Against smoke-black backgrounds, the stern expressions of Pennsylvania’s founding fathers float above the bookshelves in the historical reading room at the Lancaster Public Library. They form a complete loop around the small archival room, in the middle of which sits a conference table. In a way, it appears that they are convening here in perpetuity, reminding generations of leaders and researchers who may pass through the room of their predecessors.
Beneath their noses, I scurry back and forth, fingering through the sections on folk medicine, cook books, and cultural periodicals–anything that might yield up a tid bit of drink-lore. The books here are forthcoming with information. From booze to juice, from coffee to tea, from root beer to “spice hecka,” this day of archival research gives surprising insight into the historical drinking habits of the Amish and the Pennsylvania Dutch.
In 1970, T.R. Brendle and C.W. Unger wrote, “Despite the fact that total abstinence has been strenuously advocated among our people for over a century, they, as a whole, are still reluctant to regard the use of strong liquor in moderation as a thing of evil.” The sentiment nicely wraps up a back-and-forth view on alcohol held by the Pennsylvania Dutch over time.
For starters, during the 19th century, a time of considerably more scarcity, alcohol was extravagant and frivolous. An 1893 Lancaster publication, Domestic Economy, advises the frugal housekeeper, “Brandy, whisky, champagne, etc., wine, beer, ale, porter and all alcoholic drinks are too expensive as beverages for any one–perhaps millionaires can afford to drink them. Fifty, five or ten cent drinks do not contain as much real health-giving nutriment as a five cent roll or loaf bread.”
On the flip side of this, Amish people have long made wines from foraged products in their landscape. Heller writes, “The Pennsylvania Dutch make and use their wines so quietly that non-Dutch neighbors are often not aware of the amount that is made in their neighbor’s cellar. It is not usually served with meals, but adds a bit of health to each day’s living after meals and between times.” In Pennsylvania German, there exists the phrase “D’r wei is gud fa d’r maje,” meaning “wine is good for the stomach.” (Brendle) This excludes sweet wine.
Among these local, homemade wines, were saurkasche wei (sour cherry wine,) wildkasche wei (wild cherry wine,) maulzieher muss (a heavy wine-like liquor made out of the Virginia choke cherry,) blackbiere wei (blackberry wine,) hollerbiere wei (elderberry wine,) pissbett wie (dandelion wine,) boigraut wei (rhubarb wine,) kansgrauwe wei (currant wine,) and lilli wie (lilly wine.) In addition to enjoyment, some wines were medicinal. Blackberry wine was good for the stomach, dandelion wine was good for the kidneys, and lilly wine could be used as an eyewash. (Brendle)
Then there was hard liquor. Spirits are another step removed from agricultural and foraging practices, and they are more intoxicating. Nevertheless, there were some uses for strong spirits among the Pennsylvania Dutch.
In Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans, Brendle and Unger list a cocktail of onions and good whisky as a protection against contagious diseases. They also include some other spirits. Ebbeljack (or applejack) was made and was jokingly called bungert-wasser (orchard water,) making it seem common. Meddittlum was metheglin made with honey and water. Garchel was a cordial of brandy, water, and honey. Seidereil was cider boiled down with honey added.
Most of these spirits were homemade and cost a farmer only time and materials. Commercial spirits, on the other hand, were expensive. In Lancaster County’s Domestic Economy, I.H. Mayer comes up with a novel approach for the alcoholic. “One gallon of whisky costs about $3.00, and contains about sixty-five fifteen cent drinks. Now if you must drink, buy a gallon and make your wife barkeeper. When you are dry give her fifteen cents for a drink, and when the whisky is gone she will have, after paying for it, $6.75 left, and every gallon thereafter will yield the same profit. This money she should put away, so that when you become an inebriate, unable to support yourself, and shunned by every respectable man, your wife may have money enough to keep you until your time comes to fill a drunkard’s grave.” (Mayer)
Above all else, drunkenness was frowned upon. Many Pennsylvania Dutch were adherents to conservative sects of Anabaptism. To cure drunkenness, Brendle and Unger list some interesting folk remedies including whiskey with fingernails and whiskey in which an eel had swum. “If one is a drunkard and cannot be cured, put a live eel in a vessel or narrow bucket out of which it cannot leap, and pour wine upon it and let it die therein. Pour the wine into the bottles and give the patient as much to drink as he cares to have.” (Brendle)
Some Pennsylvania Dutch drank alcohol (and some still do), but price and propriety were always a consideration. Homemade wines made up part of the medicine cabinet and cost families only time. Whiskey, generally, was the enemy.
Tea is another common beverage which the Pennsylvania Dutch have made at home. In the
The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, Heller writes, “The Pennsylvania Dutch were never great drinkers of imported teas, but they certainly enjoy brewing herb leaves. They use meadow teas of spearmint and peppermint varieties for their hot-weather drinks and dry the same herbs for their winter suppers.” These teas are popularly called “meadow teas” in Lancaster County.
