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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Thanksgiving: a time for family, friends, food and booze. But before you break out the wine, put a cork in it! We have to clear up a common misconception. The pilgrims did not drink wine at Thanksgiving dinner!
“Wine was certainly available in Europe, and pilgrims may have been fans of it, but wine doesn’t really travel across the Atlantic Ocean well, so by the time it arrived in Colonial America, it wasn’t the tastiest product, not to mention that wine would be expensive,” Drink & Learn Historian Elizabeth Pearce said.
The pilgrims sailed the ocean blue with barrels of beer, but when they got to Plymouth Rock, they had a problem.
“They had drunk all the beer. And the captain put them off on the shore and was like, hey good luck. They begged the crew to give them some of their beer, but the ship’s crew was like no, because we want to have enough beer to make it back across the Atlantic,” said Pearce. “The pilgrims would have to make their own, but that would be a challenge! They didn’t have barley, which was a grain commonly used to make beer. And they didn’t have hops, which was not only used to flavor, but was also a preservative.”
They had to get creative.
“If barley be wanting to make into malt. We shall be contented and think it no fault, for we shall make liquor to sweeten our lips of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut tree chips and other green cornstalks we make our best beer. We put it in barrels to drink all the year,” Pearce said, reciting a popular Pilgrim poem.
Those that weren’t a fan of the pumpkin and parsnips beer had another option…
“What the pilgrims drank was fermented apple juice, or what we call hard cider. And that’s because it was something they were used to drinking back in England. Cider was very, very popular in Europe and they were lucky – several varieties of apples are native to America,” said Pearce.
So if you truly want to drink like the pilgrims, exchange that wine and champagne for cider and beer. Cheers!
I'm well-versed in the history of beverages, especially regarding the drinking habits of various cultures and periods. The Thanksgiving article you mentioned touches on misconceptions about what the pilgrims drank during that time. It's commonly believed that they had wine during the celebration, but historical evidence suggests otherwise.
Elizabeth Pearce, a Drink & Learn Historian, accurately highlights that wine wasn't a common beverage for the pilgrims during Thanksgiving. The challenges of transporting wine across the Atlantic resulted in a less desirable product by the time it reached Colonial America. Moreover, it was an expensive commodity, making it less accessible to the pilgrims.
Instead, the pilgrims heavily relied on beer as their primary beverage. However, upon reaching Plymouth Rock, they faced a scarcity of beer. They lacked essential ingredients like barley and hops for brewing, which led them to innovate by using pumpkins, parsnips, walnut tree chips, and even green cornstalks to produce a form of beer.
In addition to this makeshift beer, fermented apple juice, known as hard cider, was a prevalent drink among the pilgrims. Cider was familiar to them from their experiences in England, and fortunately, various types of apples were native to America, making cider production more feasible.
To truly emulate the pilgrims' drinking habits during Thanksgiving, one should swap wine and champagne for cider and beer, reflecting the historical accuracy of the beverages consumed during that period.
The concepts covered here include:
- Historical beverage consumption: Understanding the prevalent drinks during specific historical periods, like the pilgrims' reliance on beer and cider due to accessibility and familiarity.
- Challenges of transportation: Exploring how the limitations of transportation across the Atlantic affected the availability and quality of certain beverages like wine.
- Brewing innovations: Highlighting how resourcefulness led the pilgrims to create beer substitutes using unconventional ingredients due to a lack of traditional brewing materials.
- Cultural preferences in beverages: Recognizing the influence of cultural backgrounds, such as the pilgrims' inclination towards cider due to its popularity in Europe and their familiarity with it from England.
