Moonshine Whiskey: Our Historic Drinking Habits

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You can use a glass, but an empty mason jar is more than suitable for drinking moonshine.
You can use a glass, but an empty mason jar is more than suitable for drinking moonshine.
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"Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry. If I don't get rye whiskey I think I will die."
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The history of moonshine whiskey and other popular, unsanctioned alcoholic beverages.
The history of moonshine whiskey and other popular, unsanctioned alcoholic beverages.

Long before the first clay jug of moonshine whiskey dripped out of a homemade still, Colonial Americans consumed alcohol of questionable quality in generous quantities. Here, Moonshine author Jaime Joyce recounts an experiment that illustrates the difference between that era’s drinking habits and our own. Excerpted from pages 16-20 of Moonshine (Zenith Press, 2014).

To understand the rise of moonshine whiskey and its place in American history, it helps to understand the country’s relationship with liquor and to know something about how the nation’s drinking habits and attitudes toward booze have changed over time. A fun starting point is an experiment conducted by writer Sarah Lohman, of Brooklyn, New York. Here’s what she did.

As a way to usher in 2012, Lohman bucked the health resolutions that so often mark the New Year and instead gave herself a bibulous challenge. For one day, Lohman drank like a Colonial American, which is to say that she drank a lot and at hours that might seem strange even to an alcoholic or a college student. She wrote about the experience on her blog, Four Pounds Flour, which focuses on 18th- and 19th-century American food and drink. Lohman’s January 5 blog post is titled, well, “Drink Like a Colonial American Day.”

At 8:30 a.m., Lohman began with a beverage of sugar, whiskey, water, and bitters. (In Colonial times, bitters, a blend of herbs and spices infused in high-proof alcohol, were thought to have healthgiving properties. Today, bitters are a key ingredient in cocktails.) After that, she and her boyfriend accompanied bacon, eggs, and toast with a tall mug of hard cider. Made from fermented apples, cider was a crowd pleaser in the 1700s. Diluted, it was given to children.

“Yes, I’m a little drunk,” Lohman posted at 9:38 a.m. (Of note, the cider Lohman drank was only 5% alcohol by volume; in Colonial times, the alcohol content of cider would have been twice that.)

  • Published on Nov 13, 2014
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