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It would appear, then, that beer is the US' founding beverage. The Pilgrims loved it so much that one passenger, William Bradford, is said to have complained that he and other passengers disembarking "were hastened ashore and made to drink water, that the seamen might have the more beer."
A shortage of beer onboard is said to be what drove the Pilgrims to land on Plymouth Rock (in modern-day Massachusetts), back in 1620, instead of sailing farther south.
Beer drinking goes way back, all the way to some of the first European settlements in the "New World," particularly with the Puritans. When they set sail on the Mayflower, the Pilgrims reportedly packed more beer than drinking water, though it was weaker than today's beer. Still, there are various tales of Puritans preferring the fermented beverage to water from fresh streams!
Though wine had taken off in Europe, when Europeans moved to North America they tried to reproduce it but were sorely disappointed. The native species reportedly tasted strange and acidic, and the European grapes couldn't grow in the harsher eastern climates.
The alcohol content was quite low, and even kids were drinking it, but that's because the brews could be stored and ingested for weeks and months, whereas water on a ship would eventually become contaminated.
Wine therefore had to be imported from Europe, but that came with a high price. Thus only wealthy people could afford the drink, and it became associated with the upper class. By 1840, reportedly less than 3% of wines consumed by Americans were grown in the US.
According to the BBC, early Americans took a dram of a spirit with breakfast, had whiskey with lunch, ale with dinner, and a nightcap to top it all off. Most Americans in 1790 reportedly consumed an average 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year. In comparison, modern Americans consume only two gallons of pure alcohol per year.
A lot changed with the 1849 gold rush, which flooded California with settlers. Instead of gold, many turned to grapes, and founded wineries that eventually popularized California wine. By the 1910s, a reported 90% of wine consumed in the US came from California.
From the 16th century, sugar plantations in the West Indies created molasses as a byproduct, but the refineries would dump it into the sea—we're talking millions of gallons! They finally realized molasses could be made into rum, and it made its way to North America. Though many hated the flavor, it was quite popular with the Founding Fathers.
Most people were, however, able to hold their alcohol because it was integrated into everyday life. The kinds of work people were doing at the time (like working in the fields) also didn't require much focus. But by 1830, consumption peaked at 7.1 gallons a year and drinking became a moral issue.
By the American Revolution, the average American is said to have downed four gallons of rum each year. George Washington famously issued a ration of rum and whiskey to the troops, as he believed it was good for them and would help them be brave in battle.
In 1791, a tax on whiskey production went into effect to help pay down the government's US$45 million Revolutionary War debt, The Atlantic reports. But when word of a Whiskey Rebellion caught wind, George Washington sent Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton into western Pennsylvania with 13,000 militiamen to make sure distillers paid their taxes.
The whiskey tax was so unpopular that some threatened to declare independence from the fledgling United States. But it wasn't just for the money—it was also to reduce consumption. Washington said drinking was "the ruin of half the workmen in this Country," though, hypocritically, he was the owner of one of America's largest distilleries.
In the early years of the US, whiskey had started to replace rum as the most popular distilled alcohol. The Revolution had slowed molasses imports, while import duties raised their prices, and that coincided with a surplus of corn from the Midwest that made whiskey even cheaper. In the 1820s, whiskey cost 25 cents a gallon.
Because whiskey didn't rely on imports from the West Indies, and because it was so affordable for the everyman, Americans turned increasingly to this drink. The annual per capita liquor consumption reportedly hit its highest level ever by 1830, meaning the whiskey tax backfired.
The name tarantula juice came from a side effect of the poison, which caused muscle spasms, leaving drinkers feeling like baby tarantulas were crawling across their skin. Most saloons would serve it in two tumblers, warning drinkers to wait to drink the second until the muscle spasms set in, as the second dose would reportedly end the baby tarantulas.
It suits an Old West saloon to serve up powerful drinks to hard cowboys and settlers, and it's said that in Sierra Nevada saloons sold something called tarantula juice, which is gin mixed with diluted strychnine. First of all, the gin was unregulated and reportedly contained turpentine and sometimes tobacco oil. The poison, however, added in a low dose, was similar to the effects of methamphetamine!
