A Flask of Regency Liquor

No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men: but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
Samuel Johnson

Joanna here, talking about Regency tipples.  The hard-drinking Regency or Georgian gentleman is such a stock figure in Romance, it's worth stopping a minute to wonder what sort of liquor he was likely to be imbibing. 

There was ale and beer, of course, and their cousin, porter.  Ale and beer weren't precisely a gentleman's drink, but it's likely your hero lifted a mug of ale before the hunt and he may well have drunk beer with his breakfast, especially if he lived in the deep country. 

Beer and ale were drinks native to England, universal, and cheap.  The drink of the people, as it were.  Even small children drank a low-alcohol sort of beer called 'small beer' made from the second or third re-fermentation of the mash during brewing and containing just enough alcohol to preserve the drink.

By the Regency, the distinction between ale and beer lay not so much in the ingredients that made them up, as in the proportions.

Ale differs from beer in having fewer hops, which, giving less bitterness, leaves more of the soft smooth sweetness of the malt. It is usual, too, to brew it with pale malt, so that it is not so brown as beer. 
Scenes of British Wealth, Isaac Taylor, 1825.

Porter―later this was also called 'stout'―was a style of strong, dark, well-aged beer dating back to the Eighteenth Century, much favored by the working class of London.  Thus 'porter', because porters drank it.  Not a stylish beverage.  If you're wondering what it was like; Guinness is stout.

Why so much beer drinking?  I read, here and there, the thought that folks drank beer or ale instead of water because the water was contaminated.  Beer is boiled during the fermentation process and afterwards the alcoholic content kills off pathogens.  In a land of contaminated water, beer is a lot safer to drink.  The argument is that historical people somehow sensed this. 

This has always struck me as applying twenty-first century attitudes back into historical times.  The modern popularity of beer or wine―or coke for that matter―isn't an indication folks don't trust the water. 

I think folks in Regency times made beer as a way of handily preserving grain; they drank beer because they liked the taste; and probably, like modern folks, they enjoyed getting a little tipsy.

. . .  sober maids are wooed in wine.
Samuel Johnson

Wine, not beer, was the gentlemanly table drink, being imported and expensive and therefore fancier.  Agricultural experimentation, starting in Roman times, had demonstrated the sad truth that England is not a wine-producing country.   I wonder if some of the ancient conflict between England and France boils down to a certain jealousy that France can make wine and England can't. 

It was to France the English had traditionally turned to fill up their glass.  The two decades of war between England and France made the enjoyment of French wines more problematic.  Our Regency gentleman, who would once have poured out Bordeaux, (which they were likely to call claret,) burgundy, hermitage, (from the Rhône region south of Lyon,) or a sparkling champagne, now maybe substituted Tokay, an old favorite from Hungary, or hock, which was a catchall term for German wines. 

But he might also have turned to some new favorites the English had found among the wines of Spain, Portugal and the mid-Atlantic islands―the wines called Madeira, Malaga, port, or sherry.  Sherry, which, just to liven things up, was also called sack or Canary. 

Next time you see a character in a book with sherry-colored eyes, that over on the left is probably what the author means.  That's a mid-range sherry.  Sherry runs all the way from clear to dark brown.   

These new favorites were fortified wines, most of them heavy and sweet.  They were made by mixing traditional varieties of light, generally sweet wines and then adding brandy at some specific point in the fermentation process.  This fixed the flavor and sugar content and brought the alcohol level up to 15% or 20%.  The high alcohol prevented spoilage during shipment.  These fortified wines were less temperamental in the keg and the robust alcohol level was a nice compromise between ordinary wine and harder liquors.

A fortified wine like port was likely to be passed around the table after a fine dinner when the ladies had withdrawn and the gentlemen could start telling dirty jokes.  Meanwhile the ladies, in the salon, were helping themselves to a ladylike glass of 30-proof sherry and engaging in their own risqué conversations. 

I don't want to zip right past wine without saying that the size of the ordinary historical wine bottle may have been determined by the amount of air in a glassblower's lungs.  Georgian and earlier wine bottles had a long-necked, onion-bodied shape, which made them a bit less likely to get knocked over.  Wine bottles assumed the bullet shape we're so familiar with today when transportation improved in the Eighteenth century.

