A glass OF FAME

We explore the history of some of the UK’s most iconic drinks

WORDS: CAROLINE BEDDOW.

SUGAR AND SPICE The thriving spice trade of the 1700s brought the key ingredients for ginger beer: ginger and sugar. The drink was created in Yorkshire before going countrywide. In 1851, over a million bottles were sold in just over five months at the Great Exhibition that was staged in London’s Hyde Park. Original fermentation produced a fiery drink with 11% alcohol, hence the beer name. But brewers chose to shorten the fermentation time to keep the drink under a new 2% tax threshold. Modern ginger beers are classed as non-alcoholic, with less than 0.5% alcohol. Lashings of ginger beer featured in picnics in 1930s children’s books, and grown-ups now add it to rum to create a Dark and Stormy cocktail, and to vodka and lime for a Moscow Mule.…

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Woman's Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 4-Feb-2025

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