Concocted drinks are those where flavorings or other ingredients are added post-fermentation. The history of these drinks includes a strong medicinal element, although many were primarily recreational.
Concocted drinks include as broad categories:
- Hippocras/pyment/claret: typically made from wine (rarely beer), sweetened with honey or sugar and flavored with spices. Hippocras was perhaps most strongly viewed as a digestive aid, and featured prominently in feast menus.
- Cordials: flavors and sweeteners added to alcohol after distillation rather than before (which I call waters). These drinks were officially most often medicinal in nature, eventually becoming more recreational, ending in the modern association of the word with an often sweet flavored distilled alcohol.
- Medicinals: made from wine, beer/ale, or mead. These drinks typically add one or more ingredients of a medicinal nature (often roots and herbs) and macerate them in the drinks to produce a product with expected medicinal effects.
The unifying element is that the person who prepares the drink is not required to carry out fermentation.
Last updated March 25, 2021
