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Speaker 1: the episode.
Speaker 2: They called themselves the United Society of True Believers in
Speaker 2: Christ's second appearing, a group commonly known to the rest
Speaker 2: of us as Shakers, founded in Manchester, England, in seventeen
Speaker 2: forty seven. They were and are a religious group resulting
Speaker 2: from the Protestant Reformation that led to new Christian denominations
Speaker 2: outside of the Catholic Church during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Today,
Speaker 2: they're probably best known for their handmade furniture, but we're
Speaker 2: not here to talk about those clean lines, tapered legs,
Speaker 2: and minimalist designs. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tromarchy and
Speaker 2: I'm Holly Fry.
Speaker 1: The Shaker community has a faith that's a combination of
Speaker 1: belief systems that were part of the Society of Friends
Speaker 1: also known as Quakers and the French Commissards, with influence
Speaker 1: from other Protestant denominations. In seventeen seventy four, the Shakers
Speaker 1: emigrated from England to what was then Colonial America. Their
Speaker 1: arrival happened shortly before the American Revolutionary War began. Many
Speaker 1: initially settled in rural areas outside of Albany, New York.
Speaker 1: Of note was their settlement in New Lebanon, known to
Speaker 1: them as Mount Lebanon. Mount Lebanon was their largest community
Speaker 1: and became the base or motherhouse of the sect. At
Speaker 1: its peak, that community had six hundred members and hundreds
Speaker 1: of buildings that spread out over six thousand acres. As
Speaker 1: people moved west on the American frontier, over the years,
Speaker 1: more Shaker communities sprang up around the country. At their peak,
Speaker 1: considered to have been roughly between eighteen forty and eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety ish, there were twenty three, possibly twenty four villages
Speaker 1: in the United States. Today, there is only one active
Speaker 1: Shaker village remaining, near Sabbath Day Lake in central Maine,
Speaker 1: and as of twenty eighteen, there were just two members.
Speaker 2: Shaker communities were founded in very rural areas. Those who
Speaker 2: lived inside these communities were known as believers, and those
Speaker 2: outside were called quote the world's people or people of
Speaker 2: the world. Shakers may have been far from the corruption
Speaker 2: of cities, as they would have called it, but they
Speaker 2: weren't out of touch with outsiders. They allowed those from
Speaker 2: the world to visit their communities and to observe their
Speaker 2: religious practices. Let's talk a little bit more about the
Speaker 2: Shakers to get a better understanding of who they were
Speaker 2: and are before we get into why the heck we're
Speaker 2: talking about them.
Speaker 1: To begin with, Shakers believed in communal living, and they
Speaker 1: believed in pacifism. They believed in the confession of one's sins.
Speaker 1: An important part of the Shaker community was the meeting house.
Speaker 1: It was the center of worship services, and Shaker ceremonies
Speaker 1: were known to include not just biblical readings, but they
Speaker 1: also had a physicality about them. There was spontaneous dancing, whirling, shaking,
Speaker 1: other ecstatic movements, all of which were expressions of spirituality.
Speaker 1: Often described as a physical way to shake off one's sins.
Speaker 1: It is how they became known to the world as Shakers.
Speaker 2: The Shaker faith was based on a belief of God
Speaker 2: and of living the best Christian life you could based
Speaker 2: on the Gospels of the Christian Bible. Part of the
Speaker 2: Shaker faith, too, was the idea that there was a
Speaker 2: duality of God, and this was represented as a masculine
Speaker 2: spirit embodied in Jesus Christ, along with a female element
Speaker 2: that manifested it in the spirit of Mother Anne. Mother
Speaker 2: Anne is important. She was a woman named Anne Lee
Speaker 2: who was the founder and leader of the Shaker religion.
Speaker 2: Mother Anne is responsible for the Shaker pilgrimage to America.
Speaker 2: She had quote a special manifestation of divine light, and
Speaker 2: it was her vision of quote a heavenly kingdom to
Speaker 2: come that directly defined Shaker culture and faith. As a
Speaker 2: result of this belief of a dual personality in God,
Speaker 2: Shakers actively practiced equality of the sexes. Everyone within the
Speaker 2: society was allowed opportunities in intellectual and artistic development.
