Drinks by theme

What Did Victorians Drink?

Recipes With and Without Alcohol

What Victorians drank, from period books: tea, cocoa and coffee-tavern drinks, lemonade and ginger beer, negus, punch, mulled wine and bishop.

Updated October 22, 2026

A ginger-beer barrow on Clapham Common, with an umbrella mender beside it. Photograph by John Thomson for Street Life in London (London, 1877). Wellcome Collection copy.

Make it today

Start here

A plain glass jug of pale, lightly cloudy lemonade and three small plain pressed-glass tumblers, two filled, on a white-clothed table by a window, beside a whole lemon and a white bowl of sugar lumps.

Always alcohol-free

Sodas & Soft Drinks · 1 hr 20 min total

Mrs. Beeton’s Lemonade, Made with Boiling Water

Sugar rubbed over lemons until it drinks up their oil, then juice and a quart of boiling water, strained and left to cool: lemonade from Mrs. Beeton’s 1861 book.

A white china jug of ruby-red negus with four lemon slices stands with its lid, a whole nutmeg and four stemmed glasses on a pewter tray over white damask.

Hot Drinks · 30 min total

Port Wine Negus, Hot Port with Lemon and Nutmeg

A bottle of hot ruby port poured into a covered jug of lemon sugar, sliced lemons, a little spice and a quart of boiling water, then grated over with nutmeg: negus as Oxford made it in 1847.

A thick white half-pint mug of opaque milky brown coffee on a zinc counter beside a white enamel jug of hot milk and a small bowl of Demerara sugar.

Always alcohol-free

Hot Drinks · 25 min total

Coffee-Tavern Coffee at a Penny a Cup

Fresh-ground coffee steeped fifteen minutes in boiling water, strained, then sweetened with Demerara and hot milk: the urn coffee an 1878 manual costed at a penny a cup.

What did Victorians drink?

Tea above all, with beer, cocoa, coffee and, for those who could pay, wine, punch and port. Alongside them ran a large trade in drinks without alcohol: lemonade, ginger beer, barley water and the cocoa of the coffee taverns.

Isabella Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861) is the household’s own record. It made lemonade by pouring boiling water over sugar rubbed on lemon peel, mixed hot punch of rum and brandy for a party, and kept small tin warmers for heating wine and nothing else. Its quart of lemonade cost sixpence, about £2.60 today by UK consumer prices (Bank of England).

The temperance movement built a trade of its own. Reformers opened coffee taverns and cocoa rooms across Britain from the 1870s, selling hot drinks at a halfpenny or a penny a cup from five in the morning, and in one week of 1877 the seventeen houses of a Liverpool company sold “4,756 gallons of cocoa, 4,100 gallons of coffee, 540 gallons of tea.” In the street, ginger beer went by the barrow, and before dawn the saloop stalls of the early century had sold a hot sweet basin to chimney sweeps.

At parties and at Christmas, the drinks were warm. Negus, port and hot water with lemon and nutmeg, went round at balls and children’s parties; Dickens filled the Ghost of Christmas Present’s room with “seething bowls of punch”; Oxford printed its smoking bishop of port and roasted lemon in 1847.

The recipes below name their sources on each page. Most come from Victorian books, and saloop from the years just before; most drinks with alcohol have an alcohol-free partner nearby.

4,756 gallons of cocoa, 4,100 gallons of coffee, 540 gallons of tea, and 47,238 pieces of bread.

One week’s sales of Liverpool’s British Workman coffee taverns, 1877, in The Leisure Hour

What did poor Victorians drink?

Tea, beer and water at home, and from the 1870s penny cups of cocoa, coffee and tea at the coffee taverns. In the street there was saloop before dawn and hot elder wine by the halfpenny glass.

Two thick white mugs of dark reddish-brown sweet tea on a worn wooden table, beside a brown earthenware teapot and a small jug of milk, against green glazed wall tiles.

Always alcohol-free

Hot Drinks · 15 min total

Coffee-Tavern Tea, Steeped Ten Minutes

China black tea and Assam steeped exactly ten minutes, poured off the leaves, sweetened in the pot and given a spoonful of milk: tea from an 1878 coffee-tavern manual.

