Drinks, Cocktails & Likör
1894 Milwaukee Brandy Revolution The Brandy Revolution started in Milwaukee. When in 1893 Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition many Wisconsinites visited the exhibition. The trade show hosted among others Captain Pabst displaying his beer, Aunt Jemima...
Drinks, Cocktails & Likör
The Smoking Bishop Smoking Bishop was a very popular drink in Victorian England. It is similar to “mulled wine”, being made as well from red wine, spices, and fruits. Compared to traditional mulled wine though port wine is also an ingredient of to the...
Distilling & Drinking History Blog
Versailles Treaty & German Cognac In 1896 the German distiller Hugo Asbach (1868-1935) took over the “Rhenish Cognac” company in Rüdesheim, Germany. Asbach continued the tradition calling wine brandy produced in Germany “Cognac” despite...
North American Distilling
The Salzburger’s Brandy In 1734 Salzburger Emigrants, a group of German-speaking Protestant refugees from the Catholic Archbishopric of Salzburg, sailed from England to Charleston, South Carolina, and thereafter to Savannah, Georgia. Johann Martin Boltzius, the...
North American Distilling
Georgia’s Brandy from Corn Stalks In 1734 the protestant Salzburgers escaped religious persecution of their home country (Germany/Austria) by settling in the newly established Colony of Georgia (est. 1732). It appears that the Salzburger Emigrants may have...
Drinking Gods, Myths & Fairytales
Amrita Amrita is a life-prolonging potion of the gods described in the ancient Indian Vedas. Other known names for Amrita are Soma or Madhu. In addition the term Amrita is also used in the actual sense of the word for immortality. In Hindu mythology, Amrita is...