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Switchel, also switzel, swizzle, ginger-water or haymaker's punch, is a drink
Drink

A drink, or beverage, is a liquid specifically prepared for human consumption. In addition to basic needs, beverages form part of the culture of human society....
 made of water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 mixed with vinegar
Vinegar

Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid . It also may come in a diluted form....
 and molasses
Molasses

Molasses is a thick by-product from the processing of the sugar beet or sugar cane into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese language word mela?o, which comes from "meli", the Greek word for "honey"....
, and often seasoned with ginger
Ginger

Ginger is a spice which is used for cooking and is also consumed whole as a delicacy or medicine. It is the rhizome of the Zingiber, Zingiber officinale....
. Honey
Honey

Honey is a sweet fluid produced by honey bees , and derived from the nectar of flowers. According to the United States National Honey Board and various international food regulations, "honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance?this includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners...
, sugar, brown sugar
Brown sugar

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar....
, or maple syrup
Maple syrup

Maple syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of maple trees. In Canada and the United States it is most often eaten with waffles and pancakes. It is sometimes used as an ingredient in baking, the making of candy, preparing desserts, or as a sugar source and flavoring agent in making beer....
 were sometimes used to sweeten the drink instead of molasses. In the U.S. state of Vermont
Vermont

Vermont is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area....
, oatmeal
Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a product of ground oat groats or a porridge made from this product . The term, 'oatmeal' can refer also to other products made from oat groats, such as steel-cut oats, crushed oats, and rolled oats....
 and lemon juice were sometimes added to the beverage.

Switchel made with water, vinegar, ginger and sugar found great popularity in the hayfields of New York in the 1930s.

Switchel originated in the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
, and had become a popular summer drink in the American Colonies
Thirteen Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the original thirteen United States of America in 1783....
 in the late 1600s.






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Switchel, also switzel, swizzle, ginger-water or haymaker's punch, is a drink
Drink

A drink, or beverage, is a liquid specifically prepared for human consumption. In addition to basic needs, beverages form part of the culture of human society....
 made of water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 mixed with vinegar
Vinegar

Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid . It also may come in a diluted form....
 and molasses
Molasses

Molasses is a thick by-product from the processing of the sugar beet or sugar cane into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese language word mela?o, which comes from "meli", the Greek word for "honey"....
, and often seasoned with ginger
Ginger

Ginger is a spice which is used for cooking and is also consumed whole as a delicacy or medicine. It is the rhizome of the Zingiber, Zingiber officinale....
. Honey
Honey

Honey is a sweet fluid produced by honey bees , and derived from the nectar of flowers. According to the United States National Honey Board and various international food regulations, "honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance?this includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners...
, sugar, brown sugar
Brown sugar

Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar....
, or maple syrup
Maple syrup

Maple syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of maple trees. In Canada and the United States it is most often eaten with waffles and pancakes. It is sometimes used as an ingredient in baking, the making of candy, preparing desserts, or as a sugar source and flavoring agent in making beer....
 were sometimes used to sweeten the drink instead of molasses. In the U.S. state of Vermont
Vermont

Vermont is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area....
, oatmeal
Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a product of ground oat groats or a porridge made from this product . The term, 'oatmeal' can refer also to other products made from oat groats, such as steel-cut oats, crushed oats, and rolled oats....
 and lemon juice were sometimes added to the beverage.

Switchel made with water, vinegar, ginger and sugar found great popularity in the hayfields of New York in the 1930s.

Switchel originated in the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
, and had become a popular summer drink in the American Colonies
Thirteen Colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the original thirteen United States of America in 1783....
 in the late 1600s. By the 1800s, it had become a traditional drink to serve to thirsty farmers at hay harvest
Hay

Hay is a generic term for Poaceae or legumes that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing animals like cattle, horses, domestic goat, and sheep....
 time, hence the nickname haymaker's punch. Herman Melville
Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet. His first three books gained much attention, the first becoming a bestseller, but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime....
 wrote in I and My Chimney, "I will give a traveler a cup of switchel, if he want it; but am I bound to supply him with a sweet taste?" In The Long Winter
The Long Winter (novel)

The Long Winter is a Newbery Honor novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder, first published in 1940. The story is set in South Dakota during the severe winter of 1880-1881, when Laura turned fourteen....
 Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder was an United States author, who wrote the Little House on the Prairie series of children's books based on her childhood in a settler family....
 describes a switchel-like beverage that her mother had sent for Laura and her father to drink while haying: "Ma had sent them ginger-water. She had sweetened the cool well-water with sugar, flavored it with vinegar, and put in plenty of ginger to warm their stomachs so they could drink till they were not thirsty. Ginger-water would not make them sick, as plain cold water would when they were so hot."

Switchel was sometimes kept in a hollow ring-shaped canteen
Canteen (bottle)

A canteen is a drinking water bottle designed to be used by hikers, campers, soldiers and workers in the field. It is usually fitted with a shoulder strap or means for fastening it to a belt, and may be covered with a cloth bag and padding to protect the bottle and insulate the contents....
 which could be carried over the shoulder or arm or on the belt.

The Vermont
Vermont

Vermont is a U.S. state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area....
 physician D. C. Jarvis
D. C. Jarvis

DeForest Clinton Jarvis was an United States physician from Vermont. He is best known for his writings on the subject of folk medicine. He recommended a mixture of whole Vinegar#Apple cider and honey as a health tonic and promoted an alkaline diet; both practices which are still promulgated by various Naturopathic medicines....
 recommended a similar drink (a mixture of honey and cider vinegar), which he called "honegar."

See also

  • Energy drink
    Energy drink

    File:Energy drinks.jpgFile:Reloadice adjusted.jpgEnergy drinks are soft drinks advertised as providing Energy to improve physical activity of the drinker, as compared to a typical drink....
  • Gatorade
    Gatorade

    Gatorade is a brand of flavored non-carbonation sports drinks manufactured by the Quaker Oats Company, now a division of PepsiCo. Intended for consumption during physically active occasions, Gatorade beverages are formulated to rehydrate and replenish fluid, carbohydrates and electrolytes....
  • Powerade
    Powerade

    POWERade is a drink manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company. It was first introduced in 1988. By 1992, the beverage was launched nationally in the Australian Capital Territory....
  • Sports drink
    Sports drink

    A sports drink is a beverage designed to help Sportsperson rehydrate, as well as replenish electrolytes, carbohydrates, and other nutrients, which can be depleted after training or competition....


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