Colonial Beverages
recipes from http://www.gaspee.com/ColonialRecipes.html

Coffee, tea and chocolate were popular non-alcoholic hot beverages during American Colonial times. These imports were expensive, but not beyond the reach of the average person. Folks too poor to afford the real thing brewed hot beverages from herbs, flowers, bark, roots, and woody stems. When coffee was not available, parched rye, chestnuts, or grape seeds were substituted for coffee beans and brewed into hot drinks. Tea substitutes were also popular, particularly on the frontier where imported merchandise was difficult to purchase. Sassafras tea was considered particularly pleasing. Rhubarb, goldenrod, strawberry, and blackberry leaves were also collected for brewing into tea. Alas, there was no ready substitute for chocolate! Presumably, cider could have been served warm too.

From Israel Acelius' A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759:

"Tea is a drink very generally used. No one is so high as to despise it, nor any one so low as not to think himself worthy of it. It is not drunk oftener than twice a day. It is always drunk by the common people with raw sugar in it. Brandy in tea is called Iese.

Coffee comes from Martinica, St. Domingo, and Surinam; is sold in large quantities, and used for breakfast.

Chocolate is in general use for breakfast and supper. It is drunk with a spoon. Sometimes prepared with a little milk, but mostly only with water.

Milk and water is the common drink of the people."

The Boston Tea Party and American Revolution saw a great decrease in the amount of American tea-drinking, and in the first years of the new republic, coffee became the overwhelming favorite drink.

A summer drink called Beverage was made from water, ginger, and molasses. Ebulum was made from the juice of elderberries, sweetened and spiced.

Switchel was popular from the 1700s through the 1900s — especially as a farm drink, like lemonade. Switchel, also switzel, swizzle, ginger-water, haymaker's punch or switchy, is a drink made of water mixed with vinegar, and often seasoned with ginger. Honey, sugar, brown sugar, or maple syrup were sometimes used to sweeten the drink instead of molasses. In the U.S. state of Vermont, oatmeal and lemon juice were sometimes added to the beverage. The oatmeal was eaten as a snack once the beverage was finished. By the 19th century, it had become a traditional drink to serve to thirsty farmers at hay harvest time, hence the nickname haymaker's punch.

Vinegar-based drinks may sound a bit unusual to modern palates, but they were actually pretty common in centuries past. Vinegar could substitute pretty well for alcohol in terms of providing some tang, or for citrus, which didn't always make it inland from the coast. Planters were mixing a variety of different exotic fruits and spices to come up with not only refreshing drinks, but what they thought were elixirs of life. That drink became popular with everyone from New England farmers to temperance advocates to members of Congress — who liked to flavor their switchel with a little bit of rum.

Alcholic Drinks

Early Americans came up with a baffling variety of proto-cocktails from their slim culinary arsenal of rum, cider, ale, cream, sugar, molasses, eggs, spices and citrus. Some of the drinks they consumed—such as shrubs and hard cider—are again on the ascendance behind the bar; others, such as Whistle-Belly Vengeance, popular in Salem, Massachusetts. The drink consisted of soured beer, sweetened with molasses, simmered in a kettle and filled with brown bread crumbs. Before the days of soda, Inn keepers were not hampered by an dearth of mixers, they just mixed things together that we might find incongruous. Beverige was a cider base drink - cider, water, ginger, molasses flavoring - drank in the summer in the country-side.

These colonial-era drinks are simple and sometimes weird—but in their crudeness, they offer a sensory connection to the hardscrabble days and riotous nights before America became itself. The most popular drinks in colonial times were Ale, Rum, Cider. The most common mixed drinks were Flip, Punch and Sack. Beer was traditionally served in pints.

Many of the drinks mentioned here are from Israel Acelius' list of drinks that were available in Pennsylvania in the 1750s. The list is from A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759, which relates the history and then-current state of the Swedish churches in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

Bitters, Manathans and Bombos.

Other interesting early beverages included: Ratafia, Syllabus, Bishop, Cardinal, Tabourney, and Elixir.

