Period Non-Alcoholic Beverages - or, Beyond Tea At Feast.

SCA feasts.  When you think of a feast, several things might come to mind – a variety of foods, a selection of fare served on trenchers, an endless variety of possibilities and surprise…

and iced tea.

Here in Gleann Abhann, the
iced tea addition is real.

Yes, lords and ladies, we live in these current Middle Ages – but when it comes to dousing our thirst during feast, our choices are usually limited to “sweet” or “un.”  Some feasts, you might actually find lemonade… but that’s just about it for variety.

This course came years ago as a personal challenge.  I had suggested at a business meeting that we consider using grape juice for “wine” at a feast, and was told it was too cost-prohibitive.  Besides, I was told – it’s not exactly period.

But what is period?   I suppose it depends on your feast.  If you’re serving something that’s very late (or even post-) period, and your theme happens to be Dutch or Portuguese or Far Eastern, tea’s a no-brainer… except in period, it would have been hot or lukewarm.  And it would have likely been brewed from a tea brick, not a bag.  For early period feasts?  Wouldn’t have happened.

The tea we’re most familiar with today is orange pekoe or pekoe cut black tea.  The name comes from a bastardization of the term “bai hao,” the Chinese term meaning white tip.  The tea gained noted popularity in the 17^th century, when the Dutch founded their tea empire in the Far East.  This fine tea is still utilized today.

Green tea: not period for Europe, still
ridiculously tasty.

And green tea?  That was also the Dutch, bringing it to Europe from Japan circa 1610 So while green tea is period for Japan, it's not really period for anyone else.

Oh, both are from the 17^th century?  That’s right.  While some people were undoubtedly drinking tea before then, chances are the common gooseberry fellow’s wife wouldn’t be serving it to him.

So, what would he be drinking?

The average person in the middle age probably didn't have
access to a soda fountain on-site, either. But we sure did at
Candlelight Camp in 2004 at the Feast of Five Chefs.

Did the average person drink water?  Chances are, unless they were blessed with a spring or clear well – no.  They might mix water with wine or ale to make something palatable, but medieval people weren’t blessed with water treatment plants and hydro-chlorination.

Many – of all classes – drank milk.  It does a body good – then as now.  What sort?  Until late in period, it really depended on what was at hand.  Milk didn’t keep for long before the age of refrigeration – and was often drunk very close to straight from the cow.  What couldn’t be used up each day was usually used to make cheese or butter.

The type of milk varies depending on what you have.  Cow, goat, and sheep were popular in Western Europe.  Less used was camel’s milk – nutritious, sure… and horse’s milk. 

But most recorded medieval non-alcoholic drink preparations were based on one of three ideas – either boiling a flavoring agent with water, macerating an herb or fruit in water, and adding a syrup to water.

Here are some examples and ideas for how to incorporate them into your next feast.

Clarea:  This was water that was boiled together with honey and whatever herbs you had on hand.  Refreshing, yet simple.  In Ethiopia, this was called tej.

   Feast preparation:  Bring 2 liters of water to boil in a large stockpot. Slowly drizzle in 1 pound honey.  When completely dissolved, pour off into pitchers or bottles and chill.  One cup of honeyed water to one 2 quart pitcher – then fill with water.

Barley Tea:  Brewed like tea today – barley was placed in heated water.  Then honey was mixed in.  This drink had rather wide appeal, showing up in both medieval Europe and medieval Indian (though in India, it was likely to be mixed with jaggery instead of honey).  Records from the Dalhi Sultans record this as fuqqa.

   Feast preparation:  DO NOT ATTEMPT IN COFFEE MAKER!  The grains of barley grow a bit, like rice – and can also become sticky.  Boil at a ratio of three cups water to ½ cup barley.  You can, if you wish to use the barley, pour off the water into a separate pot to add the honey or jaggery.  Add one pound honey or ¾ pound crushed jaggery to a gallon of barley water and serve as is.  It doesn’t make a good syrup, in my experience.

I found this bag of mint for 89 cents at Walmart, and it made
up a lovely mint-heavy sugar syrup.

Mint Tea:  Many different types of mint were recognized in the Middle Ages.  Mint was a common prescription for an upset stomach because of its cooling abilities… there are plenty of records of mint tea as a beverage, but very few that describe how it was made. 

   Feast preparation:  Mint tea is easy – and best of all, can be made in the coffeemaker!  To

save money, bypass product listed as “mint tea” and either brew from fresh mint you’ve cut and dried yourself, or pick up a bag of dried mint at your local ethnic food store.  Indian Grocers here in Little Rock charges $2.99 for a very large bag, enough for a feast.  A good ratio is one ounce of mint leaves to two 8-cup coffee pots (I tend to run mine through twice - after cleaning the whole thing to keep out the coffee flavor, of course).  You might instead elect to make mint syrup by boiling eight ounces of mint in two liters of water, then adding five pounds of sugar.  This will make a nice minted syrup instead of a tea – that comes out to two tablespoons of syrup to a two quart pitcher.

