Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Whiskey more popular than brandy in South Africa

Although South Africa is the world's fifth largest brandy producer and in contrast imports nearly all of its whiskey, brandy is easily outsold by the 300 brands of whiskey available in the country. For the battle between the two spirits, see here.

Wine and brandy trade between France and the Dutch (book)

Henriette de Bruyn Kops, A Spirited Exchange: The Wine and Brandy Trade Between France and the Dutch Republic in its Atlantic Framework, 1600-1650 (Brill, 2007).

Very, very expensive brandy as a trophy for the super-rich

In a Washington Post, 11 October 2007, George F. Will archly describes the frustration of the super-rich when the merely well-off purchase goods and services that once were for the super-rich only. "Hennessy understands the logic of trophy assets: It is selling a limited batch of 100 bottles of cognac for $200,000 a bottle."

'My First Taste of Alcohol at Age 7'

The BBC's archive of World War II memories, written by the public, includes a brief acount about a seven-year-old Londoner's first taste of alcohol - a teaspoon of brandy in milk - given to the child by her parents one night while seeking refuge from the bombings in a brick shelter at the bottom of the family garden.

French cognac and wine found in Macedonian fields

French soldiers fighting in Macedonia in 1916 left behind large quantities of wine and cognac. Local farmers are still discovering bottles. Although the wine is past its prime, the cognac has improved with over 90 years of aging. For more, see here.

Rum as the new cognac

In the world of spirits, aged rum has become the fashionable after dinner drink, the new cognac. For more, see here.

Cognac in Hong Kong (article)

Josephine Smart, "Globalization and Modernity--A Case Study of Cognac Consumption in Hong Kong," Anthropologica 46 (2004): 219-229.

High-end brandy popular in South Africa

For many years popular in South Africa, brandy sales have been growing rapidly since 2004 especially at the high-end. For more, see here.

wine-distilling and spirits (book)

C. Anne Wilson, Water of life: a history of wine-distilling and spirits from 500 BC to AD 2000 (Totnes, Devon, UK: Prospect, 2006).

history of Cognac (book)

Salvatore Calabrese, Cognac: a Liquid History (London: Cassell, 2006).  Paperback reprint of book first published in 2001.

Canada (bibliography)

Allen, Max, and Wendy Harker. Gather Beneath the Banner: Voices of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Toronto: Museum for Textiles, 1999.

Anstead, Christopher J. “Hegemony and Failure: Orange Lodges, Temperance Lodges, and Respectability in Victorian Ontario.” In Jack Blocker and Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, eds. The Changing Face of Drink: Substance, Imagery, and Behaviour (Ottawa, Canada: Social History, Inc., 1997), 163-188. [Abstract: “Fraternal orders multiplied in late nineteenth-century Ontario, yet two prominent types of orders - the Loyal Order Association and the various temperance orders - did not share in this general growth. Instead, both were plagued by repeated urban failure. An examination of local events in two small Ontario towns brings these patterns into stark relief. Unlike other secret societies, neither Orange nor temperance orders forged an enduring link with the emerging hegemonic force in Victorian Ontario, the urban-centered middle class. In the case of the Orange order, this arose not from weakness, but from rank-and-file resistance to the dictates of ‘respectability.’ By contrast, the temperance orders, early vehicles of the respectable world view, were abandoned as the Victorian middle class sought cultural dominion through the construction of a wide consensus” (163).]

Bowering, Ian. Brewing in Formosa: 125 Years of Tradition. Burnstown, Ontario: General Store Publishing House, 1995. [History of breweries and the brewing industry in Formosa, Ontario, with especial focus on the history of the Algonquin Brewing Company.]

Bunbury, Dan. “Safe Haven for the Poor? Depositors and the Government Savings Bank in Halifax, 1832-1867.” Acadiensis 24:2 (1995), 24-48. [This bank opened to receive the savings of the working poor, hoping to thus promote thrift, sobriety, and discipline.]

Burr, Chris. “’Roping in the Wretched, the Reckless, and the Wronged’: Narratives of the Late Nineteenth-Century Toronto Police Court.” Left History 3:1 (1995), 83-108. [Finds the influence of temperance reformers on Toronto’s newspaper police court columns between 1871 and 1891.]

Campbell, Robert. “Managing the Marginal: Regulating and Negotiating Decency in Vancouver’s Beer Parlours, 1925-1954.” Labour/Le Travail 44 (Fall 1999), 109-127.

Campbell, Robert. Sit Down and Drink Your Beer: Regulating Vancouver’s Beer Parlours, 1925-1954. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.

Cook, Sharon Anne. “’A Gallant Little Band’: Bertha Wright and the Late Nineteenth-Century Evangelical Woman.” Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 37:1 (1995), 3-21. [Portrait of Wright, WCTU and YWCA leader in Ottawa, Ontario, as a representative evangelical Christian woman activist of the time.]

Cook, Sharon Anne. “’Do Not . . . Do Anything that You Cannot Unblushingly Tell Your Mother’: Gender and Social Purity in Canada.” Social History 30:60 (1997), 215-238. [Traces the history of the social purity movement in Canada, attributing the first phase to the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.]