Speaker 1: But talking about the Shakers does not mean just talking
Speaker 1: about their religion, because they were entrepreneurs. They were disciplined
Speaker 1: and hardworking, and they were also very innovative, a good
Speaker 1: combination of characteristics that helped them finance their communal lives
Speaker 1: in a few successful ways. So first, they were primarily
Speaker 1: an agricultural community and they sold their produce. Then as craftsmen,
Speaker 1: they also sold small manufacturers. We mentioned their well known
Speaker 1: Shaker style furniture earlier, but they also invented a variety
Speaker 1: of things, including the clothes pin and an early version
Speaker 1: of the washing machine, the rotary harrow, the circular saw,
Speaker 1: the flat broom, the pocket stereoscope, the steel pen nib,
Speaker 1: and the rotary oven. You know how when you go
Speaker 1: to your gardening center or even some big box stores
Speaker 1: you can buy seeds in packets. You can thank the
Speaker 1: Shakers for that packet advancement. Because if it hadn't been done,
Speaker 1: you would be buying seeds in bulk. Their most successful
Speaker 1: business didn't come from their tables and chairs or the
Speaker 1: clothes pin, though, it came from their knowledge of herbs
Speaker 1: and their practice of botanical medicine. And this is why
Speaker 1: we are talking about them.
Speaker 2: Herbal medicines are those with active ingredients from plants or
Speaker 2: parts of plants, such as leaves, roots, seeds, flowers. But
Speaker 2: as we know from other stories during this snake oil season,
Speaker 2: being a and this is an air quote natural remedy
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily mean it's a safe remedy. But there's nothing
Speaker 2: at all snake oily about Shaker remedies, only that they
Speaker 2: were unfortunately selling them. At the same time shady patent
Speaker 2: medicines were in high demand. The medicinal herbs they sold
Speaker 2: to the people of the world turned them into respected healers.
Speaker 1: They didn't start out as herbal healers, though at least
Speaker 1: not outside of their communities. Shaker medical practice was let's
Speaker 1: call it quite eclectic. Early Shakers relied on faith healing
Speaker 1: and would only consult a non Shaker doctor's advice if
Speaker 1: there was a case of severe injury or illness. They
Speaker 1: tried treating illnesses with what was known as electric medicine,
Speaker 1: which is it's what it sounds like, the application of
Speaker 1: electric shocks in an effort to relieve pain and hopefully
Speaker 1: produce cures. They also became practitioners of a variety of
Speaker 1: treatments that were known as water cures, such as soaking
Speaker 1: in mineral springs. Mainly, their focus was on prevention, though,
Speaker 1: and that included maintaining good health through hard work, exercise,
Speaker 1: and rest, plus three meals a day and little to
Speaker 1: no use of alcohol or tobacco. They practiced calisthenic workouts
Speaker 1: to improve their health. They built well ventilated homes, and
Speaker 1: they separated the sick from the healthy in infirmaries or
Speaker 1: sick rooms.
Speaker 2: Shaker interest in herbalism started very simply because they didn't
Speaker 2: rely on imported teas or conventional medicines. They had to
Speaker 2: make their own. They became practitioners of what is now
Speaker 2: called naturopathic medicine, which emphasizes both disease prevention and the
Speaker 2: self healing process through the use of natural therapies such
Speaker 2: as preparations derived from you guessed it, herbs and other
Speaker 2: natural plant materials. Galen Beal and Mary Rose Boswell in
Speaker 2: their book Earth Shall Blossom, Shaker Herbs and gardening declared,
Speaker 2: and we're paraphrasing here a bit, the sh Bakers were
Speaker 2: the first herbalists next to indigenous Americans, who held all
Speaker 2: the medicinal knowledge of our native plant species in America.
Speaker 2: Now that's a bold statement. So before we delve into that,
Speaker 2: we're going to take a break forward from our sponsors,
Speaker 2: and when we're back, we'll see if they can live
Speaker 2: up to it.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk a little about Shaker
Speaker 1: agriculture and how their botanical knowledge turned every person into
Speaker 1: their own physician.
Speaker 2: To Shakers, gardening was spiritual work, and their gardening tenets
Speaker 2: included such things as, quote, keep learning, nurture the soil,
Speaker 2: know your plants, work faithfully, and care for your tools. Really,
Speaker 2: that's good advice for all gardeners. A Shaker garden was
Speaker 2: all so quote the index of the owner's mind, and
Speaker 2: herbs growing in a Shaker garden were planted in neat
Speaker 2: rows in square beds, usually delineated by some form of enclosure,
Speaker 2: such as a low stone wall or brick edging.
