The drink was first made by a bartender of Brooks's Club in London in 1861 to mourn the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Prince Consort.[1][2] It is supposed to symbolize the black or purple cloth armbands worn by mourners. It was said that βeven the champagne should be in mourning.β Today, the drink is not exclusive to mourning.
licorice (n.)
type of leguminous plant, the dried roots of which were anciently used as a medicine and as a sweet, also liquorice, c. 1200, licoriz, from Anglo-French lycoryc, Old French licorece (also recolice), from Late Latin liquiritia, alteration of Latin glychyrrhiza, from Greek glykyrrhiza, literally "sweet root," from glykys "sweet" (see gluco-) + rhiza "root" (from PIE root *wrΔd- "branch, root"); form influenced in Latin by liquere "become fluid," because of the method of extracting the sweet stuff from the root. French rΓ©glisse, Italian regolizia are the same word, with metathesis of -l- and -r-.
liquor (n.)
c. 1200, likur "any matter in a liquid state, a liquid or fluid substance," from Old French licor "fluid, liquid; sap; oil" (12c., Modern French liqueur), from Latin liquorem (nominative liquor) "a liquid, liquor; wine; the sea," originally "liquidity, fluidity," from liquere "be fluid, liquid" (see liquid (adj.)).
Narrowed sense of "fermented or distilled drink" (especially wine) first recorded c. 1300; the broader sense seems to have been obsolete from c. 1700. As long as liquor is in him was a Middle English expression, "as long as he is alive," that is, "as long as he has a drop of blood left." The form in Modern English has been assimilated to Latin, but the old pronunciation persists.
Red bull and champagne was the footballers tipple of choice a few years back no?