Early wine was shipped in kegs.  The householder or tavern owner tapped the keg and poured it into the nearest pitcher or bottle.  In the Eighteenth Century, better roads led individual wine growers to bottle their own wine.  The long, cylindrical bottle with a tight cork could be stacked and stored on its side and shipped economically.

When our Regency gentleman wasn't drinking wine, what were the other choices?  There was a formidable array of distilled liquors for him; brandy, arrack, whiskey, gin, cognac, rum, and cordials of every sort.  Exotic drinks could be brought back from odd corners of the Continent; kirshwasser, distilled from cherries in Switzerland and Germany; vermouth, from Italy; maybe a bottle of Green Chartreuse liqueur brought out of France and hoarded from before the Revolution. Absinthe, the green liqueur containing wormwood, was being made in France, preparing for a long career as the decadent man's drink of choice. 

Considering a few of these― 

Geneva was the period name for what we'd call gin.  It was probably not passed around the table after dinner by your average Regency gentleman, gin being notoriously the beverage of the depraved lower class.  The nickname, 'blue ruin', seems applicable.

The poet, also, is disguised, and seems, if we may use his own mixed phraseology, to have "drunk deep" of blue ruin, instead of the "Pierian spring."
Monthly Review, Ralph Griffiths

 
Arrack.  This was strong liquor imported from India and the East Indies, made from any of a number of grains, such as rice, along with sugar and the juice of the coconut tree.  It was regularly imported into England from the Eighteenth Century onward.  It seems to have been drunk, in England, mainly as an ingredient in punch.

Not to keep thee longer in suspense ; last night, it seems, the infamous woman got so heartily intoxicated with her beloved liquor, arrack punch, at the expense of Colonel Salter, that, mistaking her way, she fell down a pair of stairs, and broke her leg:
Clarissa, Samuel Richardson

Was arrack punch a wee bit vulgar?  Our sporting gentlemen probably preferred a rum punch when he met friends at the inn after a long day's ride.


Brandy.  Ah.  Now here is the quintessential liquor for our Regency gentleman.  This is what lurks in the decanter he hands round the table after dinner.  This is the tot served to male guests in the library.  When in doubt, the hero pours brandy.

Brandy is distilled from wine.  Eau-de-vie is most properly the distilled liquor made from other fruits or grains, but in this period they were often called brandies as well.   

So you could have a 'brandy' made by fermenting peaches.  Or you could have a brandy made from grape wine that was later infused with the flavor of peaches.  These fruit-infused brandies were made by soaking crushed fruits like cherries, apricots or blackcurrents in brandy.  There are numerous recipes for this.

To make Cherry Brandy. Take six pounds of cherries, half red and half black.  Mash or squeeze them to pieces with your hands, and put to them three gallons of brandy, letting them stand steeping twenty-four hours; then put the mashed cherries and liquor, a little at a time, into a canvass bag, and press it as long as any juice will run; sweeten it to your taste; put it into a vessel fit for it; let it stand a month, and bottle it out. Put a lump of loaf sugar into every bottle.
The Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter, 1800

  
Our gentleman will almost certainly serve French brandy, though it seems a bit vulgar to mention the origin.  A gentleman will take that for granted.  His brandy may, in fact, come from Cognac, a region so famous for brandy that the liquor is simply called Cognac. 

He has delivered himself over to strong libations of pure cognac, and is daily plunged in intoxication and stupor
Patrick Kennedy


Rum.  Our fashionable gentleman, unless he's spent his youth at sea, is unlikely to drink rum straight up, but if he's a sporting gentleman, he will most probably drink rum punch.

