🍹Vinegar: The original energy drink

In the modern kitchen, vinegar is most often used to add acidity to food—whisked with oil, mustard, and herbs in a [vinaigrette]( mixed with soy and sesame oil for a dumpling [dipping sauce]( or used to [pickle red onions]( to top tacos. But vinegar has a long history as a beverage. The Roman army stayed hydrated with posca, and switchels and shrubs served as sweet and sour treats before the advent of the soda fountain. Vinegar not only added interest—and the perception of great thirst quenching—it helped make drinking water safer. Lately, switchels and drinking vinegars have been elbowing all but the most creatively flavored soft drinks out of the ever-more-crowded beverage aisle, and shrubs have become a staple on speciality cocktail menus. Let’s raise a glass. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Sponsored by [Quartz Obsession] Drinking vinegars December 06, 2018 More than salad dressing --------------------------------------------------------------- In the modern kitchen, vinegar is most often used to add acidity to food—whisked with oil, mustard, and herbs in a [vinaigrette]( mixed with soy and sesame oil for a dumpling [dipping sauce]( or used to [pickle red onions]( to top tacos. But vinegar has a long history as a beverage. The Roman army stayed hydrated with posca, and switchels and shrubs served as sweet and sour treats before the advent of the soda fountain. Vinegar not only added interest—and the perception of great thirst quenching—it helped make drinking water safer. Lately, switchels and drinking vinegars have been elbowing all but the most creatively flavored soft drinks out of the ever-more-crowded beverage aisle, and shrubs have become a staple on speciality cocktail menus. Let’s raise a glass. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Ready to go deeper? --------------------------------------------------------------- We’re tired of all the shouting matches and echo chambers on social media, and thought you might be, too. On the new Quartz app, we’ve gathered a community of curious thinkers and doers to have high-quality discussions about the most important stories each day. It’s like an ongoing conversation with CEOs like Richard Branson, Punit Renjen, Arianna Huffington, and many more. Currently available on iOS—or [join us as a beta tester for Android]( [Get the Quartz app!]( Reuters/Eddie Keogh Explain it like I'm 5! What is vinegar exactly? --------------------------------------------------------------- Vinegar is the result of alcohol that is exposed to air, and colonized by bacteria that oxidize the alcohol into acetic acid. Strains of Acetobacter aceti tend to make the most delicious vinegars. While red and white wine vinegar are common staples, anything with alcohol in it can be transformed, including apple cider, rice wine, sugar cane, and malt. Sponsored by Doctors Without Borders In a disaster zone, speed is of the essence --------------------------------------------------------------- Doctors Without Borders creates innovative facilities, like inflatable hospitals and mobile surgical trailers, which provide humanitarian relief around the world.[Consider donating to Doctors Without Borders]( Origin story Before there was Gatorade --------------------------------------------------------------- Ancient Roman soldiers drank posca, a drink made from vinegar, honey, and sometimes salt and herbs. Not only was it a cheap source of calories, “There probably was something to the Romans’ belief in posca’s health benefits,” [writes Gwynn Guilford](. “The drink’s acidity and slight alcohol content would likely have neutralized bacteria, making it safer than drinking straight water.” The thirst-slaking qualities of acid, the electrolytes in salt, and calories from the honey are essentially the same formula as today’s sports drinks. This basic formula was a common drink for common folk well into the Middle Ages. AP Photo/Felipe Dana Pop quiz Which of the following is not the subject of a real academic investigation about vinegar? The synthesis of psychotropic compounds from apple cider vinegarCleopatra’s power move—dissolving a pearl in vinegar and then drinking it The effect of vinegar on salmonella in saladsThe efficacy of catching flies with vinegar Correct. At least no published studies we could find, though undergrad chemistry students might beg to differ. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Drink up Deliciously tart --------------------------------------------------------------- The ancient Romans didn’t have the last word on vinegar concoctions. [Shrubs are made by cooking vinegar]( fruit, and sugar together or by letting those ingredients macerate for several days and then straining out the solids. The resulting syrup stays good for much longer than delicate fruit would—especially the raspberries it was often made with in 19th century America—and can be mixed with water or alcohol. Similarly, [switchel combines water]( vinegar, honey, molasses, or maple syrup, and often ginger. In [Persian cuisine, sekanjabin]( is a syrup made from cooking sugar, water, and vinegar together, often with herbs like mint steeped in the mixture. AP Photo/Amy Sancetta Because science! Secrets of saliva --------------------------------------------------------------- “The term mouth watering has long been a synonym for delicious,” writes chef Samin Nosrat in her bestselling cookbook [Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.]( “Food that are the most enjoyable to eat cause our mouths to water—that is, to produce saliva. Of the five basic tastes, acid makes our mouths water the most.” By dressing shredded cabbage with apple cider vinegar, sugar, and spices, you go from a crunchy pile of vegetables to a delicious sweet-and-sour, vitamin-dense salad. And when you add acid to your beverage, not only is it more delicious, it seems more thirst quenching, too. “Research shows that sour-tasting beverages—such as vinegar and [lemonade]( better at stimulating salivation than are other drinks,” writes Michael Dietsch in [Shrubs, An Old-Fashioned Drink for Modern Times.]