The Ancient Tasty Summer Refresher You Never Knew About
It’s hot outside and something cool and refreshing looks good, doesn’t it? How about picking up a trick more than 2,000 years old?
Do What?
I’m pretty sure you’ll go “you-got-to-be-kidding-are-you-serious?” when you hear this mind-bogglingly simple recipe, but, honestly, it really tastes good! After all, the guys who came up with it almost drank nothing but when they marched across the Alps, carrying up to 110 lbs (48 kg) in equipment.
You probably aren’t going to do that any time soon, but if you want a neat summer refresher or actually have to do your exercising in the heat, what they called posca will work great for you too:
Deluxe Version
As I said in the video, this was the super-simple version. When the legionaries had more time (and happened to have the needed ingredients available), they fixed something with a little more refinement. For that version, you need the following:
- 2 1/2 cups (600 ml) water
- 1/2 cup ( 125 ml) wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) honey
- 1 teaspoon crushed coriander seed
Put it all in a pan and heat it until the honey dissolves, then set it down to cool to room temperature and finally fill it in a bottle. To make it extra refreshing, place it then in the fridge for an hour. If you find the drink too sour, half the amount of wine vinegar or use a milder kind, like the apple vinegar I mentioned in the video.
Experiment!
Of course this is just one version. Not only soldiers drank posca, civilians did as well, and everyone probably had a more or less unique recipe according to personal taste. So feel free to experiment a bit yourself: try more, less or different vinegar, honey or herbs and see what you like best. Bene vobis (cheers)!
Picture courtesy of “Newtown graffiti“.
4 Comments
You know the ancient Tarahumara civilization is known for brewing this alcoholic beverage from corn. As the undisputed and unrivaled champions of marathon running, I believe they’ve also been known to use this beverage as fuel for endurance (perhaps not immediately before running though, haha). That’s how I’d justify my little post-recreational cardio vice ;p.
Hahaha, yes, ancient traditions always make for a good explanation, don’t they? 😉
Well, more or less all non-bullshit long distance runners I know swear that beer is the best post workout/recovery drink you can have. The non-alcoholic version works just as well. The reason would be in an ideal combination of water, simple sugars (maltose) and vitamins of the group B. The Tarahumara drink is just a kind of low-alco corn beer.
As for the Roman drink, there’s another good reason besides refreshment why soldiers drank water mixed with vinegar or wine while on the move. Alcohol and acetic acid are both disenfectants that kill pathogenic microorganisms (cholera etc). Actually, Caesar made it mandatory for soldiers to drink that during the Gaul campaign. The ratio should be a bit higher, though.
And yes, as weird as it may sound, the drink from the video tastes really good.
Exactly right! The soldiers usually had to resort to drinking water of rather uncertain quality and the vinegar took care of at least some of whatever lived in it.
I’m glad to hear you liked it btw! 🙂