Cider Beverages

Hard cider, averaged 10% alcohol, known simply as cider, was the most popular beverage in North America. Cider was already a centuries old tradition in England by the time America was settled, and the first settlers to the New World brought with them both cidermaking knowledge and the apples necessary to its production. By 1700 cider replaced beer in most people's diet. Cideries had also begun fortifying cider with rum, giving what was once considered a temperate and healthful alcoholic beverage, quite a kick.

Cider was often mixed with rum, forming many of the most intoxicating, yet popular colonial drinks. Cider Royal was made by boiling four barrels into one.

There are various descriptions of "Cider Royal" which can be cider and mead fermented together; new cider fermented with applejack (made using freeze distillation, a process called jacking whereby cider is frozen and the frozen water removed leaving concentrated alcohol upward of 60 proof); or cider that has been reduced by boiling, then fortified with brandy and sugar. One other description I found was apple brandy was added to cider creating a fortified wine that did not spoil as quickly. Apple brandy was made by distilling fermented apple juice and letting it age in barrels.

Applejack was drank more at home than in taverns according to ledgers; apple brandy was more popular in public houses and was priced between beer and metheglin. Applejack and apple brandy fell from grace after the temperance movement.

Israel Acelius writes in the 1750s,

"Cider Royal is so called when some quarts of brandy are thrown into a barrel of cider along with several pounds of Muscovado sugar, whereby it becomes stronger and tastes better. If it is then left alone for a year or so, or taken over the sea, then drawn off into bottles, with some raisins put in, it may deserve the name of apple-wine. Cider Royal of another kind, in which one-half is cider and the other mead, both freshly fermented together.

Sampson is warmed cider with rum in it."

Mulled cider is warmed, with sugar in it, with yolks of eggs and grains of allspice. Sometimes, also, some rum is put in to give it greater strength.

A "Bang" starts with a pint of cider, a pint of warm ale; sweetened to taste with grated nutmeg and ginger, along with a wineglass full of gin or whisky. To make a "Stewed Quaker" take a pint of hot cider and add apple brandy to taste. A "Stonewall" is hard cider and rum.

Stone Fence (Ingredients: hard cider and rum)

This drink was a popular, bracing blend of hard cider and rum. Drop two ounces of dark rum in a glass, then top with hard cider—preferably one with a touch of residual sweetness. For a modern touch, garnish with a lemon twist.

Cider's downfall began with the Industrial Revolution and ended with Prohibition. While Americans flocked from rural towns to urban centers, apple orchards were being cut down as the production of cider became less profitable. In the late 1800s, the influx of German and Eastern European immigrants to the U.S. contributed to the decline of cider as they brought their penchant for beer to our shores.

Perry was made in the same manner as cider, only pears were used instead of apples.

Beer/Ale

Ale is an older drink than beer, made with malt (from barley), water and spices. Malt is not native to New England and settlers had to import this initially from their homeland. Very early brews were fermented at warm temperatures with a type of bread yeast. The result was a brown ale, slightly sweet and lightly carbonated. It was a good source of nutrition for the early settlers and sustained them through their first winters. Beer was made later with the addition of a relatively new preservative and flavoring: hops. There was a wild hops native to America that was used until they brought hops seeds over from England.

Table beer was most often served in taverns. Small Beer was only about 1% alcohol and was served in the morning, to servants, children and folks who could not afford the stronger beer. "Bracing beer" was made in the homes and taverns of the more well-to-do. Porter was imported from England from the 1730s up to the Revolutionary War. Porter was made of blended ale, beer and really strong beer called twopenny.

Beer was the drink of choice in early colonial ordinaries, at least until it began to be supplanted by cider and rum in the late 1600s. Early beers were brewed with many different ingredients. New England taverns made Spruce, Birch and Sassafras beer boiled with numerous roots and herbs and sweetened with molasses, maple syrup or beet tops.

From Israel Acelius' A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759:

"Beer is brewed in the towns, is brown, thick, and unpalatable. Is drunk by the common people.

