Florida Water and Bay Rum: Drinking Colognes for Fashion and Addiction

By coincidence, the name of the famous Aperol Spritz hints at a shadier part of drinking history. Perfume and cologne, the kind that emit themselves in spritzes, are close relatives to the gins in our liquor cabinets today. Both come from the era of early distillation in Europe and are characterized by aromatic compounds dissolved in high proof ethanol. At one point, in fact, the two were nearly non differentiable. Europeans drank the earliest perfumes. Eau de cologne was meant for internal use! This history of drinking perfumes as cordials or medicines is as old as distillation itself, but it took a dangerous turn as distilled spirits changed and Prohibition gave the desperate few other options.

Perfuming substances go way back. Think frankincense and myrrh. But the toilet waters we know today in liquid form are complex. They consolidate the essential oils and aromatic extracts of a million botanicals into tiny, ornate, hundred-dollar bottles. They do this by using the technology of distillation.

Some of the earliest evidence of Egyptian alembics may indeed have been used for perfume production, but medicine quickly took over. As such, distillates became concentrated essences consumed in small quantities for bodily effect. Gin came of age as the technology matured, but really it’s not so different. Alcohol is a solvent for botanical flavors. Gin’s compounds delight the sense of taste. Perfume’s titillate the sense of smell. In reality, they function in nearly the same way.

Given the early history of these substances, it should come as no surprise that Europeans in the Early Modern Age drank perfume. Starting in the 1300s, the world’s first notable perfumed spirit emerged. This was Eau de la Reine de Hongary or Hungary Water and it was infused with the essence of rosemary. We know that the 17th century socialite Madame de Sevigne drank it in France. (Cumston) And women in fashionable British society continued drinking it into the 19th century with the addition of sugar. (Sullivan) A 1900 article in The Hospital explains the trend “commoner among women than among men” that was in vogue–“the taking of a few drops of the perfume on a lump of sugar.”

What followed was the world famous eau de cologne. The perfume originated in its namesake city in 1709. But the original product was sold in Germany as a wunderwasser or miracle water, to be taken as a remedy. Many Europeans consumed these perfumes to ward off infection. It brightened the eye as well. Because these perfumed concoctions contained alcohol, they gave the drinker a kick. Perfumes, in short, were commonly and appropriately consumed as cordial beverages or medicines.

Enter America. The new nation’s first forays into perfume were fairly early. By the 1830s at the latest Florida Water was born. The name is stunningly American–Florida Water, perhaps the prototype for today’s Florida Man. The perfume came about shortly after the United States acquired the state of Florida from Spain in 1819.

The new American scent usually contained lavender, but it was not standardized and 19th century druggists around America mixed and sold their own Florida Waters with scents like bergamot, rose, clove, cinnamon, and lavender. In his essay, “Men and Fragrance,” Paul Jellinek states that the fragrance was originally made from broom flowers from the genus Genista, but eventually trended towards lavender.

The perfume spread across the States in an era where neighborhood druggists sold all sorts of quack medicines. As the 1800s wore on, the popular brand Murray and Lanman’s Florida Water emerged. The company, still in business today, traces its roots back to 1808. In her study “Searching for nineteenth-century Florida Water bottles,” Catherine Sullivan notes that Murray and Lanman’s bottles are the most common Florida Water bottles in North American archaeological digs.

By 1891, Florida Water as a commodity was so common around the States that several Mid-Atlantic bottle makers signed a price-fixing agreement for the product of the so-called “Florida Water bottle.” (Sullivan) The liquid inside might not have been standard, but the bottle and name were.

The story of Florida Water becomes more complicated when price and contents are factored in. An 1893 IRS regulation stated, “a druggist…is entitled to sell without paying special tax; e.g. toilet articles, such as cologne, bay rum, “ether with alcohol” for us in photography; benzine or ether with alcohol for cleaning purposes; castor oil and alcohol for toilet use, Florida water, violet water, etc.” (Emanuel) These non-beverage alcohols were not subject to excise tax and were far cheaper than the beverage alternatives. Because of this, the poorest and most desperate drinkers turned to perfumes for their intoxication. After all, Europeans were still drinking spoonfuls of the stuff. Toilet products like Florida Water, Russian Leather, 47 11, Bay Rum, Alcoholado, and Jamaica Ginger fueled an alcoholic scourge.

