The other day while editing a novel set in Britain during the first-century Roman occupation, I had occasion to look up the drinking habits of the ancient Romans. Particularly their wine-drinking habits.
As it develops, Romans of the first century AD drank lots of wine. They thought it was good for one’s health. They even fed it to their slaves, because they figured it would keep them going despite the low-grade nutrition slaves were given.
Interestingly, though, they didn’t drink it straight. They cut it with water: about three parts water to one part wine. Ancient wine was very sweet by comparison with today’s dry preferences—roman vintners would let the grapes sweeten on the vine before harvesting and fermenting—and people flavored the product with some very strange things. The result, I imagine, was something like soda pop without the fizz.
Flash forward to the twentieth century, to a kitchen in Arizona.
After dinner I’d had a second glass of cheap red wine but couldn’t get through it, so had left the glass with about one swiggle sitting on the kitchen counter. Later, I was thirsty and wanted some iced tea. Knowing there wasn’t enough room in the dishwasher for another glass, I was going to toss the wine and pour the tea into that glass. But…throwing out food (or wine) (especially wine!) frosts the tightwad’s cookies. So, casting my mind back over the facts of ancient Roman tippling style, I thought…hmmmmm….
And tossed in some ice and cold tea on top of the wine.
The result was amazingly good!
This sounds bizarre, but iced tea with a few drops of red wine—maybe a tablespoon or two—is really delicious! And very refreshing. It gives the tea a nice little zing, but the combination contains so little wine, it can hardly be called an alcoholic drink.
And so…in vinum veritas! To say nothing of dona nobis pacem.
Image: Red wine in a glass. André Karwath aka Aka. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
LOL, you know what they say, the cheap stuff tastes better and better with each drink (and us guys say that the women get better and better looking too, at least that’s how it was back in my bar-going days)!
LOL! Objective truth!
The Romans also thought that drinking undiluted wine caused insanity. Also, just like Northern Europe in the Middle Ages, the Romans relied on the alcohol in wine (or beer, in Europe) to partially sterilize contaminated water, which could make you sick when drawn straight from the well. Diluting wine with water made sure that you were properly hydrated in as safe a manner as possible, given the technology of the time.
The Romans also had a cuisine totally different from the modern Italian versions – about all they share is a fondness for olives. The Romans relished a fermented fish sauce whose closest analog is the modern-day is the fish sauce you get with spring rolls in Vietnamese or Thai restaurants, although the original would probably have knocked you flat with its stink. Their whole cuisine was based on its flavoring abilities. Connoisseurs graded the sauce as carefully as wine snobs scrutinize Merlot today. When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it destroyed the coastal network of small factories where the fish guts were fermented and the sauce was made. This disrupted the supply of sauce, allowing cheaper substitutes from Spain and Corsica to enter the market. This further eroded domestic economic self-sufficiency and contributed to the fall of the empire a few hundred years later.
Ain’t history fassinatin’?
@ Vinny: They were right: drinking undiluted wine does make one mad.
I read that among other condiments, they liked to doctor the wine with the fish sauce. Probably killed off any remaining microbes…
Yes, history is fascinating. Especially given its tendency to repeat itself. Hm…eroded domestic self sufficiency…fall of empire? Interesting…
I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I read somewhere the Romans added mercury to their wines. Now that would be crazy.
Oops lead, not mercury. Damn, I hate getting old.
@ Stephen: There’s an interesting post here on the subject: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.html
Guess you could call this “sweeeeeet!” tea.
Thanks for the link, very interesting article. Now that you found out how delicious tea and red wine is, try this, that is if you like vodka. Pour a generous amount of vodka in a glass then add a couple tablespoons of leftover coffee. It’s surprisingly good.
I am going to try it tomorrow! I will report back lol