Small beer from molasses. When the water is warmed, the molasses is poured in with a little malt or wheat-bran, and is well shaken together. Afterwards a lay of hops and yeast is added, and then it is put in a keg, where it ferments, and the next day is clear and ready for use. It is more wholesome, pleasanter to the taste, and milder to the stomach than any small beer of malt.

Spruce beer is a kind of small beer, which is called in Swedish “lärda tidningarne” (learned newspapers). The twigs of spruce-pine are boiled in the malt so as to give it a pleasant taste, and then molasses is used as in the preceding. The Swedish pine is thought to be serviceable in the same way.

Table beer made of persimmons. The persimmon is a fruit like our egg-plum. When these have been well frosted, they are pounded along with their seeds, mixed up with wheat-bran, made into large loaves, and baked in the oven. Then, whenever desired, pieces of this are taken and moistened, and with these the drink is brewed."

Manatham is made of small beer with rum and sugar. Tiff, or flipp, is made of small beer, rum, and sugar, with a slice of bread toasted and buttered."

Flip was a warm beer concoction. It was dearly loved in Colonial days. Flip was made in a large pewter pitcher, filled two-thirds full of strong beer, sweetened with molasses, and flavored with a gill of New England Rum. A red hot iron was taken from the fire and thrust into the flip, which gave it a burnt, bitter taste so dearly cherished.

Flips (Ingredients: eggs or cream, beer, rum, molasses/sugar (or dried pumpkin))

Once flip appeared in taverns in the 1690s, it would capture the colonial hearts and livers for a century to come. A blend of beer, rum, molasses (or dried pumpkin), and eggs or cream, flip was usually mixed in a pitcher and then whipped into a froth by plunging a hot fire poker (called a flip-dog) into its midst. The tavern keeper would then decant the singed creation into ceramic mugs or featherlight flip glasses.

The composition of flip varied from tavern to tavern, and sometimes so did its name—from Bellow-Stop and Hotch-Pot to Yard of Flannel and Crambambull. The most vaunted flips were rendered velvety by pouring the drink several times between two pitchers until well-blended.

To make a basic colonial-style flip, fill a pitcher with two beaten eggs, two ounces of rum and a tablespoon of superfine sugar (or molasses) and beat to combine. In a saucepan, heat eight to 10 ounces of brown ale over a low flame until it begins to steam. Slowly pour the warm beer into the rum-egg mixture, then pour the drink back and forth between vessels until blended. Decant into a pint glass, shave some nutmeg over the top, and serve—it's sort of like drinking liquified earth, but it has its charms.

Ale Flip - One of the most popular drinks was the "ale flip" made with a quart of ale heated almost to boiling. While the ale is heating, beat four eggs (some recipes specify egg whites), add a half cup of sugar and four ounces of rum. Beat until frothy, place in a pitcher and pour back and forth with the heated ale until it's "smooth as cream."

To prepare an "American flip" also known as "One Yard of Flannel," add crush grated ginger, nutmeg and dried lemon peel to the egg and sugar mixture. As a variation you can substitute brandy for the rum. Molasses and dried pumpkin were the usual substitutes for sugar in New England. For dramatic effect and burnt flavor, plunge a red-hot poker from the fire into your tankard of flip!

A "Rumfustian" is similar to the flip but eight ounces of sherry and four ounces of gin is mixed with the quart of ale. Another variation involves a quart of strong beer, a bottle of white wine or sherry and a half pint of gin. The "rum" in the name does not come from "rum" as a liquor, but from the gypsy adjective for "powerful."

To make a "Bellows" Mix one pint of heavy cream with four eggs and a quarter pound of sugar, blend till smooth. To a quart tankard add one jigger of rum and two thirds of a quart of beer or cider and add 6 tablespoons of the cream mixture, then stir with a red hot poker until it foams.

Jingle was a seasonal drink and was popular during the 1700's. It is similar to another drink called "Lamb's Wool." Roast the apples until the skins burst. Warm the ale mix in the nutmeg, ginger and sugar. Then place in the apples just before serving, while still hot.