It is made with rum, brandy, lemon, hot water, and sugar.  . . .  Put in as much sugar as the water will dissolve. If you brew, say, a quart of punch, let it contain the juice and the rind of one lemon. The juice, I say; not the pulp. The rind also; not all the peel; none of the white pith: only the yellow outside pared off thin . . .  Mix your hot water, sugar, and lemon. Let the water be boiling hot—fresh from the kettle on the fire.  . . .  put a wrapper consisting of a folded napkin over the mouth of your jug, and lay a thick octavo or some other equivalent body, over the mouth of that vessel, and let it stand for five minutes. Then add the liquors.
Punch


Whiskey.  Gaelic usquebaugh, from the Latin 'aqua vitae' or 'water of life', became 'whiskey' in English.  It's a distilled malted grain liquor.  Scotch whisky shares with French brandy the distinction of being an illegally smuggled import in England during the Regency.  Would our gentleman have served it? 

Well ... if he were Scots or had spent time in Scotland, very possibly.  Or our gentleman might simply like to add the fillip of illegality to his after dinner relaxation.

When I think of my historical gentleman, at ease, talking with a friend at the table, I think of him with a glass of good simple wine set at his elbow.

What about you?  When you settle down to talk to your friends, what drink do you like to sip, and why?

 

One lucky commenter will win a copy of Black Hawk.

 

Comments

[Jane O]

Fascinating post.

While I agree that our ancestors probably preferred beer to water (coffee and tea being far to expensive for the poor), you probably shouldn't dismiss out of hand wariness as a reason for avoiding water. I recall reading that when the Puritans arrived in New England, one of the things they commented on in letters back home was that the water was so clean you could drink it.

Please don't ask me to cite chapter and verse on that. It's one of those odd bits of information I came across once and that stuck in my magpie mind.

As for drinking with conversation, coffee or tea in the middle of the day, a bottle or two of wine after dinner (preferably red). This is not for entrance in your giveaway—I already have a well-read copy of The Black Hawk—but just for sociability.

[Isobel Carr]

I like bitter drinks mostly, so gin (Hendricks if I’m paying for it!), Campari, Cynar. Also whisky, the peatier the better (oh, Islay, how I love you). And being located in Northern California, we drink a LOT of wine.

Jo: what is that first image. It looks like a man wearing a mobcap!

[Amy Kathryn]

Mostly I am a tea girl, iced or hot but I do enjoy a few mixed drinks on occasion. A Kir Royale, blood orange mimosas, or an Amaretto and orange juice are some favorites.

[Keira Soleore]

No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men: but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. --Samuel Johnson

My gosh, no wonder, Jo, some many romance Regency heroes swill brandy all day long. Now I know why. :)

I feel that bad water is the reason that small beer was the drink of choice even for small children. (It makes my mom heart shudder.) So, I'm curious why you think, "This has always struck me as applying twenty-first century attitudes back into historical times."

As far as a drink of choice with friends: a lime drop or a sidecar.

(Oh, and of course, I already own a copy of Black Hawk.)

[Liz]

Was pollution a problem outside of cities? Unsure whence Puritans originated.

But give me tea, please.

[Cara King]

Fabulous post, Joanna! I'm a tea drinker myself. Milk, no sugar. :-)

From the 1779 play "The Times" by Elizabeth Griffith:

SIR WILLIAM: I am no drinking man myself, Belford, but yet I do not approve of this water system of yours. It keeps the spirits too low--

BELFORD: To say or do anything mad or foolish, I grant it may. But if water does not raise, it never depresses the spirits. Can you say as much for your generous wine?

SIR WILLIAM: Well, well, I won’t dispute with you because I hate argument, and, as you are an honest fellow, I can venture to take my glass cheerfully in your company though you don’t partake of my liquor.

(I find that quote interesting because it implies some gentlemen never drank alcohol...and gives a reason why this might lead others to distrust them.)

[Grace Burrowes]

I keep a bottle of The Macallan 18 on hand in case I want to drink like a Scottish hero. Usually just sniffing the fumes gives me a nice burr and pretensions of kilt-worthyness. A bottle of brandy helps with the Regency heroes, but I have to say, neither drink can hold a candle to a nice hot cuppa tea.

Great post, Jo, but I'm with the rabble above. If drinking the water consistently made you sick or dead, then water would become suspect. As I understand Dr. Snow's work, he diagnosed cholera as a water-borne pathogen because the families who drank only beer and ale did not get sick, while the families who drank water fell ill. If he could notice such a pattern, so could everybody else.

