Bottoms Up!

"With modern technology, some of the art of distilling has been lost. So to go back and see where it all came from was eye-opening."
"I thought, '[Plague water, how could that possibly taste good?' But in fact it tastes like the base for chartreuse."
"Some combinations of botanicals create surprising results -- they just make each other pop, in a way we didn't expect."
Jon Kreidler, founder, Tattersall Distilling, Minneapolis

"Herbs were the only medicine you had [in the Medieval era]. But plants are ephemeral and seasonal, so you'd put them in alcohol to have something shelf-stable."
"[As distilling became an industrial enterprise], a lot of amazing spirits went by the wayside."
Amy Stewart, author The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks

"As I was touring the space, people would ask me what type of alcohol they would have consumed at these parties."
"We thought it would be fun to not just talk about alcohol in the period rooms, but to offer a taste as well."
"We realized we needed to contact real professionals [to achieve that practical end]."
Nicole LaBouff, curator, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Gallery: Rare books and manuscripts from the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine at the U of M feature historic food and drink recipes.   Carlos Gonzalez – Star Tribune

So that's how it began; public curiosity twigging a curator's interest in collaborating with a local brewery to produce beverages that would reflect those available during a much, much earlier era as medicinals that later morphed into sociable party spirits. The collaboration between the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Tattersall Distilling has brought an entirely new focus on potable alcoholic beverages.

It's a serendipitous twinning that has produced award-winning gins, bitters and liqueurs. Next up: plague water.

What's plague water? A tonic to ward off diseases, produced by apothecaries of the Medieval era; a combination of angelica root, gentian and other herbs. That alcoholic concoction has now been revived by Tattersall, in the spirit of re-discovery, enterprise and art. The craft distilling industry is expanding enormously, and as it does, it intersects with an alert and fascinated group of historians focused on the role of alcohol in everyday life of the times.

Carlos Gonzalez – Star Tribune   Plague Party is a cocktail made with the historic spirits Plague Water and Aqua Mirabilis, pineapple juice, lime juice and honey sage syrup at Tattersall Distilling.

Scholars are alert to the distiller's efforts enabling them to acquire a better understanding of how and what people ate and drank in the distant past. For their part, distillers are re-discovering their own history. Tattersall has made good use of the large inventory of the Wagensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine, at the University of Minnesota where, among its 72,000 volumes -- some of which date back to 1430 -- are hundreds lingering on the curative properties of roots, weeds, seeds, metals and ... animal parts.

Rare books and manuscripts from the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine at the U of M feature handwritten food and drink recipes. Top Ð The Modern Art of Cookery Improved or Elegant, Cheap and Easy Methods of preparing moft of the Dishes in Vogue, Ann Shackleford, 1767. Middle Ð Book of Receipts, Ann Ward, c. 1724. Manuscript. Bottom Ð Art of Distillation.     Carlos Gonzalez – Star Tribune

The curative properties of these varied products of nature reflected the function of Medieval medicine in mixing and matching the ingredients into a concoction for optimum efficacy. When the ingredients were mixed with alcohol as a preservative, the resulting spirits led to combining sugar into the mix to create cocktails, leading to the industrial production of alcoholic beverages by distillers. In perusing the ancient recipes, a few dozen were chosen for re-creation.

Milk punch for example, currently a popular drink among bartenders, is made through adding citric acid to milk to have it curdle, them skimming off the solids so all that is left appears a yellowish, slightly sweet liquid mixed with alcohol. Plague water's renaissance saw some creative substitutions since some ingredients were simply unavailable or not to be used because they were discovered to be toxic. Plague water has a pleasant, earthy, herb-infused flavour.

Three cocktails made with historic spirits at Tattersall Distilling are Plague Party, Saffron Bitters Tonic and Clear Skies Ahead.   Carlos Gonzalez – Star Tribune