"Ebulum" is elder and juniper berry juice mixed with ale and spices. To make a "Calibogus" mix two ounces of rum with a bottle of spruce beer. "Hotch Pot" is warmed beer, with rum in it. "Rattle-skull" is made by combining one ounce rum, one ounce brandy, four ounces sherry and a pint of porter. And to make a "Splitting Headache," just take two quarts of beer, add eight ounces of rum, six cloves, half teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, a cup of lime juice and serve.

Rattle-Skull (Ingredients: dark beer, rum/brandy, lime juice, and nutmeg)

Colonial drinkers didn't bother chasing their shots with beer—they simply imbibed them together. Flip was one example of this—and Rattle-Skull was another. Though the term was English slang for a chatty person, the name of the drink was probably more descriptive of what one could do to your brain.

On its surface, this blend of dark beer, rum, lime juice, and nutmeg doesn't seem to differ much from the other rum-based drinks of the day. Yet it packed a wallop from its proportions: three to four ounces of hard liquor (usually an equal split between rum and brandy) are dropped into a pint of strong porter, tarted up with the juice of half a lime and then showered with shaved nutmeg. This bad-ass drink is a dangerously smooth and stultifying concoction.

Wine

Sack was a sweet wine of the sherry family and was drank in copious amounts. Sack-Posset, popular at weddings, was made from sack, rum, eggs, milk, and nutmeg.

Madeira wine was popular because it escaped British taxation. In the 1740s madeira parties and clubs flourished in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. By the mid-1700s, a small dose of brandy was added before fermentation was complete to fortify it against spoilage. This brought madeira up to about 20% alcohol. Madeira was sipped before combat, during dinner and used to spike punches.

Claret and Canary wine were more expensive. Mulled wines were more commonly sipped in the Victorian era than the colonial era. After the Revolutionary War, with its higher duties and being of European origin, wine was considered "elitist and undemocratic." It would take a long time to recover from this.

Israel Acelius lists these wines in the 1750s: "French wine, Frontegnac, Pontac, Port a Port, Lisbon wine, Phial wine, Sherry, Madeira wine, which is altogether the most used. Hot wine, warmed wine, is drunk warm, with sugar, cardamoms, and cinnamon in it. Sometimes, also, it has in it the yolks of eggs beaten up together, and grains of allspice, and then it is called mulled wine. Cherry wine. The berries are pressed, the juice strained from them, Muscovado or raw sugar is put in; then it ferments, and, after some months, becomes clear. Currant wine, or black raspberry wine, is made in the same manner."

Sangaree (Ingredients: Madeira or port, lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg (similar to sangria))

Sangaree was the colonial-era precursor of sangria, the Spanish wine-based drink. Though six versions of sangaree would appear in Jerry Thomas' Bar-Tenders' Guide of 1862, the drink's roots stretched further back: Sangaree supposedly originated in London in the mid-1700s, long before the term "cocktail" was in use. Sangaree became popular in the West Indies and later, the colonies. Israel Acelius writes in the 1750s, "Sangaree is made of wine, water, sugar, a dash of nutmeg, with some leaves of balm put in."

Instead of Rioja or some other Spanish red, this wine-based punch drew on fortified wine such as Madeira or port. Combined with lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg, it was served singly in its own glass, rather than from a communal bowl. Using fortified wine lends the drink a slightly more brooding quality than sangria.

Mead

Honey bees are not indigenous to North America and the native Americans, never having seen them, called them "English flies." The first record of honey bee importation is in 1638, but most kitchen gardens included several "skeps" -- basketry beehives -- to provide honey for the household by the end of the 17th century.

Honey had myriad uses in colonial America: hams were cured and fruits were preserved in honey; and rinsings from honeycombs were used to make mead (an ancient fermented honey drink). Beeswax was almost as important a product of the skep as honey -- it was used to waterproof leather, to smooth thread for sewing, to bind wounds, as a precious ingredient in candles, and even as a type of early chewing gum. 