Almond Milk:  Much more often made to be a substitute for milk during Lent, this was water boiled with ground almonds and often sweetened with honey.  For drinking, pomegranate juice was sometimes added.

Sage Water:  Made by placing sage in water and letting it sit.

Coriander Water:  Pretty much the same thing, except with coriander.

First you peel the zest from the lemons...

A syrup of Lemon:  First known to be documented in Andalusia, a syrup made from water boiled together with sugar and lemon peel (not the pitch) that could be added to water to create a medieval “lemonade.”

   Feast preparation:  Take a bag of lemons (usually 10-12 lemons) and zest them,

and then you squeeze.  Doing it the
other way is a bit more
challenging.

leaving behind any white pith on the lemon.  In a large stockpot, bring two liters of water to boil.  Add the zest.  Juice the lemons and add the juice, if you wish.  Slowly dissolve ten pounds of sugar, a pound at a time, into the water.  Strain through a wire sieve and bottle (I use 2 liter bottles).  You have the added bonus of having candied lemon peel!  This makes 3 to 3 ½ two liter bottles of syrup – enough for a very large feast.  Like the mint syrup, a good ratio is two tablespoons of syrup to two quarts water.

Rose or lavender water:  Noted in England in the 15^th century, a drink made from soaking rose petals in water overnight, then straining and combining the water with honey or sugar to taste.

   Feast preparation:  If you choose to prepare this for a feast, do realize this is not a sweetened drink.  It’s perfumed.  You can pick up rosewater in most ethnic and health food stores or on-line very cheaply.  The idea is to give the water the scent without a whole lot of flavor.  Try ½ teaspoon to a quart of water… and, for display, consider adding rose petals from roses that have not been chemically treated (not roses from a floral shop!).

At the 2009 Gleann Abhann Live Weapons event, I
served rose syrup, lemon water, chai and plain water
in bottles on the lowered tables. Yes, those are banana
leaves.  No, there's no silverware.

Rose syrup:  Made the same way as the lemon syrup, except using rose petals.  Tastes (from my own testing) very similar to the rose water when mixed with plain water.   Referenced in Ibn Battuta’s records of the Delhi Sultans, water sweetened with rose syrup was called sherbet.

   Feast preparation:  Forget making the syrup.  Go to your ethnic food store and buy a 750ml bottle of rose syrup.  It runs about $4.99 (amazon.com had it on for $6 a while back).  Use your two tablespoon:two quart ratio to start off with, then adjust for taste.

Pomegranate syrup:  Also Andalusian… made similarly to lemon syrup and diluted anywhere from one part syrup to three parts water – out to a one to six ratio.  A similar drink was Granatis, which was an Arabic drink.

   Feast preparation:  What does Granatis sound like?  Grenadine, of course!  You can buy Grenadine almost anywhere you can purchase alcohol… or, your ethnic food stores sell it as what it is.  This is NOT the new popular drink called POM – save your money ($5 for a single serving?  You’ve GOT to be kidding me!).  Make sure you get pomegranate syrup and not pomegranate juice.   Put a splash in your water pitchers as they go out for feast – it dilutes quickly.

Radish juice:  In Southern India in mid-period, radish juice was used to calm sore stomachs.  Having not tried this myself, I cannot imagine how.

Pratipana:  Water boiled with pepper.  In areas of southern India where the water might not be considered “clean,” boiling it with peppercorns or with long pepper was a way to purity the drink.

   Feast preparation:  If you really want to try this (!), boil 1 cup peppercorns with 2 liters of water.  Keep a lid on it!  Let it boil for about 20 minutes, then let it cool WITHOUT REMOVING THE LID.  Some people have a strong reaction to pepper vapor in the air.  Once it has cooled, you can bottle it for future use.  Pepper water was not served cool, but lukewarm or even hot… I suggest that if you want to serve it at a feast, you serve it in the same way you’d serve an aperitif… let people know what it is, and serve in taster cups.  It’s strong.  DO NOT USE CHILI PEPPERS to make this water!

Sources:

Achaya, K.T.. INDIAN FOOD: A HISTORICAL COMPANION. Oxford University Press. 1994.

Lewicki, Tadeusz. WEST AFRICAN FOOD IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Cambridge University Press. 1974.

Perry, Charles, translator. ANONYMOUS ANDALUSIAN COOKBOOK OF THE 13^TH CENTURY.  David Friedman’s website, http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/

Power, Eileen. THE GOODMAN OF PARIS (Le Menagier de Paris). Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1928.

Wilson, C. Anne. FOOD AND DRINK IN BRITAIN From the Stone Age to Recent Times. Penguin. 1984.

The redactions here are my own.