18th Century Drinks and Beverages

from North Carolina A Guide to the Old North State, 1939

In the 18th century it was "very much the custom" in North Carolina"to drink Drams of some kind or other before Breakfast." Rum, whisky, and brandy were imported at high prices, but the planter soon began to distill his own liquor. Beer was imported or home-brewed. Apple cider and persimmon beer were country favorites.

The "sober liquors"—tea, coffee, and cocoa—were imported, and therefore were luxuries. Native herb teas were used as substitutes by some.

The Country Housewife and Lady’s Director in the Management of a House (Richard Bradley, 1736)

WINES (ENGLISH).

Bradley thought ‘all, our English Wines should be encouraged, because they are wholesome, and will come at little Expence’. Accordingly, in The Country Gentleman and Farmer’s Monthly Director (second edition, 1727, p. 140), he promised to publish a large number of recipes for country housewives. In fact he only published eleven. These were for wines made out of apricots, black elderberries, cherries, currants, gooseberries, honey, quinces, raspberries, red elderberries, red gooseberries, and white elderberries. (Richard Bradley, 1736)

WINES (IMPORTED).

There are thirteen different kinds of imported wines mentioned in The Country Housewife and Lady’s Director in the Management of a House (Richard Bradley, 1736):

• Canary wine, a light sweet wine from the Canary Islands off the west African coast;
• claret, a word used in Bradley’s time as a general term for red wine, not as applying only to the red wines of the Bordeaux region;
• Cyprus wine;
• Florence wine;
• Fronteniac, a muscat wine made at Frontignan in France;
• Hermitage, a French wine produced near Valence;
• Madera, a white wine produced on the island of Madeira and fortified by brandy for the sea voyage to England;
• Malaga, a wine imported from the seaport of that name in the south of Spain;
• Mountain, a variety of Malaga wine made from grapes grown on the mountains;
• Port, a strong (fortified), dark-red and sweet wine from Portugal;
• Rhenish wine, i.e. wine produced in the Rhine region;
• Sack, a general name for a class of white wines imported from Spain and the Canaries;
• Tockay, a rich, sweet wine with an aromatic flavour made near Tokay in Hungary. See also the entry under VINES/VINEYARDS.

Madeira was first fortified in the 18th century. The roots of Madeira's wine industry date back to the Age of Exploration, when Madeira was a regular port of call for ships travelling to the New World and East Indies. By the 16th century, records indicate that a well-established wine industry on the island supplied these ships with wine for the long voyages across the sea. The earliest examples of Madeira were unfortified and had the habit of spoiling at sea. However, following the example of Port, a small amount of distilled alcohol made from cane sugar was added to stabilize the wine by boosting the alcohol content (the modern process of fortification using brandy did not become widespread till the 18th century).

Drinking rum became common in Britain in the 18th century. The British navy gave sailors a daily rum ration.

Drinking cheap gin became endemic in the early 18th century, causing many social problems as shown by the picture Gin Lane by William Hogarth. However gin drinking was curtailed after 1751 when duty was charged and gin became more expensive.

New drinks were invented in the 18th century.

• Vermouth was invented in Italy in the 18th century.
• Bourbon whiskey was first distilled in 1789.
• In the early 18th century porter became a common drink in London and Guinness was first brewed in Dublin in 1759.
• Fizzy drinks were invented in 1772 by Joseph Priestley, who discovered how to trap carbon dioxide in water and made carbonated water.

In the 18th century tea became cheaper and huge amounts were imported from China. The British became a nation of tea drinkers.

Colonial America: Colonial taverns weren't just watering holes, they were also the gathering places for political debates, theatrical productions, social hour and business meetings. The usual drinks were punches, cobblers, toddies, slings, bounces, juleps (not today's iced mint juleps), sangarees, and flips. The common ingredients were gin, brandy, Medford (dark) rum, port wine (sack), bourbon, rye, and bitters. Cobblers, made with ice, are of American origin and are great favorites in all warm climates. Hot drinks included hot buttered rum, Tom & Jerry, hot brandy sling with nutmeg, and the Mulls including mulled cider, and hot applejack.

Bartenders were known as "tapsters," reflecting their role of tapping barrels, or "barkeeps" because they kept the bar in order. In terms of drinks, a Miss Russell describes some of the "strong waters" available near Boston in the late 1700s in the Old Ordinary, Hingham built in 1688: “Metheglin, Calibogris, Canstantia, Kill-Devil, Rumbullion, Alicanti, Spiced Syder, Switchel, Mumbo and Ebulum.“