Speaker 1: Shaker herbs were plentiful. Most were rarely used in food,
Speaker 1: though with the exception of five thyme, sweet marjoram, savory, sage,
Speaker 1: and parsley. They began selling surpluses of those five pantry
Speaker 1: friendly herbs, along with what they considered medicinal herbs like
Speaker 1: bee balm, sweet basil, lavender, fennel, dill, coriander, lemon balm, rosemary, belladonna, poppies, horehound, valerian.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop there because the list is really long
Speaker 1: and it goes on for quite a while. Most of
Speaker 1: the herbs they produced had therapeutic properties, such as being
Speaker 1: a diuretic or a stimulant, narcotic, emetic, or astringent. In
Speaker 1: his well respected eighteen twenty eight manual Medical Flora, botanist
Speaker 1: and natural scientists Constantine Ruffanesque claimed the Shakers had the
Speaker 1: quote best medical gardens in the United States.
Speaker 2: Shaker men, known as brothers, generally were in charge of
Speaker 2: cultivating the herbs. Shaker women known as sisters, along with children,
Speaker 2: gathered these herbs in addition to dozens of other species
Speaker 2: from the surrounding forests in what they referred to as
Speaker 2: the herb House. The brothers dried and pressed these herbs
Speaker 2: preparing them for oils, tinctures, extracts, and powders. First, they
Speaker 2: sold herbs to the general public, but they soon also
Speaker 2: sold the botanical medicines they made for their own communities
Speaker 2: to nearby physicians and druggists. The Shaker products were becoming
Speaker 2: known as high quality, and from about eighteen twenty to
Speaker 2: the twentieth century, Shakers made and then sold dried herbs
Speaker 2: and their botanical medicines to the world.
Speaker 1: Knowledge of the healae or poisonous properties of plants, mineral salts,
Speaker 1: and herbs is certainly far older than Shaker medical practices.
Speaker 1: Ancient Egyptians recorded their knowledge of illnesses and botanical cures,
Speaker 1: and the Ebers Papyrus, dating back to fifteen fifty BCE. Hippocrates,
Speaker 1: known as the father of medicine, classified herbs into essential
Speaker 1: qualities and categorized as many as three hundred to four
Speaker 1: hundred plants. Aristotle also compiled a list of medicinal plants. Diascorides,
Speaker 1: a Roman army physician, wrote De Materia Medica, a five
Speaker 1: volume work describing the preparation of about one thousand simple
Speaker 1: remedies using about five hundred different plants. So herbal medicine
Speaker 1: is hardly.
Speaker 2: New to many people. Botanicals seemed far less harmful than
Speaker 2: methods used by traditional doctors, like bleeding or ingesting mercury.
Speaker 2: Health problems that concerned Americans in the nineteenth century were
Speaker 2: for the most part different from those we have to
Speaker 2: deal with today, So things like burns or falls, or
Speaker 2: any accidental injuries were often crippling. You were vulnerable to
Speaker 2: colds and flu because they could develop into pneumonia, which
Speaker 2: was a potential death sentence. Contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox,
Speaker 2: scarlet fever, yellow fever, and cholera were life threatening. Even
Speaker 2: a simple cut or food poisoning had the potential to
Speaker 2: become fatal. For those who lived in rural areas, the
Speaker 2: Shakers provided solutions that made quote every man his own physician.
Speaker 1: By the eighteen twenties, many Shaker communities were also making
Speaker 1: herbal treatments that had been developed and promoted by a
Speaker 1: self trained doctor and entrepreneur named Samuel Thompson. Samuel was
Speaker 1: schooled in herbalism growing up in New Hampshire. His story
Speaker 1: is that he learned from a widow in his town who,
Speaker 1: it was said learned about healing herbs from the endigenous
Speaker 1: people of the area. One of Thompson's biographers, John S.
Speaker 1: Holler Junior, wrote, quote, this itinerant people's doctor promised to
Speaker 1: release patients from the tyranny of regular physicians by offering
Speaker 1: cheap and kindly medicines from their own field and gardens.
Speaker 1: That seems very much in line with the work of
Speaker 1: the Shakers, except there's always a little problem, isn't there,
Speaker 1: And we're gonna get to that.