[Debbie]

Great article but my mind kept trying to segue into Kentucky Whiskey :) Although I'm not a big drinker myself, but I don't mind a glass of white wine or a margarita. I got my mother-in-law tipsy one Christmas on Brandy Alexanders, so I wouldn't mind a desert version of that in memory of her and her husband's wary expression when she began to dance in the middle of the room.

[Margot]

I have to agree with the opinions about water. You have to think that if you drink water and consistently get sick, you'd start avoiding it. We may not have known why water makes you sick while tea or beer does not until the last 150 years or do, but that doesn't change the fact that the relationship would have existed. Besides, the water they'd have available probably looked kind of gross, too.

From http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/001water.html
Throughout the 1700s, as people began to understand more about the dangers of drinking water contaminants, domestic water filter units made from wool, sponge, and charcoal began to be used in individual homes. In the year 1804, the first large municipal water treatment plant was installed in Scotland in order to provide treated water to every resident (Baker & Taras 1981). This revolutionary installation prompted the idea that all people should have access to clean drinking water. However, it would be some time before this ambitious idea would be implemented widely throughout the world.

Personally, I'm a tea drinker. Preferably Chinese green tea with no milk or sugar. (Or boba tea, which is delicious.)

[Louis]

Interesting post.

I like to sip Bushmill's Irish Honey Whiskey. Very smooth.

On a hot afternoon it's a Guiness Black Label.

[Suzy]

My grandmother would mix brandy with peppermint schnapps. In the Upper Midwest it is sometimes called Snowshoe Grog. I didn't like it because it tasted like mouthwash.

Now, I drink merlot or scotch in the evenings.

(and I'm not entering either... I've got ALL of your books except Ladyship's Companion and I've got to get an e-reader for that... I can wait! Don't want to wait, but will wait.)

Keep writing, please!!

[Jennifer Haymore]

Great post, Jo! Especially timely for me, as I have been researching what my hero's drink of choice would be in 1812 (my earlier books all took place in the mid to late 20's, so slightly different in terms of choice beverages & availability!). I'll definitely be saving this for future reference, so thank you!

[Ella Quinn]

I am a red wine drinker. One sip of port will give me a headach.

[Erica]

It all depends on what mood I'm in. If I am out at a nice bar, I like a mixed drink. If I'm eating fish and chips or other pub fare, then I'm all about the beer. At home, I drink sweet dessert wine.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Jane O --

But how interesting that one of the compensations for the long sea voyage and the danger of the New World was pristine water. We don't think about the silence and the beauty these folks found.

I agree with you that our Regency ancestors were wary of drinking bad-tasting or dirty water. Animals, with more sensitive taste and nose, are even more finicky. (I remember when I lived in some unhygienic parts of the world, I never ate meat the cat turned down.)

But I don't think my great-g-g-g-g-g-grandmother put a pitcher of ale on the table instead of a pitcher of water because she knew the creek was likely to be full of pathogens. I think she just brewed a fine pitcher of ale and everybody liked it.

I learned to like red wine late in life. Margaux. Saint Emillon. I'd always been a white wine aficionado before that.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Isobel --

Interesting set of drinks. I think I've been more on the sweet side with bourbon and ginger or rum and coke and the German light wines. Though I've expanded a bit in my tastes, I don't even like the really dry reds.

Excellent catch on the painting.

Musee Carnavalet
A la bonne bouteille, anonymous

You can access the info for study through
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr
(put the picture title in the search engine Joconde.)

Or it's here for a closeup.

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/image/joconde/0420/m110400_26845-1_p.jpg

Cette enseigne peinte n'a dans doute jamais été exposée aux intempéries. Il s'agit peut-être d'une enseigne d'un marchand de vin en étage

Enseigne peinte de marchands de vin. Sur un fond de paysage, un ivrogne dansant, débraillé, coiffé d'un bonnet de femme, brandit un verre de vin de la main gauche et serre contre lui une bouteille qu'il tient du bras droi

So, yes, he's got on a woman's headdress.