A wide, plain cream-glazed earthenware basin of hot, opaque ivory saloop with a smooth surface, on a gray-painted kitchen table beside a small milk pan and a wooden spoon.

Always alcohol-free

Hot Drinks · 10 min total

Saloop with Milk

Hot milk poured onto a smooth paste of arrowroot and sugar and stirred until lightly thick: the milk saloop of an 1821 vegetarian cookbook that also renounced drink.

A brown-glazed earthenware basin with a cream inside, holding hot, nearly clear, glossy saloop with a thin strip of lemon peel, on a slate slab by a stone window beside a lemon with a strip pared from it.

Alcohol-free version

Hot Drinks · 8 min total

Clear Saloop with Lemon Peel

Boiling water stirred onto arrowroot with a strip of lemon peel until clear and lightly thick, then sweetened: the 1812 cookery-book saloop, made without its wine.

What non-alcoholic drinks did Victorians have?

Lemonade, ginger beer, barley water, sparkling apple drinks and orgeat. Mrs. Beeton’s lemonade and the street ginger-beer barrow were everyday summer drinks.

A straight-sided tumbler of clear pale gold ginger beer with fine bubbles and a thin white foam, beside a knob of fresh ginger and half a lemon on a chipped green-painted counter.

Alcohol-free version

Sodas & Soft Drinks · 1 hr 5 min total

Alcohol-Free Ginger Beer, the Fountain Way

Fresh ginger syrup, lemon juice and cold soda water, never fermented: an alcohol-free ginger beer after the street fountains of 1850s London.

A glass jug and two smooth-sided tumblers of softly cloudy gold apple water stand beside three wrinkled, split baked apples in a brown oval dish on a pine table before a green dresser.

Always alcohol-free

Sodas & Soft Drinks · 2 hr 5 min total

Baked-Apple Water with Ginger and Lemon Peel

Boiling water poured over baked apples, a pear, grated ginger and lemon peel, then pressed through a sieve: an alcohol-free Victorian drink from 1869.

Two plain tall flutes of clear, golden sparkling apple juice beside an uncapped clear bottle and a whole green apple on a white windowsill, backlit by a soft green garden.

Alcohol-free version

Sodas & Soft Drinks · 3 min total

Sparkling Apple Juice, an Alcohol-Free Champagne Cider

Clear apple juice and soda water, cold and poured at the last minute: a modern, alcohol-free stand-in for the bottled champagne cider of the 1860s.

A heavy cut-glass tumbler of smooth white almond milk stands beside a gray stone mortar with almond paste, a wooden pestle and a corked bottle of colorless orange-flower water on veined marble.

Always alcohol-free

45 min total

Orgeat, Almond Milk with Orange-Flower Water

Almonds pounded with orange-flower water, let down with milk and water, strained and sweetened: the alcohol-free orgeat of Rundell’s 1807 sickroom chapter.

Two tall glasses of pale amber sparkling spruce soda over ice on a gray soapstone counter against white tiles, beside an unlabeled brown dropper bottle and a white jug with one dark molasses drip down its side.

Alcohol-free version

Sodas & Soft Drinks · 5 min total

Spruce Soda with Molasses

Simple syrup, a spoonful of molasses and a drop of food-grade spruce essence over ice, topped with soda water: the flavors of old spruce beer with no yeast and no alcohol.

What alcohol did Victorians drink?

Beer for most, and wine, port, punch and cider cups for the middle class. Much of it was served hot: negus, mulled claret, punch and bishop.

Two diamond-patterned glass punch cups of dark ruby mulled wine stand with a lidded pewter jug and a plate of four toast strips on white linen beside a snowy window.

Hot Drinks · 25 min total

Victorian Mulled Wine, Claret with a Glass of Port

Cloves, cinnamon, lemon peel and sugar boiled in water, then a pint of claret and a glass of port, heated, never boiled: mulled wine from an 1869 London book.