Speaker 2: Two plants, lobilia, which was once known as Indian tobacco,
Speaker 2: and capsicum, which is cayenne pepper, were, according to Samuel,
Speaker 2: the building blocks of his Thomsonian system. So very simply explained,
Speaker 2: Thompson believed through his own observations that in life there
Speaker 2: is heat, and in death there is cold. He treated
Speaker 2: patients with lobilia, which is an emetic it induces vomiting,
Speaker 2: and then followed up with doses of capsicumb to restore
Speaker 2: the body's natural heat. So an example of a Tomsonian
Speaker 2: cure read as quote cure with hot water and doses
Speaker 2: of number six. It sounds mysterious, but number six refers
Speaker 2: to a product called Thompson's compound tincture of myrrh and
Speaker 2: capsicum or rheumatic drops, which along with herbs, was prepared
Speaker 2: with wine or brandy. It was a really powerful antiseptic
Speaker 2: and was usually prescribed to relieve pain and prevent gangreen
Speaker 2: or necrosis.
Speaker 1: The Shakers, being in the herbal medicine business themselves, could
Speaker 1: have easily formulated any of Thompson's six basic medicines, and
Speaker 1: there is evidence that they did produce at least two. Thompson, though,
Speaker 1: was not especially thrilled that the Shakers were using his
Speaker 1: remedies because now his dispensary in New York City was
Speaker 1: in direct competition with them and their excellent reputation, so
Speaker 1: he sued the Harvard Shaker's trustee, brother Joseah Winchester, for
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars. Here it could be argued that the
Speaker 1: Shakers did dip a toe into a little patent medicine chicanery. Basically,
Speaker 1: they just changed the labels. Shakers at Mount Lebanon had
Speaker 1: added his Thompson's Spice Bitters and Thompson's Hot Drops or
Speaker 1: number six to their product line, and to fix the
Speaker 1: confusion slash problem, they intentionally misspelled Thompson's name on the
Speaker 1: spice bitters after the lawsuit, when it came to the
Speaker 1: hot drops, they just left his name off altogether. So
Speaker 1: if it sounds like Thompson had a solid case and
Speaker 1: like the Shakers were skirting the issue, surprised, they were not,
Speaker 1: and he did not. It turns out either he had forgotten,
Speaker 1: or he didn't realize, or maybe he hoped they had
Speaker 1: forgotten that on behalf of the Shakers, brother Hooseah, had
Speaker 1: legally purchased Thompson's patten a few years earlier, in eighteen seventeen.
Speaker 1: The Shakers could make any of his basic medicines, and
Speaker 1: it was in their lead right to do so.
Speaker 2: Thompson may have felt it was all about Thompson, but
Speaker 2: the Shaker medicine business was much bigger than him and
Speaker 2: his patented potions. His products were a very small part
Speaker 2: of their offerings. By eighteen fifty one, Mount Lebanon's product
Speaker 2: catalog listed three hundred and fifty six medicinal herbs, four
Speaker 2: culinary herbs, plus one hundred and eighty one fluid extracts.
Speaker 2: And that's just a sampling from just one catalog at
Speaker 2: that time, which was the peak of their botanical medicine business.
Speaker 2: That community was producing one hundred thousand pounds of dried
Speaker 2: herbs and several thousand pounds of extracts each year. Thompson's
Speaker 2: spice bitters and hot drops were inconsequential.
Speaker 1: In the Enfield, New Hampshire community. Shakers listed roughly one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty different types of herbs for sale to
Speaker 1: the people of the world and focused on the production
Speaker 1: of their own medicines, and that production continued into the
Speaker 1: early twentieth century, even after the passage of the nineteen
Speaker 1: oh six Pure Food and Drug Act, which, as we've
Speaker 1: seen this season, was the end of many proprietary medicines.
Speaker 1: But if you weren't lying in your advertising and your
Speaker 1: ingredients were legit, that act was not targeting you. Herbal
Speaker 1: medicine itself was not a crime. Shakers were not selling
Speaker 1: bottles of ethanol with labeling claiming that their products were
Speaker 1: cure alls.
Speaker 2: The Shakers were astute and used their knowledge of herbs
Speaker 2: and botanical medicine to capitalize on the growing trend of
Speaker 2: patent medicine, and in a really refreshing change from our
Speaker 2: other stories this season, they weren't the bad guy and
Speaker 2: in doing so, became one of the leading names in
Speaker 2: the early history of pharmaceutical manufacturing. They weren't peddling quackery.