[LilMissMolly]

Tough question! I'm a dark beer kind of girl and I love to drink a few beers with the girls. But if I'm out at a work function with dinner and all that, I tend to like Scotch and Sierra Mist.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Amy Kathryn --

When I was looking into what sort of drinks our Regency gentleman might have access to, I discovered that a lot of the liquors we drink today date to mid-Victorian times. Amaretto is one of those. It's about a hundred and fifty years old.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Keira --

I gather small beer does not taste much like 'beer'. There's also the phenomenon of 'ginger beer' which I believe is another 'kiddie drink'. It dates to the Regency and doubtless before but was still a feature of those 1940 books about girls at boarding school.

To make Ginger Beer.

To every gallon of spring water add one ounce pf sliced white ginger, one pound of common loaf sugar, and two ounces of lemon juice, or three large tablespoonfuls; boil it near an hour, and take off the scum; then run it through a hair sieve into a tub, and when cool (viz. 70°) add yeast in proportion of half a pint to nine gallons; keep it in a temperate situation two days, during which it may be stirred six or eight times; then put it into a cask, which must be kept full, and the yeast taken off at the bung-hole with a spoon. In a fortnight add half a pint of fining (isinglass picked and steeped in beer) to nine gallons, which will, if it has been properly fermented, clear it by ascent. The cask must be kept full, and the rising particles taken off at the bung-hole. When fine (which may be expected in twenty-four hours) bottle it, cork it well, and in summer it will be ripe and fit to drink in a fortnight.

Ginger beer sounds pretty horrible, frankly.

When I say -- "This has always struck me as applying twenty-first century attitudes back into historical times." -- it is not to deny historical folks found some water more palatable than other, or even that they avoided drinking it if the local water tasted bad. (In London, middleclass folks bought piped water for the household and did not drink what came from the pumps. Or folks speak of going to one pump and not another because of the taste of the water.)

I just don't think they associated drinking water with getting sick.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Liz --

Not my field of expertise by any means, but I'd sort of assumed most of the Pilgrim and Puritan folks were farmers, rather than tradesmen or artisans in cities, simply because most people in England were and because they were setting off to the New World to farm.

But our woman who remarked on the purity of the water might well have been one of the group who'd been living in exile in Holland, perhaps in a city.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Cara --

One reason they make tea of strong character in England, (says I,) is that it's meant to go with milk. I drink my tea straight -- no milk, no sugar -- and find myself challenged by some of the cuppas I've met.

I like the thought of some men not drinking alcohol. And, yes, I can see someone not trusting a man who was too cautious to drink.

[Anne Gracie]

Great post, Joanna. I'm with those who think there was a reason people didn't drink water. They didn''t realize boiling it made a difference, but they did notice that tea and herbal tisanes produced no ill effects, and neither did beer or wines. Makes sense to me.

Ginger beer is delicious. My mother used to make it when I was a kid, and I remember the occasional bottle exploding under the house (where they were stored for coolth.) I've made it myself, too, though screw top bottles put an end to exploding corks. These days I just buy it ready made. You can get alcoholic and non-alcoholic ginger beer and IMO both are delicious.

[Pageturner]

That was an absolutely fascinating post - and of purely academic interest to me, as I cannot stand the taste of alcohol! Some days I wish I did drink, believe me, but I usually prefer water to anything else on offer.

pageturner345@gmail.com

[Sue P.]

Interesting read. You guys must have a blast doing research for your novels. Have always been an iced tea addict, although occassionally will make it hot in winter. Beat hot tea I ever had was in Oxford England. They mixed it with warmed milk about half tea, half mik. It was so good!

[Alison]

Fascinating stuff. I have to confess though, my tipple is a nice cup of tea, especially with friends!

[Betty Hamilton]

When my sisters and I get together it is usually in a nice "vacation spot" as none of us (there are four of us) live in the same city. We like to order at least one local drink.... Mudslide, pinacollada, sex on the beach.... all sweet and all fun drinks!

[LouisaCornell]

Fabulous post, Jo! One more for my research notebook.

Coming from a long line of Native Americans and Welsh coal miners who all had serious issues with alcohol I chose at an early age to abstain. As a musician with more than my fair share of hedonistic tendencies I decided abstention was the better part of valor.