A broad white china bowl with a blue floral border, two-thirds full of clear amber-brown punch flecked with nutmeg, with a silver ladle, beside three handled pressed-glass cups, two of them filled, and half a squeezed lemon on a saucer, on a polished wooden side table against cream paneling.

Punches & Cups · 10 min total

Mrs. Beeton’s Hot Punch, Rum and Brandy with Lemon

Equal parts rum and brandy, sugar rubbed on a lemon, nutmeg and a pint of boiling water, mixed in a punchbowl: the hot punch of Mrs. Beeton’s 1861 book.

A clear glass bowl of ruby-brown spiced port with a roasted clove-studded lemon, a cinnamon stick and allspice berries, a silver spoon resting in it and a small stemmed glass of port beside it on cream linen against a terracotta wall.

Hot Drinks · 1 hr 5 min total

Bishop, Hot Spiced Port with a Roasted Lemon

Hot port with a roasted clove-studded lemon, boiled-down spices, fresh lemon and nutmeg: the Oxford bishop of 1847 and the smoking bishop of A Christmas Carol.

A glass jug of pale golden sparkling cider with crushed white ice and a single cucumber slice stands beside two small stemmed glasses with ice, on white linen in a sunny garden.

Punches & Cups · 40 min total

Cider Cup à la Ensor

Sparkling cider with curaçao, brandy, rock sugar, lemon and a slice of cucumber, poured over shaved ice and served at once: a summer cider cup from 1869, at half quantity.

A tall plain glass of clear straw-gold sparkling cider with a white foam collar beside a small syrup jug and an open brown bottle on an oak cask head against brick.

Wine, Beer & Mead · 3 min total

Sparkling Champagne Cider, Terrington’s Sweetened Hard Cider

Sparkling hard cider sweetened with a little syrup, poured into a tall glass and drunk at once: a safe modern take on Terrington’s 1869 barrel of cider gassed with tartaric acid and bicarbonate.

What did Victorian children drink?

Lemonade, and at parties negus, well watered. Our alcohol-free negus and bishop are made for the children’s table, beside the tea and coffee of the grown-ups.

A cream earthenware jug of deep purple-red negus with three lemon slices stands with its lid and two handled glass cups, one filled and dusted with nutmeg, on pale oak.

Alcohol-free version

Hot Drinks · 30 min total

Alcohol-Free Negus, Hot Grape and Blackcurrant with Lemon

Hot red grape and blackcurrant juice poured into a covered jug of lemon sugar, sliced lemons and a little spice, then grated over with nutmeg: negus by the 1847 Oxford method, without the port.

A white bowl of dark purple spiced grape juice with a browned, clove-studded lemon partly sunk in it, the tip of a cinnamon stick and a long steel spoon, beside a small handled glass cup on old oak before a slate-blue wall.

Alcohol-free version

Hot Drinks · 1 hr 5 min total

Alcohol-Free Bishop, Spiced Grape Juice with a Roasted Lemon

Hot red grape juice with a roasted clove-studded lemon, boiled-down spices, fresh lemon and nutmeg: the 1847 Oxford bishop made without the port.

Seen almost from above on a dark oak tray over slate: an open white teapot of unrolled olive-green tea leaves, a white cup of pale yellow-green tea and a small dish of dry, tightly rolled gunpowder pellets.

Always alcohol-free

Hot Drinks · 10 min total

Gunpowder Green Tea, Mrs. Beeton’s Way

A teaspoon of rolled gunpowder tea for each person and one for the pot, boiling water, five minutes under the lid, then filled up: green tea as Mrs. Beeton made it in 1861.

A wide white cup and saucer of smooth pale tan café au lait on a blue-and-white checked cloth against a pale blue wall, beside a corked bottle of dark coffee essence and a small white milk jug.

Always alcohol-free

Hot Drinks · 25 min total

Mrs. Beeton’s Café au Lait with Essence of Coffee

Fresh-ground coffee and a small spoonful of chicory, dripped, warmed and dripped again into a strong essence, then stirred into hot milk: Mrs. Beeton’s café au lait of 1861.

The full list