Speaker 2: But on that note, we're going to take a break
Speaker 2: for a word from our sponsors, so when we return,
Speaker 2: we'll talk about how they maintained their enviable reputation and
Speaker 2: in the face of the inevitable counterfeiters.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how the Shaker
Speaker 1: patent medicine business worked and how it differed from the
Speaker 1: snake oil manufacturing that was happening concurrently.
Speaker 2: The Shakers, to be clear on this, were running a
Speaker 2: cooperative operation and they were dependent upon relationships with commercial
Speaker 2: entities of the world. The Shakers grew plants and made
Speaker 2: medicines from the resulting plant extracts, but the packaging piece,
Speaker 2: like the bottles, the boxes, the paper inserts, those were
Speaker 2: commercially produced outside of Shaker communities. The Shakers then bottled
Speaker 2: their medicines, packaged their products, and sent batches to distributors.
Speaker 1: Shaker communities also sold earth in bulk to drug wholesalers,
Speaker 1: some even internationally. For instance, in the eighteen forties, Shaker
Speaker 1: communities found themselves shipping thousands of pounds of dried plant
Speaker 1: material and thousands of bottles of prepared medicines, which men
Speaker 1: They also found themselves needing bigger production facilities. They were
Speaker 1: leaders in patent medicines, selling compounds like Shaker Cherry Pectoral Syrup,
Speaker 1: Shaker Syrup Number One, Doctor Corbett's Renovating Bidders, Norwood's Tincture
Speaker 1: of Veritrim, Verdae, Mother, Siegal's Curative Syrup, and many other
Speaker 1: medicines branded with the Shaker name. Shaker tamer Laxative, which
Speaker 1: was a mix of tamarind, prunes, cassio, barque, henbane, and
Speaker 1: winter green, was one of Sabbath Day Lake Community's more
Speaker 1: successful products. By the late nineteenth century, Shakers had a
Speaker 1: reputation as quote America's pharmacists.
Speaker 2: And like other popular and successful patent medicine manufacturers, the
Speaker 2: Shakers found their products were the target of counterfeitters. It
Speaker 2: isn't clear when a product called Shaker's Blood Syrup was
Speaker 2: first produced or marketed, but the Shakers became aware of it,
Speaker 2: likely in the summer of eighteen eighty four. A poster
Speaker 2: printed in black and red shows an illustration of two
Speaker 2: Shaker's sisters standing on either side of a Shaker brother.
Speaker 2: The text reads quote, Shaker's blood Syrup cures completely scrofula cancer, rheumatism,
Speaker 2: qatar ulcers, and skin and blood diseases of every description.
Speaker 2: The medicine, however, was not made by Shakers, and their
Speaker 2: society had not authorized the use of their name or image.
Speaker 2: The fake syrup bore, though an extraordinary resemblance to Mother
Speaker 2: Siegel's Curative Syrup, a product manufactured embottled by the Shakers
Speaker 2: and distributed by Andrew Judson White's company AJ White Limited.
Speaker 2: It was intended to relieve indigestion, not to be a
Speaker 2: cure all, and it was one of the most popular
Speaker 2: herbal medicines in the United States and internationally. According to
Speaker 2: records kept by the Shakers, beginning around eighteen seventy nine
Speaker 2: or so, batches of it had begun shipping to then
Speaker 2: far flung locations, including India and Australia.
Speaker 1: By October of eighteen eighty four, the matter started to
Speaker 1: gain national interest. On October second, a newspaper notice stated quote,
Speaker 1: A dispatch from Montreal says that the Shaker Society at
Speaker 1: New Lebanon is about to institute proceedings against Smith Brothers
Speaker 1: and Company, Montreal for fifty thousand dollars damages for infringement
Speaker 1: of a patent. It is claimed that the defendants illegally
Speaker 1: manufactured and sold syrups bearing the name of Shaker Blood Syrups,
Speaker 1: the trademark of which they had patented at Ottawa on
Speaker 1: stating that they were the first to make use of it,
Speaker 1: while in truth it was the property of the United
Speaker 1: Society of Shakers. A month later, on November fourteenth, the
Speaker 1: National Druggist, published in Saint Louis, stated quote, Smith Brothers
Speaker 1: and Company of Montreal, a concern of recent origin who
Speaker 1: started the manufacture of Shaker's blood syrup, have failed and
Speaker 1: one of the partners is reported missing. The Shaker community
Speaker 1: has recently issued an action against the firm to restrain
Speaker 1: it from using their name, etc. In connection with such
Speaker 1: preparations made in Montreal.