Folks around Lancaster have made tea from any of the foraged plants of the square-stemmed mint family for over 100 years. “Collected in the early spring and summer months, before going into seed, these teas can be blended to provide any combination of flavors. Most often simply referred to as “mint” tea, the most popular and sweetest is blue balsam.” (Shaner)
Typically, these herbal teas were sweetened and served as a refreshment, particularly during the morning break out in the fields. While they were refreshing, Mayer advises, “Of these simple herbs only a few leaves should be used for each cup of tea; otherwise a person may get a surfeit of them.”
The textual evidence on coffee is scant, but it seems that the Pennsylvania Dutch have a history of drinking it regularly. Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans says that “Coffee is usually drunk the whole year round.” The text also lists the local idiomatic expression, “‘r is schwarz vum kaffi drinke,” which means “his dark complexion is due to coffee drinking.”
The Pennsylvania Dutch sometimes called strong coffee “Ludrischer kaffi” or “Lutheran coffee.” (Brendle) When the Germans first arrived in Pennsylvania, most were Lutheran, but by the 20th century Mennonite, Brethren, and Amish took over. This may be a bit of religious judgment, or it may be a local stereotype.
In Amish Cooking, published in 1977, a contributor reflects, “When I was a child we knew nothing of pop, Coke, Pepsi and the many other drinks that are so common in the world today. At that time lemonade was one of those rare, too-expensive drinks, so we seldom had that to enjoy either.” So, soft drinks were not a constant drink for the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Still, there are examples of sweet, flavored refreshments in the regional cuisine. One such example is peppermint-ade. “A cool, refreshing drink for men who work under the hot sun in the fields is peppermint water. This is made by dipping a toothpick in pure peppermint oil then swishing it off in sweetened, cold spring water. This is done several times until the desired strength is obtained.” (Amish Cooking) Synthetic peppermint oil is not recommended.
Another note in Amish Cooking shares an interesting drink made from a sugar bush. “The most delightful drink I ever tasted was given to me about 20 years ago by an aged grandfather who had a ‘sugar bush.’ When the syrup had become buddy, he went into the woods and gathered what he called ‘spice hecka,’ which I guess could have been anise. These switches he tossed into the hot boiling syrup. When the desired flavor was obtained, the syrup was canned for a drink.” This is some analogue of a root beer which we might call bark beer.
In addition to this, texts discuss essich schling or vinegar punch. “Essich schling is a hot weather drink made out of vinegar and spices.” (Brendle) Often, this would be sweetened, so, in a sense, it is a soft drink. A recipe from 1904 for a flavored vinegar drink reads, “Pour 1 pint of vinegar over 3 quarts of raspberries. Let stand overnight. Squeeze through jelly bag, add 3 pounds sugar and boil 15 minutes. Skim off top. Bottle and seal immediately. “ (Elizabeth Recipe Book)
Eventually, Lancaster County came to represent typical American soft drinks with brand name potions. A Treasury of Favorite Recipes, Trinity Lutheran Church from New Holland in 1980 gave a sweet punch recipe by Sylvia Christman.
“Friendship Tea
2 cups Tang
2 6 oz. packages Wyler’s lemonade mix
½ cups instant tea
1 tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp. Cloves
1 cup sugar
Mix ingredients well. Store in airtight container. To serve, hot or cold, add 2 teaspoons to 8 ounces water.”
The only notable mention of a unique milk drink is from Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans. Apparently, the Pennsylvania Dutch drank buttermilk for rheumatism. They also had a drink called boneglabber which was a thick, sour milk. Lancaster County today is a dairy powerhouse.
A Treasury of Favorite Recipes Trinity Lutheran Church 221 East Main Street New Holland, PA, G&R Publishing Co., 1980.
Amish Cooking, Pathway Publishing Corporation, Le Grange, Indiana, 1977.
Brendle, T.R. and C.W. Unger, Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans, Augustus M Kelley Publishers, New York, 1970.
Elizabeth Recipe Book: A collection of thoroughly tested recipes compiled and published by sunday school class number two of the reformed church, Elizabethtown, PA, Printed by the Hoffer Press, Mount Joy, PA, 1904.
Heller, Edna Eby, The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, Galahad Books, New York City, 1968.
Heller, Edna Eby, “Drinks in Dutchland,” The Pennsylvania Dutchman Vol. 8, No 1, Summer 1956.
Mayer, I.H.,Domestic Economy OR How to Make Hard Times Good and Good Times Better, Lancaster , PA, 1893.
Shaner, Richard H., “Summer drinks of the Pennsylvania Dutch,” Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 31, No. 4, Summer 1982.
Simple sugars from fruit juices can spontaneously ferment without the addition of anything thanks to natural yeasts in the air. Starchier foods that we produce in much larger quantities, however, will not ferment without some help. Before specific yeasts and bacteria were isolated and reproduced in fermentations that were able to break down starches into simple sugars, saliva was our only option.
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