Pirate Drinks

Beer, Rum, Bumbo and many more...

The pirates have always been famous for their drinking abilities. Since the beginning of the piracy to the modern piracy, there has not been a pirate who was not a boozer. At least, no one has ever known about a case of a sober piracy.

If a man wanted to become a pirate, often he had to prove his stomach capacity for drinks. The test drink was usually the beer. An intended pirate had to drink a mug full of beer bottoms up.

However, the beer is not the drink we link with the pirates. When we think of their drinks, the first association is rum. Rum is a strong drink they swallowed easily in ample amounts. The better way to express the pirates' inclination to rum is to say that they were drowning in it whenever they had an opportunity. They also liked to drink gin. The wine was also very accepted by the pirates.

They used to drink different mixtures of those drink, too. Bumbo is a mixture of dark rum, lemon juice, grenadine syrup and grated nutmeg or cinnamon. Flip is made of ale, brandy, lemon juice, egg yolk, granulated sugar and ground ginger. Rumfustian consists of sugar, sherry, ale, egg yolk, lemon peel, gin, cinnamon stick, nutmeg and several cloves. Sangaree is now known as sangria, and it's a very popular modern drink. The ingredients are: priced red wine, oranges, peaches or any other fresh fruit, sugar and pieces of lemon peel. The most famous cocktail that was consumed by the pirates certainly was grog. Grog is a hot drink made of 1/2 cup of spiced rum, 2 cans of beer, 1 package of oatmeal (instant quaker oatmeal, cinnamon and spice preferred) and a dash of paprika. The recipe says oatmeal should be cooked using the beer instead the boiling water. Other ingredients should be added into the mixture during the cooking.

The pirates used to drink while sailing, but sometimes it caused problems for the simple reason that a pirate had to sail with both eyes wide open. They were everyone’s enemies, so it wasn't very smart to relax with drinks. Anyway, it's not quite safe to navigate the ship with alcohol in one's blood, is it? But, they didn't drink on the ships only because they liked to. Sometimes they had trouble to find water. They could get big amounts of water in bases and bring it, but the water would be spoiled soon, and the thirsty pirates didn't have much choice than to turn to alcoholic supplies.

However, when pirates put their ship to shore, they didn't get sober at all. They were very loud and aggressive in celebrating their victories. The whole town was awake when the pirates had their party. They drunk and forced all the people they run into to do the same. If someone had refused to drink with a pirate, it would have been a terrible insult. The person could get killed by choosing to stay sober near the pirates who were having a party. But who dared to spoil their mood anyway?