Swizzle stick

Three common coffee swizzle sticks

Jay Sindler, Swizzle Stick Inventor

Swizzle sticks are small sticks used to hold fruit garnishes or stir drinks. The original swizzle sticks were created in the 1700’s at a rum plantation in the West Indies. They were used to stir up Bermudian cocktails called Rum Swizzles and were made from the branch of a plant. In the late 1800s and early 1900s stir sticks made of glass were created to shake out the bubbles from champagne, whose carbonation caused indigestion for some drinkers.

Swizzle Stick History and Invention

A few months after the repeal of Prohibition in 1934, recent M.I.T. graduate Jay Sindler ordered a Martini in Boston’s Ritz Carlton hotel bar. Sindler was an engineer and avid inventor who already had several patents. As he sat enjoying his martini, he wanted to get the olive sitting at the bottom of his glass. His choices were to either use his fingers or wait until he finished his cocktail. It was at that moment he came up with the idea of the “swizzle stick”—a wooden stick with a pointed end/barb for spearing liquor-soaked olives and a wider “paddle” shape on the other end for printing a company’s logo or promotional message.

Sindler patented the swizzle stick in 1935 and formed the company named Spir-it; which is still a leading producer of drink stirrers and garnish picks with distribution in the millions. In the late 1990’s Spirit acquired the Zoo Piks company; a manufacturer of themed cocktail accessories like flamingo stirrers and whimsical animal glass hangers like the ever popular monkey. After more acquisitions, the company was renamed to Spirit Brands in 2003, and is today known as Spirit Foodservice, Inc. Spirit Foodservice is still the nation’s top US manufacturer of cocktail stirrers and picks, in addition to producing drinking straws, serving utensils, cutlery, and their famous Sea-Sheller; a patented utensil for opening crab and lobster.

Today, restaurants, bars and nightclubs use disposable plastic swizzle sticks which offer many options in color, shape, theme, size and customization. Wooden swizzle sticks are an alternative for those who desire a more natural choice, while glass and stainless are popular for home bars.

Swizzle Stick Collectors

Because custom swizzle sticks have been traditionally found at better bars, over the years, the swizzle stick has become quite a collectible item—especially those belonging to establishments that no longer exist or nostalgic locations such as the theater where Elvis once played.

You’ll find vintage swizzle sticks auctioned off on Ebay or being sourced and swapped by members of the International Swizzle Stick Collectors Association, or the ISSCA. The ISSCA was established in 1985. Its members are devoted to the hobby of swizzle stick collecting and are kept up to date with a little publication called “The Swizzle Stick News.” According to the ISSCA, the most sought after swizzle stick by collectors is the one they don't have in their collection.

See also

• Cocktail stick
• Cocktail umbrella
• Quararibea turbinata

External links

• "BBC News - Swizzle stick to detect drugs". news.bbc.co.uk. August 7, 2001. Retrieved 2008-07-11.