Forgotten Drink
Color plate of a long dinner table under a white damask cloth, with folded napkins and wine glasses at each place, silver candelabra with pink shades and red and orange chrysanthemums, in a green-paneled dining room.
A dinner table laid à la russe, with silver candelabra and chrysanthemums. Color plate from Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management (London: Ward, Lock & Co., 1906).

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What Did Edwardians Drink?

Drinks From 1901 to the First World War

What people drank from 1901 to the First World War, from period books: claret cup and lemon squash, the Titanic’s Punch Romaine, the first dry Martini.

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On this page
  1. 1901Edward VII becomes king
  2. 1902The King’s Dinner: 72,000 gallons of lemonade
  3. 1904The oldest dry Martini we found
  4. 1906Beeton’s claret cup on the lawn
  5. 1912The Titanic sails
  6. 1915No rounds allowed in British pubs
  7. 1918The First World War ends
The years on this page
  1. 1901 Edward VII becomes king
  2. 1902 The King’s Dinner: 72,000 gallons of lemonade
  3. 1904 The oldest dry Martini we found
  4. 1906 Beeton’s claret cup on the lawn
  5. 1912 The Titanic sails
  6. 1915 No rounds allowed in British pubs
  7. 1918 The First World War ends

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What did Edwardians drink?

Tea, beer and wine, as the Victorians had, but less of the wine and more of the soda water. Edward VII reigned from 1901 to 1910, and the Edwardian years are usually stretched to the outbreak of war in 1914. In a country house, by the 1906 edition of Mrs. Beeton, dinner began with sherry, or whisky and mineral water, with the soup, ran on champagne to the dessert and ended with port and old claret. Downstairs the servants had tea at four and beer with their meals, or beer money in its place.

Summer drinks were long and cold. A tennis or croquet tea on the lawn served iced tea, coffee and claret cup, which was claret made long with soda water and borage, and the soft drinks of the day were lemon squash, lemonade and bottled soda. Edward Spencer, whose The Flowing Bowl came out in 1903, thought the old days of the “three-and-four-bottle heroes” had passed into a “whisky age” and a “‘small bottle’ age”, the small bottle probably soda water for the whisky.

Beyond the country house, the years before 1918 were busy ones for drinks. American bartenders printed the dry Martini by 1904, the Bronx by 1908, the Daiquiri in 1913 and the Aviation in 1916, while the soda fountain sold mint lemonade and a lime rickey without the gin. In Singapore two members ordered a gin sling at the Cricket Club in 1913, and a Singapore cookbook of 1915 made a pineapple cup with rock sugar. On the Titanic in April 1912 every class had tea and coffee, and first class’s last dinner menu, as usually transcribed, included Punch Romaine. In the First World War, from June 1915, local orders across much of Britain made it an offense to buy someone else a drink in a pub, though a cup of tea or a lemonade could still be bought for a friend.

This page covers 1901 to the end of the First World War: Britain first, with America’s bars and the British Empire’s ports alongside. Every recipe comes from a book of those years and names it, and the alcohol-free drinks are marked.

Each recipe names the period book it comes from and says what we changed. How we research

Iced tea, coffee, claret-cup, etc., are served, with sandwiches, pastry, cakes and other light viands.

Tennis or croquet teas, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1906 edition)

What did Edwardians drink at dinner?

Fewer wines than before. The 1906 Beeton says a different wine with each course was the old way; now sherry or whisky and mineral water went with the soup, champagne ran until the dessert, and port and old claret came with it. Many tables kept to one or two wines, “or champagne alone.”

The storyWhat Did People Drink in an Edwardian Country House?

What soft drinks did Edwardians have?

Lemon squash, lemonade and bottled soda water, with barley water mostly kept for invalids. At the King’s Dinner of July 1902, half a million of London’s poor were given nearly 28,000 gallons of ale and 72,000 gallons of lemonade and other soft drinks, and the soft drinks won by a wide margin.

The story28,000 Gallons of Ale, 72,000 of Lemonade: The King’s Dinner of 1902

What did people drink on the Titanic?

Tea and coffee in every class. First class also had wine at dinner, coffee and cordials after it, and on its last dinner menu, as usually transcribed, Punch Romaine, in Escoffier’s recipe a half-frozen ice of wine, citrus and meringue with rum stirred in. No wine list or cocktail list from the ship is known.

The storyWhat Did People Drink on the Titanic?

Which cocktails were new in the 1900s and 1910s?

Many of the ones still made today. A 1904 bar book printed the oldest dry Martini we have found, half Tom gin and half Italian vermouth, when dry meant no syrup. The Bronx followed in 1908, the Daiquiri in 1913 and the Aviation, with its crème de violette, in 1916.

The storyThe Bartenders Who Wrote Down the Classic Cocktails

What did people drink in Singapore before the First World War?

Coffee for most people, soda water from the town’s own factories, lemon squash and barley water, and at the clubs and hotel bars the gin sling, on an ordinary bar card by 1907, long before anyone said Raffles Hotel invented it.

The storyWhat Did People Drink in Old Singapore?

What did people drink in the First World War?

Less in company, in Britain. From June 1915 the Central Control Board, set up to keep war workers sober, banned “treating,” standing a round, area by area, and the buyer, the seller and the drinker could all be fined. The orders covered only alcohol, and the last of them went in June 1919.

The storyNo Rounds Allowed: The Wartime Treating Orders of 1915

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18 recipes in What Did Edwardians Drink?

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For what was on the plate, our sister site The Forgotten Menu has Edwardian recipes (opens in a new tab).