Black Russian/White Russian Cocktails

The "Black Russian Cocktail" did not originate in Russia, nor was it invented by a Russian; rather, it was invented in Brussels, Belgium by a Belgian bartender, Gustave Tops. He (supposedly) made the drink to honor the American ambassador to Luxembourg, Perle Mesta, a womens' rights activist appointed to the job by President Harry Truman. The "Russian" part of the name is simply because it contains vodka, which has long been associated with Russia. The "Black" part is from the coffee liqueur. * While it seems Donald Trump doesn't drink alcohol ... Hold it!... With his behavior now, can you imagine if he had some booze too? Anyhow, if Trump drank cocktails, I'm sure he'd say something like, "I like any drink that has the name 'Russian' in it, but you're not going to get me to drink a 'Black Russian;' I prefer a 'White Russian,' and don't forget, I'm the least racist guy you've ever known." I've read some possible origins of the "White Russian," but it's really unclear to me when and where the cocktail came about, although like the "Black Russian," the "Russian" part  seems to be in reference to the vodka component of the drink. The name "White Russian" is simply because of the cream used, rather than any reference to what used to be called "White Russia" until more modern times, when much of that area became "Belarus."** Anyway, forget about the history and enjoy these drinks.  

Ingredients:

2 parts vodka
1 part Kahlua
(optional) maraschino cherry for garnish
ice

Pour the vodka and Kahlua into a short glass (Old Fashioned glass type), stir and fill with ice.
For a "White Russian," do the same, but float some cream on top; although some people stir in the cream. 

* The basic information is from "Liquor.com," and an article from September 8, 2010, with contributions from Gary Regan.

** Many English speakers called it "White Russia," although some called it by its transliterated Russian form "Byelorussia." 

White Russian

Black Russian

WORD HISTORY:
Float-This word and its relatives could take pages to explain, but it is related to "fly" and to "flow," both words from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "pleu" (extended form "pleud"), which meant, "to flow, to run (of water/fluids), to stream." This gave Old Germanic "flotanan," which meant, "to float, to swim," which seemingly had a variant or dialectal form "flutanan/fleutanan."^ This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the verb "flotian" meaning, "to float." This later became "floten/flotten," with the same meaning, but also added the secondary meaning, "to drift in the air," from the notion of "swimming/floating in water." There were a couple of nouns in Old English derived from the same Germanic source: "flot," meaning, "the sea;" "flota," meaning, "ship" (a vessel that 'floats' on the sea), but also "a group of ships" (fleet^^). These then became the noun "float" (1100 to 1200?) originally meaning, "the act of floating in water" (a meaning since taken over by the derived "floating"); thus also, "swimming," then also, "group of ships (a fleet, later a meaning taken over by "fleet"), then in the early 1300s also, "device used on a fishing line for buoyancy" (a meaning still very much in use); then in the second half of the 1500s, "a raft, barge, flat bottomed boat," which seems to have provided the later meaning, "decorated vessel/vehicle used in a parade" (circa 1890); and "scoop of ice cream in soda pop" (circa 1915 to 1920). There are many relatives of "float" in the other Germanic languages,^^^ for instance, Dutch "vlieten" (run/flow), vlot/vlotten (verb, "to float"), vlotten (noun, "a float"), vlot (noun, "raft, float"), Icelandic "flot" (noun, "act of floating/flotation"), Swedish "flyta" (verb, "to flow/run, float"), Danish "flyde" (verb, "to flow, to float, to swim"), Norwegian "flytende" (adjective, "flowing, fluid"); for German and Low German examples, see 'note ^' below.      

^ The variant/dialectal Old Germanic form "flutanan/fleutanan" gave Old English the verb "fleotan," which also meant "to float, to swim, to stream or flow." The basic Old Germanic word had other slight variations, and this makes it very hard to separate out some of the direct ancestors of the words that developed in the Germanic languages; for example in English, "fleet" ("group of ships," German has "Flotte," Low German has "Flott," and there are forms in other Germanic languages), "flow" (German has "fließen"), "flee" (German has "fliehen"), although they are all closely related.    

^^ "Fleet," "a group of ships," is also closely related to "float," as is the adjective "fleet," meaning, "swift, fast moving," both forms are from Germanic.

^^^ Forms in Latin-based languages are borrowed from Germanic.