1493 − A German physician in Nuremburg writes about kirshwasser, a cherry eau-de-vie made from Black Forest morello cherries: “In view of the fact that everyone at present has got into the habit of drinking aqua vitae it is necessary to remember the quantity that one can permit oneself to drink and learn to drink it according to one’s capacities, if one wishes to behave like a gentleman.”
1495 − The first recorded mention of Scotch whisky is from a June 1 entry in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland (accounting records). The entry says, “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King James IV, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” Four years later, the Lord High Treasurer’s account recorded payment: “To the barbour that brought aqua vitae to the King in Dundee.”
1500 − German surgeon and alchemist Hieronymous Brunschwig publishes Liber de arte distillandi: Das buch der rechten kunst zu distillieren (“The Book of the Art of Distillation”) in Strasbourg. It is a groundbreaking book that inspires numerous Holland distilling houses to begin producing brandewijn (burnt wine) from malted grain.
1501 − Others had tried, including Christopher Columbus, but Pedro de Atienza is the first to successfully import sugarcane seedlings to Hispaniola. He harvests his first crop four years later.
1505 − Scotland’s King James IV grants a monopoly to the Guild of Surgeons and Barbers to produce aqua vitae.
1514 − One year before he dies, King Louis XII of France licenses vinegar producers to distill eau-de-vie.
1531 − In Santiago de Tequila, Mexico, Spanish settlers construct alquitaras (stills) and distill pulque—a local fermented beverage made from the agave plant. They call the result mexcalli (mezcal).
1533 − Martim Afonso de Sousa and four partners set up three confectioneries and they make a sugarcane wine into aguardiente de caña (sugarcane eau-de-vie)—which is later known as cachaça.
−Fourteen-year-old Italian Caterina de’ Medici marries fourteen-year-old Henry, the second son of King Francis I of France. She brings bottles of Tuscany Liquore Mediceo, Fraticello, and Elixir Stomatico di Lunga Vita, which are made by monks in the mountains surrounding Florence.
1534 − Polish pharmacist Stefan Falimirz publishes the lavishly illustrated book of medical treatments O Ziolach / O Mocy Ich (“On Herbs and Their Potency”), which is one of the first to document the word “vodka” and details the preparation of over seventy vodka-based medicines.
1537 − King Francis I of France grants wholesale grocers a license to produce eau-de-vie.
1538 − Spanish settlers in Peru begin to harvest and export wine, and the non-suitable harvests are given away to farmers who make what we know of today as pisco.
1552 − In the book Constelijck Distilleer Boek, Philippus Hermanni refers to a juniper-infused eau-de-vie.
1575 − Lucas Bulsius moves to Amsterdam and sets up his own distillery. He changes his family name to Bols and begins making jenever. Twenty-five years later, Bols becomes a preferred supplier to the Seventeen Gentlemen, the inner circle of the powerful Dutch East India Company, which means he gets first rights on cargos of herbs and spices, giving him an advantage.
1598 − Spanish settlers begin distilling aguardiente de caña (rum) from molasses.
1620 − The Pilgrims bring brandy and gin with them to America on the Mayflower. In 1657, they begin to import molasses from the Caribbean to open the first American distillery in Boston. In addition, by 1664, they build a second rum distillery in New York City.
Fun Alcohol Facts
›Slang terms for distilled alcohol include “aqua vitae,” “ardent spirits,” “belt,” “booze,” “firewater,” “giggle juice,” “grog,” “hard stuff,” “hooch” (refers to it being homemade), “John Barleycorn,” “liquid courage,” “moonshine” (made by the light of the moon), “nightcap,” “sauce,” “snort,” “swill,” “swish,” “tipple,” “toddy,” and “tot”.
›In the United Kingdom, it is legal for children to drink at home with their parents from age six and up. They can be in a pub if accompanied by a parent and, at age sixteen, drink beer or wine in a pub with their parents.
›Dr. David Kimball, lead historian at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, found a 1787 farewell party bar tab for George Washington in 1985. The bar tab showed that fifty-five attendees drank sixty bottles of claret, fifty-four bottles of Madeira, eight bottles of whiskey, twenty-two bottles of porter, eight bottles of hard cider, twelve bottles of beer, and seven bowls of alcoholic punch.
›According to Wikipedia, the country that drinks the most alcohol in the world is the Republic of Belarus, which is bordered by Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania. The country that drinks the most spirits is Haiti.
›The youngest drinking age in the world is sixteen and the oldest is twenty-five. There are twenty-three countries whose drinking age is sixteen years old (a couple include Cuba and Switzerland), and there are seven states in India where the drinking age is twenty-five. Alcohol is illegal in thirteen countries.
›The alcohol drinking habits of vervet monkeys were studied on St. Kitts island (where the monkeys stole drinks from sunbathing tourists). They learned that the monkeys’ drinking behaviors were similar to humans’: teetotaler, social drinker (the majority, who only drink with other monkeys), regular drinker, and binge drinkers that will drink themselves into a coma or death.
›Whiteclay, Nebraska, has a population of fourteen. They also have four liquor stores and their yearly beer sales are $3 million (the county next to them is dry).
›All Playboy bunnies working at Playboy Clubs were required to know 143 brands of liquor.
›Make your own flexible ice packs to keep in the freezer with your choice of plain vodka, gin, rum, tequila, or whiskey. Simply pour a cup of water and a cup of spirit into a freezer plastic bag, squeeze out the air, then seal. Seal that bag into another bag, then place in the freezer. Since the spirit will not freeze solid, it will create a flexible, slushy consistency.
›Finding the proof of a spirit dates back to the 1500s. They discovered if you soak a pellet of gunpowder in the spirit and the gunpowder could still burn, the spirits were rated above proof. In the 1800s, the gunpowder test was replaced by a specific-gravity test.
The 18th Amendment: All About Prohibition, Bootlegging, and Speakeasies
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A Brief History of American Prohibition
The nutshell version of the American Prohibition starts with American citizens in the late 1700s who fell into two groups: those who felt drinking alcohol was a sin (religious groups) and families weary of men spending money at saloons drinking while women and children were left at home penniless and starving. They believed that alcohol was a contributing factor in the rise in crime, health issues, relationship issues, and extreme poverty. Thus, the temperance movement was born.
For America, Prohibition officially started at one minute past midnight on January 17, 1920. However, Prohibition can be compared to a hurricane today in that you have plenty of warning before it hits, so large amounts of alcohol had previously been hoarded for years. When the supply ran out, alcohol was smuggled from Canada and Mexico, and bootleggers began making moonshine. People also took booze cruises twelve miles out (the legal distance) to international waters. Hidden secret bars called speakeasies opened, often hiding in a room behind a legal storefront business, or entrances were in alleys or in basements. It is believed that in New York City alone, there were over 100,000 speakeasies.
All of this created a booming business for bootleggers, but it also created a booming business for a new dark world of organized crime called the Mafia, which spread to all the large cities with many gangs and gangsters. The