"Mead is made of honey and water boiled together, which ferments of itself in the cask. The stronger it is of honey, the longer it takes to ferment. Drunk in this country too soon, it causes sickness of the stomach and headache."
(Israel Acelius' A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759)

Metheglin was one of the favorite drinks of the American colonies. It was a favorite of Kentucky for over a hundred years. In Virginia, large plantations of honey locust trees were planted for the sweet beans. The beans were ground and mixed with honey, and fermented.

Punch

Punch was popular from the late 17th to 19th century. It was mixed and served from communal bowls. In taverns, double (2 quarts) and tribble (3quarts) punch bowls could be ordered. Juices of lemons, oranges, lines and pineapple were used in punch concoctions.

1770 - Ordination of new ministers was an occasion of great celebration, and they took place in the local tavern. At one Hartford Ordination, 24 people had dinner plus four bowls of toddy, 20 bowls of punch; five mugs of flip; 12 quarts of wine; three bottles of bitters; and 5 segars.

Rum Punch was quite popular throughout New England and Virginia. It was made with oranges, lemons, limes, and pineapples, and a dash of rum.

"Punch is made of fresh spring-water, sugar, lemon-juice, and Jamaica spirits. Instead of lemons, a West India fruit called limes, or its juice, which is imported in flasks, is used. Punch is always drunk cold; but sometimes a slice of bread is toasted and placed in it warm to moderate the cold in winter-time, or it is heated with a red-hot iron. Punch is mostly used just before dinner, and is called “a meridian."
(Israel Acelius' A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759)

Negus, a pleasant wine punch, invented in the 1800’s, by Colonel Negus, was improved by grating a fresh nutmeg.

Punch was a favorite and is the focus of Peter Thompson's book Rum Punch and Revolution which illustrates the pivotal role played by taverns in the founding of our country. To make a "Bishop" grill three oranges to a pale brown color and add them to a punch bowl. Pour in half pint from a bottle of "old" Bordeaux wine and dissolve a quarter pound of sugar. Cover with a plate and let stand for two days. When ready to serve, cut and squeeze the oranges through a sieve into the remainder of the wine which has been heated. A "Cardinal" is made by substituting "old" Rhenish wine for Bordeaux. Lisbon wine can be substituted, raisins, mace, cloves and nutmeg can be added, but the The Practical Housewife (1860) says this is not the proper way!

Here's a pretty standard recipe for making punch: "take two or three bottle of water – according to whether the drink is desired strong or weak – a bottle of brandy, the juice of six to twelve lemons, strained through a clean cloth, or a piece of linen, and a pound more or less of sugar – according to the sweetness desired. All this is mixed together. Finally a little nutmeg is scraped into it, after which one has a very pleasant drink."

Rum

Rum was produced in Barbados and in New England from imported molasses. It comes from the English word, Rumbullion, which was shortened to rum. In 1651, Giles Silvester, a sugar planter in Barbados, wrote "the chiefe fudling they make in the Island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Devill, and this is made of suggar canes distilled, a. hott, hellish and terrible liquor." Kill-Devil was also a common name for rum. In the 1650s, rum was quite a harsh drink and was upward to 100 proof. Like Madeira, rum journeyed in barrels and took on golden hue and caramel flavors, though, on arrival. By 1664, a rum distillery opened on Staten Island.

Colonists dram rum straight (a dram), watered down (grog and sling), blended with pepper (pepper rum), cider (Stone-Fence), ale and cream (flip), or brandy (Rattle-Skull), or glugged into a bowl of citrus juices and sugar (punch). Blackstrap was a drink of rum and molasses. Calibogus was a blend of rum and spruce beer (and molasses?) well known to sailers, especially fishermen. Mimbo was made from rum, water, and loaf sugar. Toddy, sling, and grog are the closest you can get to these early rum concoctions in bars today.