Speaker 2: About two months later, on January twenty seventh, the Office
Speaker 2: of AJ White Limited, recall they were the distributor of
Speaker 2: Shaker medicines, announced quote as soon as the blood syrup
Speaker 2: came to the knowledge of the Shakers, proceedings at law
Speaker 2: were taken by the Shakers, charging the Smith Brothers firm
Speaker 2: with fraudulently using and stating without authorization in their pamphlets
Speaker 2: that this medicine was prepared by the Shakers. Shortly after
Speaker 2: this action was taken, the firm in question became solvent.
Speaker 2: On the twenty fourth January eighteen eighty five, Smith Brothers
Speaker 2: signed an agreement in which was contained, among other things,
Speaker 2: the following and whereas the said Smith Brothers now admit
Speaker 2: that they have no right to the said trademark or
Speaker 2: to sell medicines as Shaker preparations, and that the said
Speaker 2: action of the Shaker Society as taken against us for
Speaker 2: the cancelation thereof is well founded. The Shakers, upon this
Speaker 2: agreement being signed, withdrew their action against Smith Brothers.
Speaker 1: Although they won that action, the Shaker's herbal medicine business
Speaker 1: was already on the decline. They had rightfully avoided punitive
Speaker 1: measures from the Pure Food and Drug Act, but they
Speaker 1: couldn't escape the rise of the Industrial Revolution. After the
Speaker 1: American Civil War, dozens of new and large and largely
Speaker 1: funded corporations entered the medicine manufacturing market, and pharmaceutical production
Speaker 1: began to move away from botanicals. Their products and production
Speaker 1: practices just could not compete with cheaper, factory made items.
Speaker 1: After nineteen hundred, many Shaker herb houses had been demolished.
Speaker 1: Norwood's tincture, though, was produced continually from roughly the eighteen
Speaker 1: fifties until sometime in the nineteen thirties, making it one of,
Speaker 1: if not the last preparation sold by the Shakers, who
Speaker 1: may have been the most legitimate patent medicine manufacturers in
Speaker 1: a time that we have seen a lot of snake
Speaker 1: oil salesmanship.
Speaker 2: It's amazing how long they were able to last during
Speaker 2: that patent medicine time frame.
Speaker 1: I agree, and with that, are you ready for a
Speaker 1: little something that might cure what ails you?
Speaker 2: Yes? But not Tomsnian.
Speaker 1: Please, it's not Tomsnian, although we will say the name
Speaker 1: tom at one point to our recording this. Maria sent
Speaker 1: me a number of recipes for various Shaker beverages to peruse,
Speaker 1: things like ginger aid, which sounds amazing, But some of
Speaker 1: them included an ingredient that also came up in the
Speaker 1: episode that I love, and that is lemon balm. And
Speaker 1: it just so happens that I have been growing lemon
Speaker 1: balm this year. My crop is doing very well, so
Speaker 1: I was ready for this, but I've been looking for
Speaker 1: a good reason to use it in a beverage for
Speaker 1: the show. A lot of these also use ginger ale,
Speaker 1: which is also a big favorite of mine. But I
Speaker 1: was also struck by this idea of making people their
Speaker 1: own physician, which came up in the episode. Although I
Speaker 1: will say I'm a big fan of going to the
Speaker 1: actual doctor myself because I don't trust my own judgment
Speaker 1: in such things. But all of that inspired this recipe,
Speaker 1: and I thought it would be really fun to make it.
Speaker 1: Choose your own adventure cocktail. I love the slash mocktail
Speaker 1: where we make a base that can work with any
Speaker 1: number of spirits or without a spirit at all, and
Speaker 1: just find on its own and we don't have to
Speaker 1: do sub outs. So this one is a little bit
Speaker 1: like a Collins. It shares a lot in common with it.