Cook, Sharon Anne. “’Sowing Seed for the Master’: The Ontario WCTU And Evangelical Feminism, 1874-1930.” Journal of Canadian Studies 30:3 (1995), 175-194.

Cook, Sharon Anne. “Beyond the Congregation: Women and Canadian Evangelicalism Reconsidered.” In G.A. Rawlyk, ed., Aspects of the Canadian Evangelical Experience (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 403-416, 516-519.

Corkum, Hugh H. On Both Sides of the Law: The Exciting Personal Story of a Former Rum Runner and Flamboyant Police Chief. 1989; rpt. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus, 2000.

Crowley, Terry. “J. J. Morrison and the Transition in Canadian Farm Movements during the Early Twentieth Century.” Agricultural History 71:3 (1997), 330-356. [Biography of Morrison, who graduated from temperance reform and voluntary farm associations to found and lead the United Farm Organization.]

Estabrooks, Trisha C. “From Petticoats to Politics: The Prohibition Movement in New Brunswick, 1878-1927.” M.A. Thesis, Mt. Allison University, 1999.

Fahey, David M. Review of Jan Noel, Canada Dry: Temperance Crusades before Confederation (1995). Historian 59:1 (1996), 151-152.

Fischer, B. “Prohibition, Public Health and a Window of Opportunity: An Analysis of Canadian Drug Policy, 1985-1997.” Policy Studies 20:3 (1999), 197.

Grabowski, Jan. “Le ‘petit commerce’ entre les Trifluviens et les Amerindiens en 1665-1667.” Recherches Amerindiennes au Quebec 28:1 (1998), 105-121. [Examines the court documents from a 1667 investigation of the liquor trade between inhabitants of Three Rivers and Amerindians.]

Gutkin, Harry, and Mildred Gutkin. “’Give Us Our Due!’: How Manitoba Women Won the Vote.” Manitoba History 32 (1996), 12-25. [Recounts the part played by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in making Manitoba the first Canadian province to grant the vote to women (1916).]

Hebert, Fernand. La Philanthropie et la Violence Maritale: le Cas de la Montreal Society for the Protection of Women and Children et de la Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of the Province of Quebec. Montreal: Universite du Quebec a Montreal, 1999.

Hunt, C.W. Booze, Boats and Billions: Smuggling Liquid Gold. Belleville, Ontario: Bella Flint Publications, 2000.

Hunt, C.W. Gentleman Charlie & the Lady Rumrunner: The Story of the Only Woman to Smuggle Whisky Across Lake Ontario during US Prohibition and Get Away With It. Bancroft, Ontario: Bella Flint Publications, 1999.

James, Jennifer. “Ada Powers’ Diaries: Politics, Sisterhood, and the WCTU.” Atlantis 20:1 (1995), 63-76. [Describes Powers’s involvement with the WCTU circa 1920.]

Kapusta, Beth. “Liveable Lodge: Central City Lodge Inner City Health Care Facility, Vancouver.” The Canadian Architect 41 (August 1996), 28. [Examines the architecture of the Central City Lodge Inner City Health Care Facility in Vancouver.]

Langley, Andrew. London Pride: 150 years of Fuller, Smith and Turner 1845-1995. Melksham: Good Books, 1995.

Lauzon, Rene. “Mattagami First Nation’s Policy to Reduce Alcohol Related Harm.” Canadian Journal of Native Studies 18:1 (1998), 37-48.

Malleck, Daniel J. “’Its Baneful Influences are Too Well Known’: Debates over Drug Use in Canada, 1867-1908.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 14:2 (1997), 263-288.

Malleck, Daniel J. “Priorities of Development in Four Local Woman’s Christian Temperance Unions in Ontario, 1877-1895.” In Jack Blocker and Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, eds. The Changing Face of Drink: Substance, Imagery, and Behaviour (Ottawa, Canada: Social History, Inc., 1997), 189-208. [Abstract: “The differences and similarities among four local Woman’s Christian Temperance Unions in Ontario (in London, Ottawa, Newmarket, and Dunville) provide valuable comparisons and an insight into the nature of the WCTU in its early years. A study of these locals between 1878 and 1895 reveals a uniformity in the focus of their early work, which the unions modified over time in response to community conditions. All four began by following evangelical modes of community reform. Much of their work followed a class-based strategy. Some unions focused on the children of labourers, while others concentrated on reaching working-class adults. The Dunnville WCTU disbanded, partly due to the members’ reluctance to pursue work in the wide community. Issues pertaining to gender, race, or eugenics became important only after the women had undertaken class-based, evangelical reform work” (189).]

Malleck, Daniel Joseph. “Refining Poison, Defining Power: Medical Authority and the Creation of Canadian Drug Prohibition Laws, 1800-1908.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Queen’s University at Kingston, 1999.

Marks, Lynne Sorrel. Revivals and Roller Rinks: Religion, Leisure, and Identity in Late-Nineteenth-Century Small-Town Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. [Chapter 4: “Rough and Respectable: Loafers, Drinkers, and Temperance Workers.”]

