Archive for January, 2015

As we continue our series about non-alcoholic Renaissance drinks, we’re going to talk about some of the more ornate drinks. These drinks might be a little harder to replicate today, but with a little imagination and ingenuity, you can probably come up with a delicious recipe using today’s ingredients. When you are wearing authentic Renaissance period clothes, you will certainly complete the look with beverage that comes as close to what people actually drank back then. If you come up with any great recipes, or if you find any more Renaissance drinks, let us know in the comments section. Who knows – maybe we’ll have a Part 3, featuring your ideas!

• Sekanjabin is a very exotic-sounding drink and it was made using a variety of sweet vinegar and sugar. We’ve never tried it, and although vinegar and sugar does not sound all that appetizing, it was quite popular during the Renaissance.
• Honey has been a wonderful beverage ingredient for so many years, it seems! During the Renaissance, there was no shortage of honey in drinks. One of the most popular drinks to use honey was called Clarea of Water. This drink was a mixture of water, honey, and various types of spices, depending on what was local. The ingredients were mixed together and boiled. The drink would be cooled before it was served.
• We thought we’d conclude our series with a quick and easy recipe for a drink that is just as popular now as it was back then: Rose/Lavender soda! This recipe comes from a cookbook dating back to around 1400:
  • 1 part rose/lavender petals
  • 2 parts water
  • 2 parts sugar/honey
  • Soak a number of petals in a pitcher of water holding twice as much water as petals for one night. Press, but not squeeze, the water from the petals and reuse them as needed. Mix into the water enough honey or sugar as to taste, and serve cold.

Visit any Renaissance Faire and you will see a huge assortment of delicious Renaissance fashion drinks. From mulled wine to mead, there are plenty of tasty drinks that are great representations of what people in the Renaissance era drank. But suppose you don’t drink alcoholic beverages? It may seem like all you hear about is drinks with alcohol, but there were plenty of non-alcoholic drinks consumed during the Renaissance – some of them are still available today! Here are some of the most popular non-alcoholic drinks from this great time period!

• While there may have been a strict class system during the Renaissance, one thing was for sure: people of all classes enjoyed milk! Milk was accessible to everyone, and it came from goats, cows, and mares.
• An interesting brew that can be replicated today was sage water. Sage water was made by soaking sage in water overnight. This brew was used to cleanse the palette during meals.
• We’ve all had a tasty Shirley Temple at some point. The grenadine-and-ginger ale combination is one of the best drinks around! Of course, people in the Renaissance era didn’t have Shirley Temples per se, but they had their own version of grenadine, called granatus. Granatus, like grenadine, was made using pomegranates and was most popular in Arabic countries.