Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Many patent medicines may have done more harm than good,
Speaker 2: or at the very least nothing at all, and we've
Speaker 2: been talking about a good many of them so far
Speaker 2: this season. Ingredients in patent medicines were unregulated and manufacturers
Speaker 2: weren't required to list ingredients on their labels. Products could
Speaker 2: contain anything from deadly arsenic to narcotics and alcohol, or
Speaker 2: things as benign as vegetables and water. Most patent medicines
Speaker 2: didn't help your problem, but there were several products that
Speaker 2: originated in that era that we still use to this day,
Speaker 2: believe it or not. Although these modern versions typically don't
Speaker 2: include exactly the same ingredients as their predecessors, which is
Speaker 2: often a good thing, and many no longer claim to
Speaker 2: be cure alls, which too is a good thing. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about a few of those patent medicine products that
Speaker 2: have persisted over the years. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarki.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Fry. Let's take, for instance, J Maurice Treener,
Speaker 1: head chemist at the Doctor Miles Medical Company in Elkhart, Indiana.
Speaker 1: That's a well known patent medicine manufacturer of the late
Speaker 1: nineteenth and early twentieth century. Trainer invented those effervescent tablets
Speaker 1: that we know as Alka Seltzer. They hit the market
Speaker 1: in roughly nineteen thirty and that is, of course a
Speaker 1: product that's still sold today. An aspirin was and is
Speaker 1: one of its main active ingredients. And then there's vix
Speaker 1: Vapo rub, which used to be called Vic's Magic croupsalve.
Speaker 1: Once a patent medicine, it remains a commonly used product
Speaker 1: for relieving chest congestion. Another that you may reckon nice
Speaker 1: is Philip's Milk of Magnesia, used then and now for
Speaker 1: gastro intestinal discomforts.
Speaker 2: But here's what we're going to focus on. Some of
Speaker 2: our favorite soft drinks too, began as patent medicines. Coca Cola,
Speaker 2: now the most popular soda brand in the world, is
Speaker 2: one of them. When it first hit the scene, it
Speaker 2: was marketed as a patent medicine and had a meteoric
Speaker 2: rise in popularity over the years. Coca Cola and other
Speaker 2: sodas didn't just magically appear on the market, though. The
Speaker 2: condensed backstory here goes a bit like this. For centuries,
Speaker 2: soda water has gone in and out of fashion as
Speaker 2: a wellness tonic, and in the nineteenth century, consumers couldn't
Speaker 2: get enough of the alleged healing properties of that fizzy water.
Speaker 2: Physicians recommended carbonated water as a way to treat various ailments,
Speaker 2: including digestive issues and general fatigue. Though it can be
Speaker 2: traced back to ancient times from natural springs, English scientist
Speaker 2: Joseph Priestley is credited with creating artificially sparkling water in
Speaker 2: seventeen sixty seven when he discovered a way to infuse
Speaker 2: water with carbon dioxide. So the succinct explanation on that
Speaker 2: is it involved suspending a bowl of water above a
Speaker 2: vat of fermenting beer to create a bubbly result. By
Speaker 2: the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the soft drink
Speaker 2: industry began to gain traction.
Speaker 1: Coca Cola was invented by a pharmacist named John Pemberton,
Speaker 1: who first brewed the syrup in his Atlanta, Georgia backyard
Speaker 1: one night in May of eighteen eighty six. A pharmacist
Speaker 1: by trade, Pemberton was no stranger to making patent medicines.
Speaker 1: That was a common task in his field, but this
Speaker 1: one was personal. He had been injured during his time
Speaker 1: fighting in the American Civil War, and he had, as
Speaker 1: a result, developed an addiction to morphine, an addiction that
Speaker 1: he was hoping to relieve. Medical reports at the time
Speaker 1: suggested cocaine might be a cure for morphine addiction, and
Speaker 1: as a pharmacist, it's unclear if Pemberton knew about this research,
Speaker 1: but it's entirely possible that he could have his recipes
Speaker 1: ingredients list contained coca leaves, that's the cocaine cola nuts
Speaker 1: which provide caffeine and sugar syrup, and satisfied with his concoction,
Speaker 1: he debuted this new product as quote Coca Cola the
Speaker 1: temperance drink.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this idea of a temperance drink. Though prohibition
Speaker 2: wouldn't hit America until nineteen twenty, it took place during
Speaker 2: the years between nineteen twenty and nineteen thirty three. The
Speaker 2: country's first serious anti alcohol movement swept the nation beginning
Speaker 2: in the eighteen thirties, so by eighteen thirty the the
Speaker 2: average American over the age of fifteen was consuming nearly
Speaker 2: seven gallons of pure alcohol annually, which is about three
Speaker 2: times as much as we drink today. And this temperance
Speaker 2: movement was a push for abstinence that really caught on.