Some tavernkeepers, according to their inventory, sold nothing but rum to their clientele, earning their establishments the title of "grog" or "dram" shops. A dram was a standard measure of rum. Rum was often sold by the bow, nip (short for nipperkin ), or dram.

A dram was a stamdard measure of rum.

"Rum, or sugar-brandy. This is made at the sugar plantations in the West India Islands. It is in quality like French brandy, but has no unpleasant odor. It makes up a large part of the English and French commerce with the West India Islands. The strongest comes from Jamaica, is called Jamaica spirits, and is the favorite article for punch. Next in quality to this is the rum from Barbadoes, then that from Antiguas, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher’s, etc. The heaviest consumption is in harvest-time, when the laborers most frequently take a sup, and then immediately a drink of water, from which the body performs its work more easily and perspires better than when rye whiskey or malt liquors are used.

Raw dram, raw rum, is a drink of rum unmixed with anything.

Grog is water and rum.

Sling, or long sup, half water and half rum, with sugar in it.

Mämm, made of water, sugar, and rum, is the most common drink in the interior of the country, and has set up many a tavern-keeper.

Cherry bounce is a drink made of the cherry juice with a quantity of rum in it.

Bilberry dram is made in the same way. [Bilberry juice with a quantity of rum in it]

Mintwater, distilled from mint, mixed in the rum, to make a drink for strengthening the stomach.

Hot rum, warmed with sugar and grains of allspice; customary at funerals. Hot Buttered Rum

Mulled rum, warmed with egg-yolks and allspice."
(Israel Acelius' A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759)

Other Liquors & Liqueurs

"Still liquor, brandy made of peaches or apples, without the addition of any grain, is not regarded as good as rum.

Whisky is brandy made of grain. It is used far up in the interior of the country, where rum is very dear on account of the transportation.

Besides these they also use the liqueurs called cordials, such as anise-water, cinnamon-water, appelcin-water, and others scarcely to be enumerated, as also drops to pour into wine and brandy almost without end."
(Israel Acelius' A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759)

Egg, Cream, Milk Drinks

"Egg dram, eggnog. The yolk of an egg is beaten up, and during the beating rum and sugar poured in.

Egg punch, of yolks of eggs, rum, sugar, and warm water.

Milk punch, of milk, rum, sugar, and grated nutmeg over it; is much used in the summer-time, and is considered good for dysentery and loose bowels.

Sillibub is made of warm milk, wine, and sugar, not unlike our Oelost [mixture of warm milk and beer]. It is used in summer-time as a cooling beverage."
(Israel Acelius' A History of New Sweden: or, The settlements on the River Delaware, published in 1759)

Syllabub (Ingredients: eggs, milk or cream, wine/beer/cider, nutmeg, sugar)

"Syllibubs" were mixtures of milk or cream whipped into a froth with wine, beer or cider and flavored with spices. One recipe calls for a quart of beer or ale and an equal amount of cider mixed together in a large bowl with a little grated nutmeg, sweetened with sugar. The original recipe finished off with "now milk a cow rapidly into the ale and against the side of the bowl in order to raise a froth and let stand for one hour."

When combined with eggs or cream, alcohol's supposed nutritive powers were thought to multiply—which might explain the overwhelming popularity of posset, a blend of ale, cream and spices that was often swilled at weddings.

A syllabub is a sibling to posset, but uses wine or cider as its base and gains visual drama from the cloudlike egg whites that are spooned on top. Want to try it? In a measuring cup, combine five ounces of inexpensive floral white wine (these days, try Torrontes) with two or three ounces of cream, a spoonful of sugar, and the juice of half a lemon. (In lieu of sugar, a nontraditional tablespoon of maple syrup can add sweetness). Stir to combine. In a separate bowl, beat two egg whites with a dash of sugar until somewhere between frothy and peaked. Decant wine mixture into a favorite glass, spoon over thickened egg whites, and shave over some nutmeg.

