Until the late 1880s, cocktails were sipped through a hollow stalk of ryegrass, often leaving an unpleasant residue as it deteriorated. One fateful day, however, Washington, DC, resident Marvin Stone was sucking down his freshly made Mint Julep and contending with the faulty piece of grass when it occurred to him that even paper would do a better job. He began by tightly wrapping several strips of paper around a pencil, then he removed the pencil and glued the papers into a sturdy cylindrical shape. Stone’s ingenious tool immediately caught on with drinkers around the country, and in 1888, the inventor patented a version made of paraffin-coated manila.