( He also notes that vinegary drinks don’t just quench thirst—they also stoke the appetite. Saliva production signals to the stomach that food is on the way, which is why “shrubs are a perfect cocktail to prepare you for a night of fine dining.” Quotable “Ma had sent them ginger-water. She has 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.” —Laura Ingalls Wilder, [The Long Winter]( Giphy DIY Shrub your way to success --------------------------------------------------------------- It’s incredibly easy to make a delicious cocktail using a shrub. Great cocktails need balance between acidity, sweetness, and the boozy bite of liquor, and shrubs provide the sweet and the tart in one package. For a clean, bright drink, mix two parts shrub to one part gin or vodka and serve over ice. Top with a float of sparkling wine for texture, or don’t. Whiskey and bourbon works here, too, but be a little more careful with your flavors—an apple shrub with warm spices will work beautifully, whereas a delicate blueberry or raspberry shrub may not. Or, for a twist on a mimosa or a kir royale, add a splash of shrub to a flute of sparkling wine. Et voilà , you’re a mixologist. Prescription for health Ancient elixir, modern problems --------------------------------------------------------------- The combination of vinegar, honey, and herbs is called an oxymel and has been used for [centuries as a health tonic](. In some cases the herbs were used to treat conditions like colds, respiratory infections, or wounds. A blend of sage, rosemary and other herbs was thought to ward off the plague, and became known as [Four Thieves Vinegar](. Nostradamus supposedly swore by it. Fire cider—a blend of apple cider vinegar, hot peppers, horseradish, citrus, and garlic—is one modern revitalization of this tradition. The term was coined by the herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, and the [Shire City,]( a Massachusetts-based company trademarked the name using their own formula. [A legal battle]( and [boycott]( ensued. These days, apple cider vinegar has been touted as a miracle that can cure everything from diabetes to esophageal cancer. Some recent evidence has suggested that [apple cider vinegar can help regulate blood sugar]( levels, and that consuming vinegar is associated with maintaining a healthy weight. But some doctors say we’re getting carried away. “As a GI doctor, I’m typically the first person to tell someone they have esophageal cancer,” [writes Edwin McDonald IV, MD](. “I wish I could tell people all they have to do is drink some vinegar. Sadly, things aren’t that easy.” Watch this! It’s likely that when Mount Vesuvius erupted in Italy in 79 AD, some of its victims were drinking posca. (Distilled white vinegar, which you wouldn’t want to sip, combined with baking soda, are the key ingredients for a re-enactment of the natural disaster in papier måche.) Million-dollar question Why are we full of bliss and vinegar right now? --------------------------------------------------------------- Whether it’s vinegar cocktails, pickled peppers, or kombucha, fermentation has a posse. Perhaps its most prominent member is Sandor Ellix Katz, a Brown graduate and “retired policy wonk” with a thick set of sideburns who [discovered his love for fermentation]( at a queer intentional community in rural Tennessee when he turned to sauerkraut because he [needed something to do with a bunch of cabbage](. In 2003 he published [Wild Fermentation]( which began his reputation as a “fermentation revivalist”; in 2012, he won the prestigious James Beard award for [The Art of Fermentation](. Katz’s new passion was well-timed, as it fit in with growing interest in where foods come from—fermentation puts the home chef [in the midst of the process](. It also coincided with a greater appreciation for [good bacteria and its role in the human microbiome](. The fad doesn’t seem to have an expiration date. This year the Danish restaurant Noma, which boasts a fermentation lab, added another [guide to the growing canon.]( Matter of debate WWJD? --------------------------------------------------------------- [In the Bible]( Roman soldiers dip a sponge in vinegar and extend it, on a stick, to Christ while he is on the cross. “After tasting the posca, Christ refused to drink it,” Rod Phillips, a historian at Carleton University in Ottawa, writes in [Wine: A Social and Cultural History of the Drink That Changed Our Lives](. Other interpretations suggest that Christ rejected wine, a beverage associated with the ruling class, in favor of vinegar. “Some accounts claim that while on the cross, Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh, enticing him to partake in an elitist, if not illicit libation,” writes Michael Harlan Turkell in [Acid Trip](. “He chose, rather, to drink vinegar as a sign of solidarity.” Giphy Poll How often do you drink something vinegary? [Click here to vote]( I'm an apple cider addictEnjoy the occasional shrubPass the Diet Coke 💬let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about orchids, 52% of you said you’re “more of a succulent person.” 📧 Susan wrote: “My mom, who grew orchids outside attached to fern trees, learned a trick from her gardener in Puerto Rico. Take your potato peels and purée them in a blender with a bit of water, then pour the mix around the base of your orchids. For some reason they love this and bloom. I think it works best if the spuds still have their dirty skins, as opposed to new potatoes.” 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20drinking%20vinegar&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 📬 [Forward this email to a friend](mailto:replace_with_friends_email@qz.com?cc=obsession%2Bforward@qz.com&subject=%F0%9F%8D%B9Vinegar%3A%20The%20original%20energy%20drink&body=Thought%20you%27d%20enjoy.%20%0ARead%20it%20here%20%E2%80%93%20http%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2Femail%2Fquartz-obsession%2F1484978) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Annaliese Griffin]( edited by [Jessanne Collins]( and produced by [Luiz Romero](. The correct answer to the quiz is The synthesis of psychotropic compounds from apple cider vinegar. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! 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