Speaker 1: You can have a Tom Collins which has gin, a
Speaker 1: Vodka Collins which has vodka, or a John Collins which
Speaker 1: has whiskey, but the rest of the drink remains the
Speaker 1: same version to version, and ours is very much like
Speaker 1: that recipe, although it does have some switch outs, and
Speaker 1: we are adding in the botanical element of lemon balm,
Speaker 1: and I will say this one also has an extra
Speaker 1: bonus option for people who really want to get extra
Speaker 1: with their botanicals and their presentation. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about that at the very end. So this starts with
Speaker 1: seven to ten lemon balm leaves, what you have on
Speaker 1: hand that looks good, or just if your leaves are bigger,
Speaker 1: you can have a few lesson. If you have tiny ones,
Speaker 1: get some more. So you're going to take your seven
Speaker 1: to ten lemon balm leaves, an ounce of lemon juice
Speaker 1: and an ounce of simple or vanilla syrup. But I'm
Speaker 1: really going to advocate for vanilla syrup on this one
Speaker 1: because it just changes it and makes it beautiful. And
Speaker 1: you're gonna muddle that together in the bottom of your tin,
Speaker 1: and you know how I'm always like, don't go crazy muddling.
Speaker 1: You don't want it. You can go a little crazier
Speaker 1: with this one, because you really do want to infuse
Speaker 1: that lemon balm with everything else. Then, if you are
Speaker 1: making the alcoholic version, add two ounces of your spirit
Speaker 1: of choice, so Jin vodka, whiskey. You could even use
Speaker 1: tequila here. The tequila version is very good if you
Speaker 1: are not using any alcohol at all, and you, like
Speaker 1: the Shakers, want to stick to a more alcohol free life.
Speaker 1: Add an ounce of water here because we are gonna
Speaker 1: shake it and you need a little more fluid to
Speaker 1: really get things going. So you're gonna put your ice
Speaker 1: in there, give it a really good shake because you
Speaker 1: want to also break up your leaves a little bit.
Speaker 1: Strain it over fresh ice. This is one of those
Speaker 1: horror's choice because some people like to have little bits
Speaker 1: and flecks of stuff and they're drinking. Some do not,
Speaker 1: so that's up to how you strain it. And then
Speaker 1: you're gonna top it with ginger ale. It's so delicious.
Speaker 1: I love this one so much. It's simple, it's based
Speaker 1: on very basic bartending formulas, and it is foolproof in
Speaker 1: my opinion. Here's the bonus. If you want to be
Speaker 1: a fancy pants you're gonna make ice cubes specific for
Speaker 1: this drink, which are very easy, but they have all
Speaker 1: a little extra work implanting ahead. Finally, chop four to
Speaker 1: five lemon balm leaves, and I mean finely chop you
Speaker 1: want teeny pieces, and then you're just gonna mix those
Speaker 1: with a cup of water and just a half a
Speaker 1: teaspoon of lemon juice, or just squeeze one half of
Speaker 1: a lemon into your your thing and get that. I'll
Speaker 1: just stir it together and then pour it into an
Speaker 1: ice tray and freeze it. Pull it out when you're
Speaker 1: ready to make your drink. It looks so pretty. It
Speaker 1: makes the whole thing look like a botanical, magical thing,
Speaker 1: and you put it in everything. You can do this
Speaker 1: with any kind of ice cube for any kind of drink.
Speaker 1: But because the Shakers were really proficient in their understanding
Speaker 1: of botanicals and appreciating all that the botanicals could do,
Speaker 1: I thought it would be nice to have a little
Speaker 1: visual representation of that as well. But I also know
Speaker 1: it's a little extra. Not everybody might want to do it.
Speaker 1: Do that once, listen. Once you start playing with pretty
Speaker 1: ice for drinks, it's over. You're in trouble and I'm
Speaker 1: calling this one. Be your own bartender. You're making it
Speaker 1: however you want. You have gained the skills to make
Speaker 1: a base drink that you can riff on and improv
Speaker 1: with and play with. Like any drink recipe, if you
Speaker 1: don't like one ingredient, you can sub out. If you're
Speaker 1: like I don't like ginger ale, Okay cool. Put a
Speaker 1: lemon lineman in there, put soda in there, put something
Speaker 1: else in there. You got options. I love it again.
Speaker 1: I'm going to really make the push for the vanilla
Speaker 1: syrup because it makes it beautiful in a whole different
Speaker 1: way than just a simple syrup would. So I hope
Speaker 1: that if you make this, maybe you play with it
Speaker 1: and start subbing things out and get real brave and
Speaker 1: become your own bartender. We will be right back here
Speaker 1: next week with another tail and another drink to go
Speaker 1: with it. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.