Episode 183: Colonial Drinks: Shrubs, Flips, & Rattle

This week on A Taste of the Past, host Linda Pelaccio is talking shrubs, flips, and rattle-skulls – aka colonial drinks! Welcoming food writer and author of Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England Corin Hirsch via phone to brief Linda on this interesting topic, they start off the show talking about how prevalent alcoholic beverages were in the times of our founding-fathers. As it turns out, cider was a very common drink for all to enjoy – even children! Having to do with poor water quality at the time, alcoholic drinks were considered safer to drink than most other drinks at the time. After the break, Linda is joined in the studio by Michael Dietsch, author of the book Shrubs: An Old Fashioned Drink for Modern Times. Continuing the colonial chat, Michael shares historical tidbits about shrub: the name of different, but related, acidulated beverages. He goes on to elaborate about each type of shrub and how the beverage basically disappeared from the market, though is seeing a comeback in recent years. Tune in to hear all about the drinks that Colonial Americans loved! This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.

“Alcohol consumption, as robust as it was before the war began, it just reached its peak in the decades after the war.” [10:05]

—Corin Hirsch on A Taste of the Past

“Shrub was one of the first things that the British navy used to fight scurvy.” [29:03]

—Michael Dietsch on A Taste of the Past

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