Marquis, Greg. “Rum Riot at Dundas.” Island Magazine 43 (1998), 8-12. [Describes a riotous 1860 confrontation between “wets” and “drys” over an illegal tavern on Prince Edward Island.]

McCalla, Douglas. Consumption Stories: Customer Purchases of Alcohol at an Upper Canadian Country Store in 1808-1809 and 1828-1829. Sainte-Foy, Quebec: Centre Interuniversitaire d’etudes Quebecoises, 1999.

Noel, Janet. Canada Dry: Temperance Crusades before Confederation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.

Phillips, Glen C. On Tap: The Odyssey of Beer and Brewing in Victorian London- Middlesex. Sarnia, Ontario: Cheshire Cat Press, 2000.

Pope, Peter. “Fish into Wine: The Historical Anthropology of Demand for Alcohol in Seventeenth-Century Newfoundland.” In Jack Blocker and Cheryl Krasnick Warsh, eds. The Changing Face of Drink: Substance, Imagery, and Behaviour (Ottawa, Canada: Social History, Inc., 1997), 43-64. [Abstract: “A strong demand for alcohol and tobacco in seventeenth-century Newfoundland and throughout the North American fishing periphery is an example of the distinct role maritime communities played in the emergence of a consumer society. Exchange of these little luxuries served social and cultural as well as economic needs. Demand for red wines and brandy in particular reflected contemporary humoral theories about the human metabolism. In this period, distribution, no less than restriction, of alcohol can be seen as a form of social control” (43).]

Roberts, H. Julia. “Taverns and Tavern-Goers in Upper Canada, the 1790s to the 1850s.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Toronto, 1999.

Sethna, Christabelle. “Men, Sex, and Education: The Ontario Women’s Temperance Union and Children’s Sex Education, 1900-20.” Ontario History 88:3 (1996), 185-206. [Traces the history of sex education in Ontario from the early programs advocated by the local WCTU to the beginnings of the physician-led hygiene movement of the post-World War I era.]

Sweet, Richard. Directory of Canadian Breweries (Past and Present). 2nd ed. Saskatoon: R.L. Sweet, 1996.

Szymanski, Ann-Marie. “Dry Compulsions: Prohibition and the Creation of State Level Enforcement Agencies.” Journal of Policy History 11:2 (1999), 115-146.

Tyrrell, Ian. Review of Jan Noel, Canada Dry: Temperance Crusades before Confederation (1995). Journal of American History 83:1 (1996), 209-210.

Wilson, S. Craig. “’Our Common Enemy’: Censorship Campaigns of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the National Council of Women of Canada, 1890-1914.” Canadian Journal of Women And The Law/Revue Juridique La Femme Et Le Droit 10:2 (1998), 438.

These citations originally appeared in recent “Current Literature” sections of The Social History of Alcohol Review. Jon Miller and David Fahey compiled and edited them. They were also available on the Alcohol and Drugs History Society’s old website, http://athg.org.

Beef and whiskey imports plummet in Korea

Chosen reports (4 February 2005) that in a report on the import trend for meat and alcoholic liquors, the Korea Customs Service said that whisky and brandy imports decreased by 15 and 36 percent, while the cheaper wine and beer grew by 27 and 8 percent. Total alcohol imports fell 8 percent to $378 million from a year earlier, the first downturn since 1998.

Nearly 600 Spirits Judged at Largest Ever Spirits Competition in the United States

Yahoo Finance reports (21 March 2005) that the most influential spirits industry professionals in the United States gathered at San Francisco's Mandarin Oriental Hotel March 12th and 13th to swirl, sniff, sip, spit and rank the world's best spirits at the 5th annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the only competition of its kind in the United States. Find the full story here.

Lemon Syllabub

For St. Patrick's Day, Jolene Thym features Dariana Allen's recipe for an Irish syllabub.

Lemon Syllabub

In its original form, syllabub was a thick, frothy drink devised centuries ago. The name originated in Elizabethan times and is a combination of the words "sillie" (a French wine that was used in the mixture) and "bub" (old English slang for "bubbling drink"). Because it's now served more often as a dessert than a drink, it's called "solid syllabub." From "Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles and Fools" by Margaret M. Johnson.

3 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons brandy

1 cup superfine sugar

2 cups heavy (whipping) cream

Strips of lemon zest or mint leaves (optional) for garnish

In a nonreactive bowl, combine the lemon zest and juice, wine, brandy and sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Cover and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to infuse.

Chill six 8- or 9-ounce stemmed glasses (martini glasses are ideal). Stir the cream into the lemon juice mixture.

With an electric mixer, beat until soft peaks form. Spoon into glasses and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours, or until set.

Garnish with a strip of lemon zest or some mint leaves, if desired. Serves 6.

Per Serving: 356 Calories; 29g Fat; 2g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 109mg Cholesterol; 32mg Sodium.

This is a drink that I associate with seventeenth-century American Puritans--it is featured in the poetry of the frontier Puritan leader, Edward Taylor.

Full link to Thym's March 16, 2004 article for Inside Bay Area here.