Georgia is a place of diverse drinking climates. In the Low Country around Savannah, Gullah Geechee and coastal cuisines converge. In Atlanta, metropolitan interests and the unavoidable giant of Coca Cola loom. In Macon, the powers of Southern culture dominate. In the terminating reaches of the Appalachian mountains the influence of mountain culture persists. It is a state where sweet tea and Coca Cola vie for prominence and moonshiners and tee-totalers vote in the same elections.
While businesses still make moonshine stills in northwestern Georgia, I only had the opportunity to visit the library along the coast. Combined with archival research in Charleston, a thorough picture of the history of drink in the Low Country emerges.
For starters, a library in Summerville, South Carolina, had The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer from 1896. The text gives an excellent introduction to the beverage section that is worth presenting in full:
A beverage is any drink. Water is the beverage provided for man by Nature. Water is an essential to life. All beverages contain a large percentage of water, therefore their uses should be considered:–
Freshly boiled water should be used for making hot beverages; freshly drawn water for making cold beverages.
While most texts just present drinks as recipes and as an afterthought, this is a profound yet concise consideration of the definition of beverages. While the book is not from the region in question, it is relevant. The text goes on to give recipes for De John’s Tea (tea with cloves and sugar,) Wellesley Tea (iced tea infused with mint when hot,) and Sauterne Cup (a wine punch of soda, Sauterne wine, orange, lemon, Curacao, sugar, mint, and strawberry.)
More in line with the regional realities, there were regional recipes presented by Mrs. Hill’s Southern Practical Cookery and Receipt Book from 1872. Of intrigue are the Crab Apple Beer made from boiled crab apples, yeast cake, and sugar. It was ready to drink in two days. Cherry nectar also makes an appearance. This is a sort of pre-soda syrup made form cherries soaked in white wine for four days. Sugar is then added and the mixture is boiled for an hour and stored in a cool place. On a hot Georgian day, a bit of the cherry nectar is mixed with iced water for refreshment.
Georgians also apparently had some medicinal beliefs about their beverages. A 1909 text, The Savannah Cook Book: Compiled by the Ladies of Westminster Presbyterian Church, explains how to make something called “Wine Whey For the Sick” made by scalding a cup of milk, adding a cup of wine, cooking until it curdles, and then straining. Barley water, too, was considered a suitable cure for fevers. The recipe: “Wash two tablespoons pearl barley, scald with boiling water, boil five minutes, strain. Add two quarts cold water, simmer till redacted to one-half. Strain, add lemon juice to taste.” The 1863, Confederate Receipt Book: A Compilation of Over One Hundred Receipts, would add that the tea of the Horehound herb could cure chills.
Pine trees were also used for the decoction of herbal teas. The Clemson House Cook Book, by Russie H. Paget from 1955, explains that young pine tops and needles can be washed, boiled and strained. The infusion is good with sugar and cream.
In addition to crab apple beer, the Confederate Receipt Book describes something called “Apple Water.” This is somewhere between juice and syrup, although I have no evidence of a similar recipe. “Take one tart apple of ordinary size, well baked, let it be well mashed, pour on it one pint of boiling water, beat them well together, let it stand to cool, and strain if off for use. It may be sweetened with sugar if desired.
Punches were also a common theme across the historical cookbooks. Recipes for several tea punches were given in addition to wine punches, coffee punches, and almond punch. A 1904 recipe book out of Savannah, Favorite Recipes From Savannah Homes: A Collection of Well Tested and Practical Recipes Compiled by the Ladies of the Bishop Beckwith Society, also gives a recipe for Gaelic Punch courtesy of the local St. Andrew’s Society. The stock of the punch consists of water, sugar, lemon, and clove. It is served “piping hot, using equal parts of Scotch and stock.”
Another interesting punch comes from the islands. Sharon Kay Hunt’s “My Official” Carolinas’ Sea Islands Gullah Cookbook: Representing History and Foods of the Carolinas’ Sea Islands gives a recipe from Cat Sea Island for Sweet Potato punch consisting of baked and mashed sweet potatoes, sugar, water, cinnamon, and fruit juice.
Finally, a cocktail sort of concoction for something colorfully called Tewahiddle is given by Paget. It is beer, brandy, brown sugar, nutmeg, and lemon.
The evidence for complex alcoholic concoctions along the Low Country coast is impressive. South Carolina, where red rice is grown, apparently also was aware of how to make rice wine in 1904 according to on text. From crab apples to cherries, rice to sweet potatoes, many of the staples that the South has become known for were at some time or another incorporated into their beverages.
Oh, yeah. And muscadine grapes are also called bullaces.
Confederate Receipt Book: A Compilation of Over One Hundred Receipts. 1863. Adapted to the Times. Reprinted by University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA, 1960.
Farmer, Fannie Merritt. The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. Little, Brown, and Company, 1896.
Hill, Annabella P. Mrs. Hill’s Southern Practical Cookery and Receipt Book. A facsimile of Mrs. Hill’s New Cook Book 1872 edition. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, 1995.
Hunt, Sharon Kay. My Official Carolinas’ Sea Islands Gullah Cookbook: Representing History and Foods of the Carolinas’ Sea Islands.
Paget, Russie H. The Clemson House Cook Book. Jacobs Brothers, Clinton, S.C., 1955.
The Ladies of the Bishop Beckwith Society. Favorite Recipes From Savannah Homes: A Collection of Well Tested and Practical Recipes. The Morning News, 1904, Savannah, GA.
The Ladies of Westminster Presbyterian Church. The Savannah Cook Book. Morning News Print, Savannah, GA, 1909.
The term proof has British origins dating back to the 1500s when alcohol was tested for tax purposes. Strong spirits were levied with an excise tax. To decide which spirits were taxed as strong, the tax man performed a sort of experiment. Booze was poured on a bullet and if it still ignited, then that was proof of the strength of the alcohol.
For something we do everyday, drinking is incredibly complicated. Over 30 muscles must act in coordination to get the water we drink down our throats without flooding our lungs. Medical professionals have good insight into how drinking works. It is a back and forth between breathing and swallowing.
As the pineapple supply dwindled, prices skyrocketed. The USDA reports that pineapple prices tripled in South Africa from 28 cents per kilogram to over 90 cents. If the government would not allow the South Africans to buy their booze, they would use some Mzansi ingenuity to make it at home. For this purpose, they required pineapples.
There is great diversity in wine press design and use across space and throughout time. The most primitive forms of pressing, by foot for example, are still in use today. Some technological innovations improved grape juice yield throughout history. Yet assuming that more efficient presses made older methods obsolete ignores the truth. Wine is a marriage of both tradition and technology.
