17th Century Drinks & Beverages

New England had an abundance of apple, pears, labruscan grapes, honey and grain, therefore cider, perry, local wines, mead and beer dominate the drink selection. In addition, trading ships on their way to the new world would stop of at the islands of Madeira to load up on barrels containing the drink of the same name. Portuguese wine was fortified with brandy to preserve the liquor during its journey to America. Ships from England would bring whisky, from France brandy and from the West Indies molasses for making rum.

The most popular drinks in colonial times were Ale, Rum, and Cider. The most common mixed drinks were Flip, Punch and Sack. Beer was traditionally served in pints; a pint being 20 ounces. (Other measurements at that time: a gill is 4 ounces and a jigger is 1 1/2 ounce.) Small beer (1% alcohol) was drunk in the morning with breakfast.

In the 17th century new drinks were introduced to England. Gin was created as a medicine in the late 16th or early 17th Century. Rum was first distilled in the Caribbean and appeared in the 1650's in Europe. It rapidly grew in popularity because of war and the English Navy switching from gin to rum.

Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia and it entered Europe in the 16th century through Italy. By the late 17th century there were many coffeehouses in English towns where merchants and professional men met to drink cups of coffee, read newspapers and chat. Tea was discovered by the Chinese in the earliest days of their civilization but it only reached Europe in the 17th century. Tea came to England in the mid-17th century. However it only became a popular drink after 1662 when Charles II married a Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza. She made tea-drinking fashionable among the wealthy. (At first it was too expensive for ordinary people). Cocoa was also first drunk in England in the late 17th century.

Ale & Beer

Bragget - The Braggot is quite an old drink. There is a mention in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the late 1300’s, and there are earlier references dating even further back to the 12th century in Ireland. Bragget is a liquor made of ale and honey fermented, with spices and herbs. Braggot is simply made by blending spices and herbs with mead and beer, to produce a strong concoction with uncommon flavors. Many taverns would make this blend right at the bar, though brewers would also blend them as well.

Cider

Cyder / Perry - apple and pear ciders

Mead

Mead: A Ferment of honey and water

Metheglin - A Welch drink, metheglin is traditional mead with herbs or spices added. Some of the most common metheglins are ginger, tea, orange peel, nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, cloves or vanilla. Its name indicates that many metheglins were originally employed as folk medicines. The Welsh word for mead is medd, and the word "metheglin" derives from meddyglyn, a compound of meddyg, "healing" + llyn, "liquor".

Hydromel - Some people interpret the name to mean "watered down" honey, but it isn't at all, it just means that it's made with water and honey. And it while it is a type of mead, it drier than other meads. It can also be flavoured with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger or other spices, lemon zest, etc. It can be distilled further to make a stronger alcohol from, or can be used to make vinegar. Hydromel is generally assumed to be 10% alcohol or below

Wine

The English were one of the first who saw the tendency of Champagne to sparkle as a desirable trait.

Hippocras - spiced wine used as a digestive

Steppony or Stepony - A kind of raisin-wine, made from raisins with lemon-juice and sugar added.

Syllabub - a beaten, frothy cream and wine drink with lemon, and sugar added.

Rambooze - Johnson's dictionary defines rambooze as "A drink made of wine, ale, eggs and sugar in winter time; or of wine, milk, sugar and rose-water in the summer time."  English sailors still call their grog rumbowling. But the word rum in this word and in rumbooze and in rumfustian did not mean rum; it meant the gypsy adjective powerful. Rumbooze or rambooze, distinctly a gypsy word, and an English university drink also, is made of eggs, ale, wine, and sugar. Rumfustian was made of a quart of strong beer, a bottle of white wine or sherry, half a pint of gin, the yolks of twelve eggs, orange peel, nutmeg, spices, and sugar. Rum-barge is another mixed drink of gypsy name. It will be noted that none of these contains any rum.

Madeira wine

Sack - Sack is an antiquated wine term referring to a wine imported from mainland Spain or the Canary Islands. There was sack of different origins such as: Canary sack from the Canary Islands, Malaga sack from Málaga, Palm sack from Palma de Mallorca, and Sherris sack from Jerez de la Frontera.

Sack Possett - Possets, a precursor to eggnog, were frothy spiced custards made with cream, wine and eggs and were usually served hot.

A cordial flower, the clove gilly-flower, was used to perfume wines like sack. The Gilly-flower was a small carnation or large pink. The most esteemed were dark 'orient red'.

To make Gilly-flower Wine

Take two ounces of dried Gilly-flowers, and put them into a pottle of Sack, and beat three ounces of Sugar-candy, or fine Sugar, and grinde some Ambergreese, and put it in the bottle and shake it oft, then run it through a gelly bag, and give it for a great Cordial after a weeks standing or more. You may make Lavender Wine as you do this.
From The Queen's Closet Opened (London: 1655)

Brandy

Originally a term for distilled wines

Rum

Whiskey

Gilly Flower Cordial

Usquebath
Julep - sorrel and lettuce juice, add brandy

Mobbiaqua Mirabilis Irabilis
Aqua Composita
Aqua Absynthii Bsynthii Magis Composita
Cordial Water Of Sir Walter Raleigh - Strawberries, Aqua Vitae
Lady Malets Cordial Water

PLAGUE WATER (AQUA THERIACALIS) Recipe

½ oz Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
½ oz Pernod Absinthe
1 oz Sack (Dry Sherry) Sherry)
½ oz Treacle (molasses)
½ Tbsp Vinegar
2 Sage Leaves

Gently muddle sage leaves with the treacle (molasses) and vinegar in a shaker glass. Add the remaining ingredients, and shake until combined.

After the great Plague outbreaks, distilled medicine waned, but the pleasure aspect skyrocketed