 

18th Century:

1819 - Hop Beer was identical to ginger beer, with the addition of hops. 1846 - Lemon Beer was very popular, and was identical to ginger beer, with the addition of a few more lemons. 1869 - Philadelphia Beer was identical to ginger beer just with a fancy name. 1869 - Spring Beer was brewed root beer made from sweet fern, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, sassafras, and prince’s pine. This was made in 1846. Spruce Beer, another root beer, was brewed with molasses, essence of spruce, sugar and yeast.

1850 - Ginger Pop - was identical to ginger beer, only the term Pop was used to imply a soft drink for the Temperance Movement, even though it was brewed identical to ginger beer using yeast and sugar. Root Beer was brewed from natural ingredients – hops, burdock, yellow dock, sarsaparilla, dandelion, and spikenard, plus oils of spruce and sassafras.

English Ginger Beer was made from ginger, lemons, brown sugar or honey, and cream of tartar. It was brewed and fermented with yeast. Dr Thomas Cantrell opened a shop in Belfast in 1852 where his business included the manufacture of aerated waters and sweet beverages. In 1868, he went into partnership with Alderman Cochrane (later Sir Henry and Lord Mayor of Dublin), and they opened their Dublin factory in the following year. Cantrell & Cochrane are best known for perfecting the manufacture of ginger ale and their "Club" range of products which was originally commissioned for the Kildare Street Club in Dublin.

Other interesting early beverages included: Ratafia, Syllabus, Bishop, Cardinal, Tabourney, and Elixir.

 

The following may not be authentic

The following concoctions were discovered in the old files of the Gaspee Days Committee, and were apparently used by some Pawtuxet Village restaurants during Gaspee Days c1966-1972. Some selections were found in old hand-written cookbooks that had been families for over 200 years.

Champagne Cobbler

1/3 glass crushed ice
½ teaspoon powdered sugar
1 piece orange peel

To the ice add the sugar and orange peel,

Fill with dry champagne
Decorate with fruit.
Serve with straw.

Colonial Hot Cider Punch, Aka "Wassail'

1 gallon heated apple cider
1/2 ounce brandy flavoring
1/2 ounce rum flavoring OR (even better) 1/2 quart light rum
3 sticks cinnamon
3 to 6 whole oranges
small bag of whole cloves

Simmer mixture with 3 sticks whole cinnamon to melt--DO NOT COOK.
Allow to cool, pour into punch bowl.
Separately stick whole cloves around entire surface of 3 to 6 whole oranges.
Place oranges into baking pan with 1/2 inch of water, and bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
Place oranges into punch bowl
Serves 40
Serve with pound cake, nut cake, or cheese and crackers.

Fish House Punch

Completely dissolve 3/4 pound of sugar in a little water, in punch bowl
Add a bottle of lemon juice.
Add 2 bottles Jamaican rum,
1 bottle cognac,
2 bottles of water
1 Wine glassful of peach cordial.

Put a big cake of ice in the punch bowl.
Let Punch stand about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
In winter, when ice melts more slowly, more water may be used; in summer less. The melting of the ice dilutes the mixture sufficiently
Makes about 60 4-ounce glasses

Flip

3 eggs
3 teaspoons sugar
1 jigger rum
1 jigger brandy
1 red-hot flip iron or poker heated in fireplace
tall, all-pewter mug
12-16 ounces of beer

In a quart mug break three eggs
Add three teaspoons sugar and stir well
Add in the jigger of rum and the jigger of brandy, beating meanwhile.
Fill remaining volume of mug with beer
Insert red-hot iron until it hisses and foams.
The drink will become only warm.

Ginger Beer

two ounces of powdered ginger root (or more if it is not very strong),
half an ounce of cream of tartar,
two large lemons, sliced,
two pounds of broken loaf sugar
two gallons of soft boiling water.

Put all ingredients into a kettle and simmer them over a slow fire for half an hour.
Remove from heat.
When the liquor is nearly cold, stir into it a large tablespoonful of the best yeast.
After it has fermented, which will be in about 24 hours, bottle for use.

