With so many varieties of drinks available in stores and restaurants, I forget that people in the past had to make all their own drinks, both for family and guests.  The drink recipes below sound delicious.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

LUNCHEON BEVERAGES
Inasmuch as coffee usually appears both at breakfast and dinner, it is well to bar it absolutely from the luncheon table. Too much coffee drinking is injurious, as the makers of imitation coffees assure us daily through the medium of expensive advertisements. Though nothing else is quite as good as coffee, there are many other beverages which will prove acceptable at luncheon.

RASPBERRY SHRUB
For every cup of raspberry fruit juice, take one-half cup of cider vinegar and two cups of sugar. Put the juice, sugar, and vinegar over the fire, stir until the sugar dissolves, and boil until it forms a thick syrup. Skim if necessary, strain, and bottle. When served, allow one-fourth cup of syrup to half or three-fourths of a cup of ice water.

RASPBERRY DASH
Fill a tumbler half full of cracked ice. Add one tablespoon of sweetened raspberry juice and one tablespoon of cream. Fill the glass with soda water.

MINT SANGAREE
Crush two or three sprays of mint with a lump of sugar. Put into a glass half full of cracked ice. Add four tablespoons of grape juice and fill the glass to the brim with charged water.* Shake thoroughly and strain into another glass.

*charged water – soda water.

LEMONADE
Select perfect lemons and roll until soft. Extract the juice using a glass lemon squeezer and rejecting the seeds and pulp. Rub cut loaf sugar* over the peel of the lemon to extract the oil and add to the lemon-juice. Fill a glass pitcher one-third full of broken ice, pour the lemon-juice upon the ice, and add granulated sugar and water to taste.

*loaf sugar – sugar sold in a hard block, which has to be broken and then pounded into sugar granules.

SELTZER LEMONADE
Squeeze the juice of a lemon into a tall glass, add two inches of shaved ice, two heaping teaspoons of sugar and fill the glass with seltzer.

BUTTERMILK
Buttermilk is always served ice cold. On a hot day, a glass of buttermilk and a cracker or a bit of salted toast will often prove a sufficient luncheon.

VIENNA CHOCOLATE
Mix three heaping tablespoons of grated chocolate to a paste with cold water. Pour it into a double boiler with four cups of milk boiling hot. Add sugar to taste, and let it cook five minutes. Beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth and put into the chocolate pot. Put a teaspoon of vanilla into the chocolate after taking from the fire, and pour the hot chocolate very slowly upon the eggs, stirring constantly with a silver spoon or the wooden stick which comes for the purpose. It makes a delicious, frothy chocolate. The cocoa which comes in packages may be used instead of grated chocolate.

TEA
Use the best tea. Scald out the tea-pot, which should never be of metal, and put into it a teaspoon of tea for each person and one for the pot. Add as many cups of hot water as there are teaspoons of tea.  The water for tea must be freshly boiled and taken at the first vigorous boil. When tea is boiled, tannin is extracted from the grounds, and tannin, even in the most minute quantities, has a very injurious effect upon the lining of the stomach.

ICED TEA
Make tea according to directions given above, using two or three extra teaspoons of tea. Fill a glass pitcher half full of broken ice, and pour the tea, scalding hot, upon the ice, being careful that the stream strikes the ice and not the pitcher. Serve with cut loaf sugar and slices of lemon.

GINGER PUNCH
Boil one and one-fourth cups sugar and one quart water with the grated rind of one lemon for ten minutes. When cool, add two teaspoons Jamaica ginger, one-half cup orange juice, and one-third cup lemon juice. Strain over cracked ice.

GINGER ALE PUNCH
Add one bunch of mint to the juice of five lemons and one cup sugar. Bruise the mint and let the mixture stand several hours on ice. Squeeze through a cloth, add one lemon and one orange cut in thin half slices, and two pints of ginger ale. Add ice and garnish with mint.

MINT PUNCH
Cook one cup sugar with two cups water, the grated rind of an orange and a lemon, a piece of stick cinnamon, and twelve cloves. Cool and strain, add the juice of three lemons and four oranges, one bunch of fresh mint leaves, and two drops of oil of spearmint. Place on ice for two hours. Strain again and add one-fourth cup preserved ginger, cut in dice. Color green and add ice and one pint club soda. Garnish with mint.

DELICIOUS MILK LEMONADE
Pour a pint of boiling water onto six ounces of loaf sugar. Add one-fourth pint of lemon juice and half the quantity of good sherry wine. Then add three quarters of a pint of cold milk and strain the whole to make it nice and clear.

BOSTON CREAM
Make a syrup of four pounds of white sugar with four quarts of water. Boil, then when cold add four ounces of tartaric acid,* one and one half ounce of essence of lemon, and the whites of six eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Put in bottles. Mix a wine glass* of the cream to a tumbler of water, with sufficient carbonate of soda to make it effervesce.

*tartaric acid – a vegetable acid which exists in the grape.
*wine glass – one-fourth cup.

STRAWBERRY PUNCH
Mash one quart strawberries, add the juice of one-half pineapple, one lemon, two oranges, and two cups of sugar cooked in five cups water. Place on ice, strain into a pitcher filled with ice, and add whole strawberries and any fruits in season.

MINT PUNCH
Express the juice from four large lemons and strain it over a heaping cup of granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Now peel two lemons and one orange and slice as thin as paper. Add to the melted sugar and set in the ice until you are ready to serve. Have ready a dozen or more sprigs of freshly grated mint, which has been carefully washed and the dead leaves picked off. Lay the mint in the bottom of a chilled punch bowl and pour the syrup with the sliced fruits upon it. Next, stir in at least two quarts of shaved or pounded ice, and pour from a height into the bowl three bottles of the best ginger ale. There is no more delicious summer drink than this. Serve at once before the effervescence ceases.

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What Are Your Favorite Refreshing Drinks?

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