However, I am an excellent bar tender and I love to listen to what my friends prefer to drink and why.

For me good strong cup of English Breakfast Tea with a plash of milk and two sugars is absolute heaven. Earl Gray is another stand-by. As people know I love it, I am always sent gifts of various British teas and I do try all of it. Some I like better than others.

I remember my brothers being inordinately fond of ginger beer when we lived in England. And my parents often had a pint of cider at the Eight Bells in the village.

My brother makes his own wine and his blackberry wine is supposed to be quite delish!

[joanna bourne]

Hi Grace --

I keep a bottle of The Macallan 18 on hand

The whole single malt whiskey thing delights me. I stand somewhat outside, looking in, on this but I am a great fan of the combination of erudite knowledge base and gustatory delight.

That's why I like to read cookbooks.

but I have to say, neither drink can hold a candle to a nice hot cuppa tea.

I have an iron kettle, made after the fashion of an ancient Chinese kettle, for making tea. I feel very 'writerly' brewing with that.

I'm with the rabble above. If drinking the water consistently made you sick or dead, then water would become suspect.

One would think so. It makes so much sense.

Yet I don't see this sort of knowledge reflected in proverbs of the 'Bad well sends you to hell,' or 'Drink the water, kill your daughter' type. I don't so much find letters that mention George getting sick because he visited Little Croppington and the water is bad there.

Anecdote time: Folks were still being told to 'avoid the night air' in the dysentery outbreak in the Little House books. (US, late C19, years after Pasteur.)

I see Dr Snow's study as beautifully scientific, the antithesis of looking into folkways. His thesis -- that water caused disease -- was met with nearly universal skepticism precisely because there was no commonly held connection between water and sickness. Folk wisdom and medical opinion said disease arose from a smell in the air. 'Miasma'.

This leaves me skeptical of all kinds of wisdom in just about every direction, which is probably a safe place to be.

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/broadstreetpump.html

[joanna bourne]

Hi Debbie

my mind kept trying to segue into Kentucky Whiskey

Wouldn't it be great if our Regency hero could offer a Bourbon. I was rather fond of Bourbon back in the days when I was drinking.

Alas. Corn liquor has been made in the US since the C18, but Bourbon in any recognizable form is probably mid-Victorian.

Not for our Georgian gentleman.

Although I'm not a big drinker myself, but I don't mind a glass of white wine

I spent years thinking 'hock' was beer. It was German white wine, though, and popular.

[Gail Mallin]

You always write such interesting posts, Joanna, and I enjoy learning more about the Regency, but what's with this "England is not a wine-producing country"? That's fighting talk, you know! A nice dry white wine is my favourite tipple and we produce some lovely ones in the south of England. Several have actually triumphed over their French counterparts in well-respected wine shows so the next time you are over here if you are anywhere near Kent try going on one of the vineyard tours and I'm sure you won't be disappointed with the wines you will be offered.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Margot --

There's no question folks wanted clean, clear, sweet-smelling water.

When I lived in West Africa, I strained, filter, boiled, and chemically treated the household water. I still didn't like drinking it. *g*

Y'know ... I have thought about coffee and tea and decided I drink coffee to energize myself and tea to relax.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Lois --

I don't like beer much, I'm afraid. Don't know why that should be.

I tried Guinness two or three times. You may picture me approaching it warily, trying to keep an open mind. Sipping. Sipping again. Considering.

... and putting it down half finished, conceding that there are some things I will never be able to appreciate.

I feel the same way about gin.

I will try stout and gin again in a few years in case I have matured enough to appreciate them.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Suzy,

Your grandmother is part of a great tradition. Folks mix drinks together. It seems to be one of those basic human drives.

Y'know, they've had something called a cocktail since 1798, apparently. An 1806 definition: "Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters."

I think our Regency gentleman would have treated this as another kind of punch.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Jennifer --

I have been researching what my hero's drink of choice would be in 1812

I am so fascinated by absinthe. It wouldn't be the whole absinthe-ritual of 1870. Not spoons and water dripping in. But there would still be the lovely color and the opalescent change with the addition of water.

