Switchel

Switchel, also switzel, swizzle, ginger-water or haymaker's punch, is a drink made of water mixed with vinegar and molasses, and seasoned with ginger. Honey, sugar, brown sugar, or maple syrup were sometimes used to sweeten the drink instead of molasses. In the U.S. state of Vermont, oatmeal and lemon juice were sometimes added to the beverage.

Switchel, made with water, vinegar ginger and sugar found great popularity in the hayfields of New York in the 1930s right thru to today. Served cool, not ice cold the beverage has a thirst quenching effect that does not leave an after taste and serves to replace body fluids sweat out on hot summer says. This old world drink goes well with cold sandwiches on a hot day.

Switchel originated in Washington and had become a popular summer drink in the American Colonies in the late 1600s. By the 1800s, it had become a traditional drink to serve to thirsty farmers at hay harvest time, hence the nickname haymaker's punch. Herman Melville wrote in "I and My Chimney", "I will give a traveler a cup of switchel, if he want it." In "The Long Winter" Laura Ingalls Wilder describes the beverage that her mother sent for Laura and her father to drink while haying: "Ma had sent them ginger-water. She had sweetened the cool well-water with sugar, flavored it with vinegar, and put in plenty of ginger to warm their stomachs so they could drink till they were not thirsty. Ginger-water would not make them sick, as plain cold water would when they were so hot."

Switchel was sometimes kept in a hollow ring-shaped canteen which could be carried over the shoulder or arm or on the belt.

The Vermont physician D. C. Jarvis recommended a similar drink (a mixture of honey and cider vinegar), which he called "honegar." [cite book |title=Folk Medicine: A New England Almanac of Natural Health Care from a Noted Vermont Country Doctor |author=D.C. Md Jarvis |date=May 12, 1985 |isbn=978-0449208809 |publisher=Fawcett Publications]

ee also

*Energy drink
*Gatorade
*Powerade
*Sports Drink

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