Drinking through History: Colonial America

I decided to explore how awful it must have been sneaking a drink around the Puritans. I expected to find draconian laws, humiliating punishments, and very dull social events. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our ancestors had the good taste to toss the tea overboard and keep the alcohol.

• Puritans brought more beer than water on the Mayflower. Beer was actually safer to drink than water!
• Colonists learned to make wines from various fruits, herbs, and flowers, but vine-growers from France came soon enough to teach about grape cultivation.
• Rum imported from the Caribbean became common after 1650, but demand decreased when the colonists began to distill their own rum directly, which became a major industry in New England.
• Flip was a popular mixed drink made from rum and beer sweetened with sugar, then warmed by sticking a hot fireplace poker into the serving mug.
• Ben Franklin once wrote that rain, which falls upon vineyards that produce wine is "a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy." The quote is often inaccurately repeated that beer is the proof that God loves us.