So cool.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Ella --

I think there's actually a medical cause for some folk's reaction to red wine or beer or whatever. Not exactly an allergy, but a sensitivity to some of the components.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Erica --

Right. What we drink has to fit the context.

He: I'll have fish and chips and a nice dry Merlot.

She: I am so outta here.

[joanna bourne]

Hi LilMissMolly --

I go out sometimes with folks who are knowledgeable about microbreweries. There are restaurant that have a large selection of these. My friends choose dark beers sometimes.

I, umm, have a coke.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Anne --

I love hearing about ginger beer. I have lusted after it since reading 'Second Form at Saint Clare's'.

I especially like the exploding corks. (I wouldn't like cleaning up afterwards.)

[JPrince]

I have always been told that if it comes from Scotland it is 'whisky'; if it comes from Ireland it is whiskey'.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Pageturner --

I can't drink, myself, these days. At parties I end up with sparkling water and a twist of lime. Or a coke, if I'm feeling wild and crazy.

I have a feeling coffeshops were welcomed so enthusiastically in the C17 and C18 because folks really did like to drink something nonalcoholic for a change.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Sue P

Have always been an iced tea addict, although occassionally will make it hot in winter. Beat hot tea I ever had was in Oxford England. They mixed it with warmed milk about half tea, half mik. It was so good!

The English black tea is just wonderful. Beautiful blends of this available anywhere. America -- not such a reliable place, hot-tea-wise.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Alison --

I have a writing friend. Sometimes when we get together at the local coffee shop we'll both get a pot of tea, and then share the two pots, back and forth.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Betty --

I have heard of the drink -- 'sex-on-the-beach'. Needless to say, the offsprigs mention this to me. *g*

[joanna bourne]

Hi LouisaCornell --

I had entirely forgotten cider. Cider and Perry.

I can see my Regency gentleman or Regency lady drinking this at breakfast or at tea when they were at home in the country. They'd get offered this when they stopped by a tenant's farm.

I see them liking it because it was served in the nursery.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Gail --

but what's with this "England is not a wine-producing country"? That's fighting talk, you know!

Now you see -- I learn something new every day. I'm delight to think of a wine region in Kent.

Probably they were not growing grapes in the Regency, though. England was going through a damp and chilly spell in the climate department. We have better weather now, apparently.

[joanna bourne]

Hi J Prince --

I have always been told that if it comes from Scotland it is 'whisky'; if it comes from Ireland it is whiskey'.

This vagrant 'e' is very puzzling to me. I have found that whatever I do with it, the copy editor disagrees. I am pleased to have such harmless disagreements with my copyeditor and truckle to her judgement in this matter so I may argue about other things..

[Susan]

Wouldn't the waterways have bee choked with sewage, since they were the main drain points, and there was not a reliable sewage system (and if there were, they drained into the nearest waterway).

I'd prefer beer over that, too.

My alcholic drink of choice is Guiness. For spirits, tequilla. Neither one of them at all Regency.

Mostly I'd drink a soft drink at a gathering.

[Jane O]

Only about a third of the Puritan settlers were actually farmers, so the craftsmen, tradesmen among them may have come from towns, but even on a farm the same stream may have served as both water supply and sewage system.

Another weird bit of information: There are more trees now in New England than there were when the Puritans arrived This is because of the Native American habit of clearing land by burning off the trees and moving on when the soil was exhausted. They weren't into crop rotation/fallow fields/etc.

Who knew?

[joanna bourne]

Hi Susan --

I remember drinking tequilla in a way that involved swigging from the bottle, licking salt off the back of my hand, and then biting into a lime. We were at an isolated research station doing marine biological research. I was young. What can I say?

[joanna bourne]

Hi Jane --

If I were confronted by a deciduous forest and had stone axes, I think I'd slash and burn too.

I do remember they were supposed to put a fish into every hill of corn when they planted, which is sort of fertilizing. If I am remembering correctly.

Though I think I would have eaten the fish and found some other way to make the corn grow.

[Minna]

Me and my friends drink tea.

[joanna bourne]

Hi Minna --

Drinking tea is the new cool. I go to coffeeshops where they give me my tea in the most delightful iron pots.