One of the key problems in drinking the perfume was the kind of alcohol used in making it. Because it was not meant for ingestion, producers could buy wood alcohol for ⅛ of the price of potable grain alcohol. (Ziegler) Wood alcohol, of course, is toxic and blinds before it kills. Yet, so many Americans were consuming the perfumes that the state of Pennsylvania required the manufacturers to swear that their products contained pure grain alcohol. Rather than stopping the drinkers, the state made it safer for those who would drink it regardless of contents. The Chemist of Philadelphia verified that the usual suspects, Bay Rum, Florida Water, and other hair tonics all had deadly methylated spirits in them. (Ziegler)

Fatalities did occur. A 1904 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association describes the treatment of a man who died from consuming bay rum. The journal explains, “On investigation it was found that these men had been drinking heavily for several days, and being unable to procure more liquor, they concocted a punch from 13 bottles of bay rum, one of witch hazel, one of vanilla extract and one of hair oil, with sugar, lemons and water, of which mixture they drank deeply.” (Millet) But for addicts, “The perfume can be easily purchased, and no suspicion is aroused. It may be kept on one’s dressing-table without bringing on one’s character the stigma that would soon be affixed if a bottle of brandy took its place. A lavish use of the scent externally will conceal the fact that one’s very breath is heavy with the odour.” (The Hospital)

Bay rum was similar to Florida Water. It had an alcohol base with aromatics for cosmetic use. Bay rum was a hair product produced from the essential oils of the bayberry tree (Pimenta acris) in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The rum of St. Croix and the bay oil Bordeaux Mountain on St. John met on the island of St. Thomas where the bay rum was manufactured starting in the 1860s. (Shaw) The soothing and aromatic essence of 150 pounds of leaves were concentrated down into one quart of oil before mixing with rum. The stuff would enter alcoholic slang as “Bay Horse” and drinking the stuff was known as “Riding the Horse.” (Fagan)

Prohibition made the perfume problem more pronounced. Without legal avenues in which cheap grain alcohol could be consumed, more Americans turned to the druggist to get drunk. Even worse, druggists offered more and stronger drinks sold under the guise of medicine as a legal loophole. Toilet products became staples of the poor and alcoholic. A 1932 article bemoans the scourge: “So much bay rum is consumed for beverage purposes that gathering up the empty bottles in the poorer parts of some cities has become a problem. Many drug stores feature it on their display counters in quart bottles. Bay rum formerly was sold in half-pint bottles; it is purchased by the quart solely to drink.” (Lusk)

The same supply pressures drove the desperate to even worse options. Canned heat, the small canisters that heat chafing dishes known by the brand name Sterno, contain ethanol but are highly toxic. “The alcohol is extracted by pressing the ‘canned heat’ in a handkerchief. This is vile stuff and is very deadly.” (Lusk) The canned heat habit apparently survived into the 1960s, as a survey of Skid Row Jardon defines Pink Lady as “a drink made from canned heat. Alcohol extracted from gelatin base through straining and dilution with water so solution may be ingested without regurgitation.” (Fagan) The same drink was called “Squeezings” due to its manner of extraction.

Today, we refer to these cosmetics and household alcohols as non-beverage alcohols, but the term ignores some history that may influence their consumption. Originally, these toiletries were produced with explicit instructions to consume them for health purposes. However, back in the early days, these perfumes likely only contained ethanol. As industrialization and chemistry took hold in the 1800s, methanol made its way into non-beverage products as a cheaper alternative. Due to its price and legality during Prohibition, the products were abused, leading to untold health consequences. Perfume may smell lovely, but the taste is surely not worth the danger.

Sources Cited

Author unknown “A Correspondent,” SOME STRANGE FORMS OF DRUNKENNESS. “Modern Sociology.” The Hospital 2 (1900): 3.

Cumston, Charles Greene. “A Rare XVII Century Lay Medical Tract.” Annals of Medical History 6.3 (1924): 360.

Emanuel, Louis, IT IS ASSERTED THAT MANY OF THE SO-CALLED MALT EXTRACTS SOLD ARE … American Journal of Pharmacy (1835-1907); Jul 1896; ProQuest pg. 387

Fagan, Ronald J. “A Glossary of SKID ROAD JARGON.” Nursing Forum. Vol. 2. No. 1. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 1963.

Jellinek, Paul. “Men and fragrance.” The Psychological Basis of Perfumery. Springer, Dordrecht, 1997. 126-130.

Lusk, Rufus S. “The Drinking Habit.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 163.1 (1932): 46-52.

Maisch, John M. “ON THE ORIGIN OF BAY RUM.” American Journal of Pharmacy (1835-1907) (1861): 0_1.

Millet, M. C. “A SIMPLE METHOD OF CYSTOSCOPY.” Journal of the American Medical Association 43.16 (1904): 1123-1124.

Riise, A. H. “ON BAY RUM OR BAY SPIRIT.” American Journal of Pharmacy (1835-1907) (1882): 278.

Shaw, Earl. “The Bay Oil Industry of St. John.” Economic Geography 10.2 (1934): 143-146.

Sullivan, Catherine. “Searching for nineteenth-century Florida Water bottles.” Historical Archaeology 28.1 (1994): 78-98.

Ziegler, S. Lewis. “The ocular menace of wood alcohol poisoning.” The British journal of ophthalmology 5.8 (1921): 365.

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Florida Water and Bay Rum: Drinking Colognes for Fashion and Addiction

Sources Cited

Read More:

Hooch: How and Why Indigenous Alaskans Made Their Illegal Moonshine, Hoochenoo

Drinking From a Rhino’s Horn: status and folk medicine in keratin cups

The Festival of Drunken Children: Aztec Pillahuana

Along the North Atlantic: the Medicinal Stench of Cod Liver Oil

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