Drinks and Cocktails is a category which represents beverages, specifically mixed alcoholic beverages. Drinks can generally be used to describe any beverage for human consumption, whether it contains alcohol or not, but when paired with the word “cocktail”, the inclusion of alcohol is generally implied. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=drink

A drink in this context refers to any of an assortment of beverages, including beer, wine coolers, wine or liquor. These can contain small amounts of alcohol (about 3 percent or 6 proof) in the case of beer or wine coolers, to high amounts of alcohol (about 40 percent or 80 proof) in the case of liquors, with even more in specialty overproof liquors. http://www.brad21.org/what_is_a_drink.htmlhttp://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=drink

Cocktails contain one or more alcoholic components, usually liquor, mixed with non-alcoholic ingredients to create new, fun, fruity drinks and flavours. http://cocktails.about.com/od/history/a/cocktail_dfntn.htm http://cocktails.allinfoabout.com/what_is_cocktail_1.html Water, bar lime, soda, or fruit juice are popular ingredients, though almost anything imaginable is used in one cocktail or another. Popular and well known cocktails are cosmopolitans (vodka, triple sec, lime and cranberry juice), martinis (gin, vermouth, olive), and caesars (vodka, Clamato, hot sauce) amongst hundreds of other drinks, not only well-known, but regional and experimental as well.

Drinks or cocktails can be consumed for a variety of reasons. Wine is often pair with food and consumed slowly to appreciate the taste. Beer is used for refreshment and can also be paired with food, especially barbecues. Liquor (and sometimes beer) are more typically consumed for their ability to alter the state of consciousness of the drinker, and is often used when attending social events. Abuse of alcohol is called alcoholism. http://web4health.info/it/answers/add-alcohol-why.htm