What is a shrub?

Shrub is an old Arabic word meaning drink and is related to sharba, the word for syrup. In Britain, shrub was originally a potent drink combining citrus juice, sugar and spirits.

In beverage terms, shrub is a refreshing vinegar/fruit/ sugar drink, often called a drinking vinegar or an acetract.

Shrubs have been around for a long time, and were very popular in 17th Century Europe and in Colonial America. At that time, shrub syrup was made by steeping fruit (usually berries) in vinegar for a period of time as a method of preservation.

The sugar, acid and optional alcohol helped keep the fruit concoction edible prior to refrigeration being invented. The acidity of the vinegar balances the sweetness of the flavors.

Raspberry Shrub and Lemonade were the most popular fruit drinks of the 19th century. They owed much of their popularity to the Temperance Movement, which promoted them as non-alcoholic alternatives to beer and hard spirits.

Strawberry Shrub, Cherry Shrub, Cinnamon Water, Barley Water and hot sugared tea were other alternatives. Raspberry and Strawberry Shrubs were also called Raspberry and Strawberry Vinegar.

The three essential ingredients that are needed to produce a shrub are:
• Fruit/Vegetables such as: berries, peaches, rhubarb, apples, kale, cucumbers, etc.
• Sugar, such as cane or refined.
• Vinegar: preferably red wine or apple cider. They are less bland than white vinegar.
What is a shrub?

Puka punch

This sophisticated rum cocktail with its dark, spicy depths comes from the Tiki-Ti, a Los Angeles institution and a shrine to well-made tropical drinks. It was first made by Ray Buhen in the 1960 who opened the Tiki Ti in 1961.

The original recipe contains three kinds of rums which are blending together. Puka punch is a relic of the golden age of tiki cocktails, roughly from the 1930s to the 1950s, when some of the most talented mixologists were focusing exotic drinks.

Among the ingredients: lime juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, honey, passion fruit syrup, falernum, black rum, proof rum and angostura bitters. Put 1.5 cups ice cubes into a blender. Add all of the main ingredients then blend on high. Pour the mixture into a tall glass or tall tiki mug. Then gently pour the 151-proof rum over the back of a spoon into the cocktail.
Puka punch

Martini cocktail

The cocktail is an Americanism that broadly refers to any alcoholic beverage combined with other ingredients, such as sugar, water and fruit juice.

It seems to have been ‘baptized’ the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York in 1911, but most likely was created around 1880 in tandem with the development of production of gin.

The martini cocktail, narrowly defined, is a combination of gin, vermouth and an olive or a twist of lemon. An onion replaces the olives as the garnish in a cocktail called the Gibson.

Gin is distilled from a variety of grains and is bottled at 80 proof. Every gin manufactured has its own distinctive flavor and aroma. Gin usually colorless and is most often used in making martini cocktail.

Actually the martini cocktail has gone through substantial evolution as well, from a much sweeter version in the nineteenth century, with additional ingredients like bitter, to the vodka martini of the late twentieth century.
Martini cocktail

Beverage of gin

Gin is distilled alcoholic beverage that can be made from a variety of cereals and draws its signature flavor from the juniper berries that also –give its name.

Juniper berries are the seeds of tress of the Juniperus genus of which there are several dozen species found around the world.

It was originally developed in the Netherlands in the 16th century. It was created d by Francis de la Boe, but spread to the British Isles when William and Mary became regents of England in 1689. Holland still makes its classic genever, a Dutch-style gin that is highly aromatic with intense flavor.

The historical importance of gin lies largely in a supposed ‘gin craze’ in England in the first half of the eighteenth century, when gin consumption was blamed for widespread immorality and social disruption.

When people refer to gin, they usually mean London dry gin, which is most often used in cocktails.

Dry gins made in the United States tend to b softer and less flavorful than London dry gins and are best suited for mixed drinks.

Today, gin comes in at least four main types:
*London dry gin
*Dutch gin
*Plymouth
*Old Tom gin
Beverage of gin

Cocktail in history

People had been drinking mixtures of alcoholic beverages and various other substances such as fruit juices for thousands of years, but the actual process of having a cocktail mixed up in a tavern by a bartender began after the middle of the nineteenth century.

Most people agree that it’s an American invention. Other people describe that cocktails as America’s first culinary tradition.

The very first known mention of the word cocktail was found in an early American newspaper, the Farmer’s Cabinet, in April 28, 1803. It read, “Drink a glass of cocktail – excellent for the head. Call’d at the Doct’s.”

In May 6, 1806, New York newspaper, The Balance and Columbia Repository use of the term as a political stab against Democrats.

The editor received many questions about the new term, present in a concession speech from a losing political candidate, and here was his response:

“Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and butters – it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold at the same time that it fuddles the head.”

A popular history suggested that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s, where it was invented for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Winston mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden.

The success of the banquet made the drink fashionable, later prompting several people to request the drink by referring the name of the club where it originated – the Manhattan cocktail.

The origin of the word cocktail will probably never be known because there are many stories of where it came from. Rumor also has it that early in American history, bartenders used to pour remnants of drinks and almost empty barrels into single container, selling swigs from this mixture to patrons at a reduced price. ‘Cock’ was another name for spigot and ‘tailing’ is the last bit of alcohol, so his drink was called ‘cock tailing,’ quickly shortened to ‘cocktail’.

After the first cocktails sprang up in the American Northeast and have been evolving ever since. The cocktail moved west and then abroad. But regardless of where the cocktail was served, in bars, saloon or lounges, it became the icon of neighborhood gathering places and instant brotherhood.

Until Prohibition, the American saloon keeper was a prominent member of society and bartending was an honorable profession.

In 1862, Jerry Thomas, the first celebrity bartender, published the first drink recipe book to contain cocktails, How to Mix Drinks.

Initially, cocktails were drinks that men imbibed in the morning, at breakfast, to get their circulation going.

Later in the nineteenth century. Cocktails became more festive and were served as a aperitif, before-dinner drinks.
Cocktail in history

Watercress Juice

Watercress Juice
The juice extracted from watercress is one of the best body-cleansers and toxin-neutralizers.

It is exceedingly high in sulphur which represents more than one third of all its mineral elements and salts.

Of these elements more than half as definitely alkaline-forming, potassium accounting for 20%, calcium 18%, magnesium 5% and iron, only a trace.

Watercress juice is a powerful intestinal cleanser, removes toxic impurities from the system, heals kidney and bladder inflammation, regulates the glands, dissolves rheumatic poisons, eradicates skin affections, stimulate the circulation and tones up the entire system.

Watercress is sometimes called the “poor man’s vitamin food” because it contains potent amount of the 5 most important vitamins.

Owing to the fact that watercress juice is such a powerful intestinal regulator it should not be taken alone.

It is best mixed with carrot juice or celery juice in the proportion of 7 parts of carrot or celery juice to 1 part or watercress juice.

One pint or more of this combination may be taken each day. The juice of watercress, carrot, spinach and turnip leaves combined has the property of removing hemorrhoids (piles) and many cases of tumors.

Two pints of this combinations taken daily when all starch, sugar and protein foods have been eliminated from the diet, have been found to remedy these conditions in a perfectly natural manner in from 1 to 6 months.

Watercress cocktail is excellent for the complexion can be made by mixing equal parts of watercress juice and orange juice.

For variety grapefruit juice or pineapple juice can be used in place of orange juice. One glass per day is sufficient.
Watercress Juice