Grape Wine
2 quarts boiling water
2 pounds brown sugar
2 quarts grape juice
2 cups raisins
1 yeast cake
Boil water in stone crock
Dissolve brown sugar in boiling water
Add grape juice and raisins
Allow mixture to to cool
Separately, dissolve yeast in a little warm water.
When mixture is lukewarm; add in dissolved yeast
Let stand for 10 days, stirring once each day.
Strain out raisins from mixture
Mash these raisins into a pulp and let dry
Add raisin pulp back into mixture
Let stand for 3 more days
Strain mixture into bottle, and cork

Grog
Any mixture of spirits and water, especially rum and water. The term comes from the nickname of 'Old Grog' for Admiral E. Vernon (1684-1757) of the Royal Navy who, in bad weather, habitually wore grogram (a coarse silk and mohair fabric) and who introduced the idea of serving diluted spirits to English sailors. Thus it invaded colonial customs and was known variously as Grog, Grogshop, Groggy, and Groggery (which was a that time also a term for low-class drinking places.)

Mimbo
A simple and rather awesome drink consisting of straight dark rum diluted with loaf sugar

Mint Julep:
Use a silver (or pewter) mug--very important in order to obtain condition of proper frosting
Add ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
Add enough water to make a paste
Grind fresh mint leaves into paste.
Fill mug up to the top with finely scraped ice.
Add bourbon whiskey pouring it through the ice
Stir with spoon until mug is frosted.
Top with sprigs of fresh mint.

Snowstorm:
Mint Julep topped with a dash of brandy.

Hailstone:
Mint Julep topped with a more generous dash of brandy

Old Ironsides Rum And Soda
Into a large bar glass put the juice of 1 lemon
Add 2 dashes orange bitters
Add 1 wine glassful of dark rum
Add 3 large ice cubes
Fill up with plain soda water
Mix and remove ice
Serve with straw

Old Salem Smash

Into a large bar glass put 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water.
4 sprigs fresh mint rubbed to bring out the flavor,
½ glass shaved ice and 1 wine glassful dark rum
Mix well

Planters' Punch:
½ bottle (12 ounces) fresh lime or lemon juice
1 bottle sugar syrup (or 1¼ pounds of sugar)
1 ½ bottles rum
3 lbs ice and water
Mix all ingredients well.
Decorate with fresh sliced fruit as desired.
Makes about 30 4-ounce glasses.

Sherry Cobbler: "Refreshing as an east wind is a Sherry Cobbler."
Half fill a tall glass with cracked ice
Add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar
Add 1 sherry glass of sherry.
Stir with a spoon until glass is frosted
Decorate with choice of sliced fruit: orange, lemons, pineapple, cherries, etc.
Serve with straw

Snagaree
Made of red wine or fruit juice (take your pick) and soda water.

Spiced Cider Punch
1 gallon apple cider
4 2-inch sticks of cinnamon
1 tablespoonful whole cloves
1 tablespoonful allspice
3 lemons
3 oranges
Place cider and spices in large pot, heat slowly, stirring often
Strain and chill
Add sliced fruit to float on top
Serves 25

Spiced Tea
4 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp whole cloves
Sugar syrup (equal parts sugar and water boiled together until syrup forms)
1 tsp whole allspice
6 tsp tea
1 small piece cinnamon
6 cups boiling water
Mint sprigs
6 tbs orange juice
Pour boiling water over the allspice, cloves. and cinnamon. Cover and let boil 3 minutes.
Add tea, and let steep about 3 minutes. Strain.
Cool and add orange and lemon juice.
Sweeten to taste with sugar syrup.
Serve in tall glasses with cracked ice.
Garnish with a sprig of mint.

White Spruce Beer
3 pounds loaf sugar
5 gallons water
1 yeast cake
A small piece of lemon peel
Essence of spruce (If unable to get essence of spruce, twigs may be boiled down and strained.)
Mix all together, when fermented then preserve in closed bottles.
Alternatively, Molasses or brown sugar can be used and the lemon peel left out.

Stone-Fence

Sweet cider and apple-jack or brandy