The Victorian era is linked with strong images created by the literature both of the time and based on the time and some of the most famous ones – Jekyll and Hyde, Alice in Wonderland and Dorian Gray are full of images of potions and alcohol. It has also been suggested that the authors were no doubt under the influence whilst writing the novels – talking cats that evaporate and putting your soul into a painting? It is not something a completely sane mind would come up with.
...Or perhaps just from the mind of someone who is consuming something as potent as Laudanum. Laudanum is an alcoholic herbal drink containing 10% powdered opium. It contains almost all the opium components such as morphine and codeine. It was cheaper than a bottle of wine and was not taxed as it was not categorised as an alcoholic beverage. The addictiveness of it was not flagged up for a couple of years though.
It was often mixed with other drinks such as absinthe - you might recall seeing this in the Johnny Depp film From Hell. You might just recall Johnny Depp in the bath.Absinthe like laudanum is herbal and made mainly of wormwood. It is primarily green in colour – although modern versions appear to be predominantly black and probably is not proper absinthe.
It is tradtionally mixed with sugar through the use of a special absinthe spoon – iced water is poured over the sugar cube and melts it into the drink. The end result should be 1 part absinthe and ¾ water. The sugar can also be disolved through setting it alight through coating it in alcohol.
I have drank absinthe both modern and traditional varieties and it is certainly an acquired taste and it does not take very much of it to get you drunk and by drunk I mean passed out on the floor (or in the bath followed by the suitcase) drunk.
Of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London, over half were gin shops. The term gin shops is still used today but in reference to pubs with bad reputations
When you compare some Victorian drinks to modern drinks they would be considered some kind of potion. However although witchcraft and the punishment of drowning had died down by the Victorian era you could still be charged with witchcraft - so no actual potions in the ways of drink mixing were used. But something that does relate closely to modern society is the governments work towards changing alcohol laws. There are talks going on at the moment about the pricing of alcohol and the contemplation of banning Buckfast Wine.
It would appear that Buckfast could be the modern day equivalent of the drinks I have mentioned. It is after all a ‘tonic wine’ and laudanum was used for medicinal purposes and like absinthe and gin it has been blamed for anti-social behaviour. So it looks like with this drink you would be more likely to get thrown in a prison cell and that sounds a little bit better than having your pockets filled with stones and thrown in a lake.
No comments:
Post a Comment