Featured Wiki Page for the Holidays
TRADITIONAL RHYME
"The days are short, the weather's cold,
By tavern fires tales are told.
Some ask for a dram when first come in,
Others with shouts of hot cider or stout begin."
WINE & SACK
The consumption levels of wine throughout the Middle Kingdom is astonishing, and the quality is exceeding good. Spiced wines, mulled wines, and sack are sold in plenty at taverns, inns and cafes.
Sack is a strong, dry, sweet, light-colored wine of the sherry family. Sack is cheap – a gallon jug or half gallon skin typically selling for ten copper coins in the Middle Kingdom. It is enjoyed across most societal class boundaries, even finding a place in the households of nobility where it is stocked “for the servants.”
Sack exported from the Middle Kingdom is also quite popular in the towns and villages of the High Hills. In the winter months, sack is a prime ingredient of the popular treat, Sack-Posset.
SACK-POSSET
"From the southern shores of the Inner Sea
Fetch sugar, half a pound; fetch sack, young as may be,
Two pint; and from the distant Isles of reputed fame,
Nutmeg, a glory of their Sea-Lord maimed.
O'er flaming coals together let them heat
Till the all-conquering sack dissolves the sweet.
O'er such another fire set eggs, twice ten,
New born from crowing cock and speckled hen;
Stir them with steady hand, and conscience ignore,
To pay it heed makes one a bore.
From shining shelf take down your brazen skillet,
A quart of milk from gentle cow will fill it.
When boiled and cooked, put milk and sack to egg,
Unite them firmly like the triple League.
Then covered close, together let them dwell
Till Miss twice sings: You must not kiss and tell.
Each lad and lass snatch up their winter's cup,
And fall on fiercely as a logger to sup."
(with apologies to Sir Fleetwood Fletcher)
NUTMEG
Nutmeg from The Isles is a favored wine flavoring among the nobility and well-to-do. Nutmegs, gilded and beribboned, are an esteemed gift. Many among the nobility and those who pursue social status carry nutmegs in their pockets. Wrought silver nutmeg holders, just large enough to hold a single nutmeg, are not uncommon. The inside of the cover is pierced or corrugated to form a grater.
BEER
Some taverns throughout the Empire are famous for their unusually flavored beers - fermented with a frightening variety of roots and herbs, tree bark, pumpkin and apple parings, molasses or maple syrup, beet tops, tomatoes and other ingredients.
Ales are beers brewed primarily from malted barley. They vary in alcohol content and coloring.
Small beers and ales are simply beers with a very low alcohol content.
MEAD & CIDER
Meads and ciders are liquors made from honey, apples or pears, and barley.
Ciders are popular throughout the Empire, particularly in warm weather, although mulled cider is a popular cold weather drink in the High Hills and The Isles.
Mead is found primarily in the North Realm and Sea of Grass, but is known across the Empire. Mead is fermented honey, herbs and water. The alcohol content varies.
- Login to post comments