The late 19th century has been called the Golden Age of Cocktails, as simple combinations of spirits, citrus, and sugar took the people by storm. The daiquiri, for example, was invented by Jennings Cox in Cuba in the 1890s, and included Bacardi rum, lemon juice, and sugar. The daiquiri eventually became the drink of choice for famous figures like Ernest Hemingway.
Signature mixed drinks still beloved today, like the martini and the Manhattan, were first invented by bartenders between the 1860s and Prohibition, and Americans across the country grew to love cocktails.
The Germans introduced new brewing methods as well as new types of brewing yeast to create their beer, and soon their breweries began popping up across the country, gradually replacing the English ales.
In the late 1800s, Jerry Thomas, author of the first bartender's guide and the “father of American mixology”, also turned cocktails into an entertaining spectacle. Thomas invented the Blue Blazer, a flaming cocktail he'd light on fire and pass back and forth between two glasses to create a blazing arch.
Though distilling agave had been around for a long time, tequila only became popular in the US in the late 19th century. It was at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair where wealthy Mexican families introduced tequila to a new market.
Before the mid-1800s, Americans typically drank heavier English ales, but when more than a million Germans immigrated in the second half of the 1800s, they brought cold, drinkable lager that became an instant hit.
Prohibition went into effect on January 17, 1920, and it changed American drinking habits—but it didn't stop them. They just turned to underground speakeasies and bootleg liquor like hooch, or moonshine.
The popularity of tequila took off soon after, and even thrived during Prohibition as bootleggers would smuggle it across the Mexican border. Known as tequileros, the smugglers would pack as many as 50 bottles of tequila on a donkey to cross the border at night. To this day, Mexico exports around 70% of its tequila, and about 80% of those exports go into the US.
By the late 19th century, dipsomania, or alcoholism, was being treated as a disease, the BBC reports. The first arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol was in 1897.
The harsh taste of hooch was often blended with more appealing flavors of the time, as the Bee's Knees mixed gin and honey, and the Mary Pickford blended rum and red grapefruit juice. Pre-Prohibition, distilled spirits made up less than 40% of American alcohol consumption, but by the time it ended that number increased to 75%.
Cider was popular since the colonists' time, and Founding Father John Adams, who served as the second president of the US from 1797 to 1801, was a well-known fan. He even declared it a health beverage, and since he lived until 91 many believed it worked!
During Prohibition, those who abstained from alcohol burned down apple orchards to ensure no cider would be produced, which was a huge hit for the industry. It took several decades for hard cider to return because some cider apples went extinct. Now, of course, the industry is alive and well.
Sources: (How Stuff Works) (BBC) (The Atlantic) (NPR)
See also: Prohibition and when America went dry
Moonshine/hooch had already been part of American drinking culture, passed down for generations, but it really soared in popularity during Prohibition. Though the Prohibition Bureau were seizing unlawful stills, moonshiners didn't stop making their drinks, which often included stomach-turning ingredients like rat corpses and rotten meat, reportedly intended to imitate the flavor of barrel-aged alcohol.
We tend to take booze for granted these days, because all we have to do is walk into a store and we’re presented with an array of options to choose from. But while many people take pride in picking their poison, they might not know the history of how their favorite drinks came to be.
Particularly in the US, the difficulty to get one’s hands on alcohol gave it, ironically, an interesting appeal. Click through to see what Americans have been getting tipsy on throughout the creation of the nation, and why.
The fascinating history of beloved booze in the US
Which alcoholic beverages were Americans sipping on throughout the creation of the nation?
FOOD Alchohol
We tend to take booze for granted these days, because all we have to do is walk into a store and we’re presented with an array of options to choose from. But while many people take pride in picking their poison, they might not know the history of how their favorite drinks came to be.
Particularly in the US, the difficulty to get one’s hands on alcohol gave it, ironically, an interesting appeal. Click through to see what Americans have been getting tipsy on throughout the creation of the nation, and why.