the US, launching the tradition some 16 years before it marched over to New Orleans, and while many outsiders have long forgotten that Mobile still hosts the original Mardi Gras, Mobile certainly hasn’t. The multi-month blowout is a booming industry in the small, coastal Alabama city where costumes are hand-sewn year-round, “float builder” is a full-time profession, and behemoth Mardi Gras depots sell supplies all year to the 70 mystic societies who host balls and parades throughout the carnival season.
In 2017, Mardi Gras brought in $227 million of revenue to the city, to say nothing of what it generated for hotels, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses. There’s a Mardi Gras park located next to the city’s municipal government buildings, a Mardi Gras history museum housing eye-popping royal trains from Mardi Gras monarchs, (each one couture, and with a price tag higher than what a typical bride spends on her gown), and hints of Mardi Gras hidden in the décor and menus of countless restaurants and shops throughout the town.
Unlike New Orleans, Mobile is decidedly more family-friendly in its revelry, at least as far as the parades go, but that certainly isn’t to say it’s a dry event. Because Mobile is a city that has operated under six different flags in its 300+ year history, the list of adult beverages associated with local celebration is considerable, drawing on international influences and traditions that partake of its tumultuous past. A little research at the Mobile Carnival Museum revealed that the following Mardi Gras beverages will successfully guide any celebrant from dawn to dusk and probably well beyond.
MORNING
Screwdriver
Save the mimosas for Sunday brunch; Mardi Gras mornings start with Screwdrivers. The classic combination of vodka and orange juice gained popularity in Mobile shortly after World War II, when it was likely invented by marines that had been stationed along the eastern Mediterranean. Legend has it that the name may originate from a screwdriver being the only available stirring instrument when the drink was first mixed, but you will most certainly not find this practice continued in Mobile. Mardi Gras is an occasion for elegance, not for tooling around haphazardly … at least not this early in the day.
Bloody Mary
For more savory sips, the Bloody Mary is the breakfast drink of choice, as it is almost everywhere. Unlike the preparation elsewhere though, Mobile’s Marys often find themselves with more than a stalk of celery garnishing the glass. Across town you’ll find anything from bacon and shrimp to chicken fingers plunged into the beloved mix of vodka and tomato juice. Whether or not the Bloody Mary was invented in France or the US, as two prevailing theories would have us believe, Mobile doesn’t care. Both powers have reigned over the city during its complicated history, and the drink is a favorite regardless.
AFTERNOON
Beer
Like any good American celebration, Mardi Gras afternoons are often fueled by beer, a tradition that dates to the founding fathers (both Washington and Jefferson had breweries on their Mount Vernon and Monticello estates). Mobile didn’t open its first brewery until 1840, 138 years after the city’s founding as the capital of French Louisiana. But it didn’t become American until it’s capture in 1813, with beer hopping along not far behind. Today, Mobile breweries like Haint Blue and Serda are local favorites, and you’ll even find one or two directly on the Mardi Gras parade route.
Champagne
Perhaps no beverage is as intimately linked with European royalty as Champagne (especially in France), so it’s no surprise that the monarchs of Carnival are surrounded by bubbly, too. It was the Cowbellion de Rakin Society, America’s first mystic society, whose taste for sparkling wine catapulted it to center stage in the Mobile Mardi Gras scene in the 1830s and it hasn’t been out of the spotlight since.
Punch
Arguably the oldest known mixed drink, what exactly defines a punch is up for debate, but it’s generally alcohol mixed with fruit juice or milk (the latter more common in Britain and in the southern US than elsewhere), so it’s essentially a blanket term for a great number of cocktails. What makes punch recognizable, though, is that it’s served in large batches and usually in a bowl, ladled into individual glasses throughout the event. Punch has been present at important social gatherings for nearly as long as society has been hosting them, and Mardi Gras is no exception.
EVENING
Whiskey
Whiskey refers to any alcohol distilled from grains, but the South is best known for bourbon, born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in the late 18th century. Still, whiskey has been a part of American history since the beginning, making the voyage with early British colonists. Like wine, the church had much to do with the proliferation of distilled spirits across Europe and into present-day UK, where grapevines were lacking, and monasteries distilled grain primarily for medicinal purposes. Antebellum Mobile was a hub of whiskey distribution in the South, and Bourbon and Scotch remain prominent fixtures in Mardi Gras celebrations.
Gin
The tremendous scope of the British Empire was hugely responsible for gin’s expansion around the globe, including to the early colonies. While many people argue the specific origin of the Martini, all agree it’s an American creation, one steeped in the national culture from literature to film, and quite popular at social gatherings. Martinis are a Mardi Gras fixture, and the best varieties were coined by one Mobilian as “leaners,” not referring to a flavor or particular establishment, but filled so close to the rim you’d have to lean over to take a sip before picking it up.
Wine
Mardi Gras is, after all, a tradition born of religion, so it’s no surprise that wine is abundant during the festivities. Because of its ties to religious rituals, wine importation and production were high priorities for the earliest US settlers, especially those in the South where the earliest known experimentation dates to the mid-1500s. British, French, and Spanish colonists all tried their hand at viniculture and by the mid-19th century Mobile was known as the “Paris of the South,” with local wines as popular as European imports.
AFTER HOURS
Despite the healthy number of traditional drinks associated with Mardi Gras, restaurants and bars continue to create carnival creations of their own. Get a head start on your own celebrations this year by shaking up a Dragon Drink, as served at Wintzell’s Oyster House, a staple of the Mobile dining scene. This 20-ounce concoction of rums and fruit juices will jumpstart any celebration and properly prepare you for a Mobile Mardi Gras.
Wintzell’s Dragon Drink
1 oz. Cruzan Light Rum
1 oz. Cruzan Dark Rum
.75 oz. Grenadine
2 oz. Orange Juice
2 oz. Pineapple
Garnish with an orange wedge and cherry