[Diane Sallans]

It very much depends on what I'm doing. Sometimes I like a beer - like with a burger or mexican food - unless I have a Margarita (yum). If I'm having chocolate I like a cold glass of milk.

Wine is lovely too, but not too dry. Something light and fruity. In fact, I'll be in your neck of the woods in two weeks & hope to get to some of the wineries (Horton's is a favorite - love their Pear Port for a late night sip).

[joanna bourne]

Hi Diane --

I have never done one of these winery tours. I see folks in buses sometimes because we have several wine growers in the foothills around here. Everybody looks like they're having a good time.

[Lady Wesley]

I've wondered about the ubiquity of lemonade as a drink, for ladies, in Regency novels. Assuming that lemon trees don't grow in England, wouldn't imported lemons have been awfully expensive? And then there's the dirty water which, even if people didn't know it was unhealthy, would have surely affected the taste of lemonade.

Just curious. . . .

[joanna bourne]

Hi Lady Wesley --

At the social level where folks drank lemonade, they weren't drinking from the Thames. Clean water was piped to London and right into middle and upperclass homes. The water drunk in Mayfair comes from twenty miles away in Hertfordshire by way of a reservoir in Islington.

Lemons were indeed expensive. Your take on this is correct. Citrus was shipped in from Spain and the Mediterranean. This was why good children got a Christmas orange in the toe of their stocking. It was a special treat.

[Diane D - Florida]

Tea has always been my number 1 choice of drink. Whenever we have company, out comes the bone china tea service for us all to have a lovely cup of tea. I've never been a drinker of spirits, wine or beer. However, my Auntie Ada used to go to the pub every lunch time for a glass of stout. It must have done her some good because she lived to the age of 97. :-)

[joanna bourne]

Hi Diane --

heh heh. Turns out Guinness IS good for you.

[V.Gracechild]

"We clareted and champagned till two - then supped, and finished with a kind of regency punch composed of madeira, brandy, and green tea, no real water being admitted therein. There was a night for you!"

Lord Byron, 1814

All I can say is, "Party on!". Vg

I've already got all the books in print (except for HLC) and on my nook, so give someone else the chance to get Black Hawk

[joanna bourne]

Hi Valerie --

I can see Lord Byron avoiding 'real water' for weeks on end and eating supper every night at 2 am.

Now I don't say I want my life to be precisely cast in the mold. But I sometimes wish I'd lived just a tad wilder.

[V.Gracechild]

On the other hand, according to Elizabeth Longford, "the Duke of Wellington's severe abstemiousness bewildered his contemporaries"

I don't imagine that a dinner that included both Byron and the Duke as guests would go very well.

[joanna bourne]

Did you know that the Duke of Wellington and Admiral Nelson met once in a waiting room in the Admiralty? I wonder if either of them ever met Byron and, if so, what they thought of him.

[Cate S]

Beer has been here always -- since recorded times... Pliny in 77 was writing about it!.. the Romans improved the beer found in England when they arrived... micro brewed is a huge industry and it tastes soooo much better than the big corporate breweries!!

[joanna bourne]

Hi Cate --

I think they made beer in the incredibly ancient Middle East. Beer from bread, if I remember correctly.

[Prema]

Jo,

Interesting reading about arrack. I always thought that was an Indian word and was liquor that was made by from palm fruit. In India they also have wine made from cashews and it is called feni. Very delicious.

Prema

[joanna bourne]

I think it may indeed be an Indian word that was later applied to liquor coming from many places in South East Asia.

I was not surprise to find this a popular drink among the British stationed in India. very surprise to find so many Eighteenth Century references to it in England. Who knew?

[V.Gracechild]

Regarding the Duke of Wellington's "abstemious-ness", further reading turned up the following:
"by contemporary standards, he was a temperate man, 'very abstemious with wine: drank four or five glasses with people at dinner, and about a pint of claret afterwards.'"
(Elers, quoted in Glover, "The Peninsular War"'

There are so many morals to this story that I hardly know where to begin.

Abstemious, perhaps, but neither had he taken the pledge!

[joanna bourne]

Heh heh That is so cool. It certainly sounds like everybody went around roaring drunk all the time.