Speaker 2: And while legally alcohol could be an ingredient in patent medicines,
Speaker 2: many Americans were curtailing how much they drank, but it
Speaker 2: didn't impact stimulants, and some people believed ingredients like cocaine,
Speaker 2: coalon nuts, as well as lithium, almaretto and ginger were curative.
Speaker 2: While those are not all stimulants, they were all considered
Speaker 2: medically beneficial in some way. For the curious, we couldn't
Speaker 2: nail down just how much cocaine was in Pemberton's coca cola.
Speaker 2: Some reports suggest it had about point zero zero seven
Speaker 2: grams of cocaine per ounce of syrup when it was
Speaker 2: first bottled, and by nineteen oh two sources suggest it
Speaker 2: was probably about one four hundredth of a grain of
Speaker 2: cocaine per ounce of syrup, and that equals about point
Speaker 2: zero zero two five grams. Ads claimed the drink was
Speaker 2: quote a valuable brain tonic and a cure for all
Speaker 2: nervous affections. The now illegal cocaine ingredient was infamously part
Speaker 2: of the SODA's recipe until nineteen oh four.
Speaker 1: But we're not trying to be unfair to Coca Cola. Legally,
Speaker 1: they were not doing anything wrong at the time, and
Speaker 1: it certainly was not the only soda that contained stimulants
Speaker 1: or other interesting ingredients. Seven Up, which was originally called
Speaker 1: BIB labeled lithiated lemon lime soda which rolls right off
Speaker 1: the tongue, contained as you may have guessed from that name,
Speaker 1: lithium salts, and it quickly became a popular every day
Speaker 1: pick me up. Other sodas that came from this era
Speaker 1: include Pepsi Cola, which was originally called Brad's Drink after
Speaker 1: pharmacy this Caleb Bradham, who invented it Doctor Pepper, believed
Speaker 1: to be the oldest major brand of soft drink in
Speaker 1: the United States, as well as Sasparilla soda and root beer.
Speaker 1: Unlike how seven Up was popular for its potential mood
Speaker 1: lifting qualities. Note that it did contain lithium, but in
Speaker 1: small amounts. Sasparilla soda was popular for its alleged long
Speaker 1: list of health benefits. So let's take a look at
Speaker 1: that reputation.
Speaker 2: Before we get talking about the sas Marilla cureal soda,
Speaker 2: We're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 2: our sponsors. And when we're back, we have a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of health claims and promises to talk about.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Need to cure your general wearinesses? Oh,
Speaker 1: have we got a drink for you?
Speaker 2: South Marilla like Coca cola, is another interesting patent medicine
Speaker 2: turned soft drink because it was not just marketed as
Speaker 2: a refreshing beverage. It was marketed as a tonic to
Speaker 2: purify the blood and cure various disorders, including heart disease, rheumatism,
Speaker 2: and edema. Many maybe even all, but that's a really
Speaker 2: bold statement. Many patent medicine tonics in the nineteenth and
Speaker 2: early twentieth centuries promised to cure all kinds of things.
Speaker 2: After all, they were patent medicines, and that was part
Speaker 2: of the deal. One of the best known and most
Speaker 2: popular of these health tonics was Sasparilla soda. It was
Speaker 2: enjoyed as a tasty beverage for its medicinal purposes, and
Speaker 2: even as a popular hangover cure among ranchers and Cowboys
Speaker 2: in the American West.
Speaker 1: C I hood In Company, founded by Charles Ira Hood
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy five in Lowell, Massachusetts, was among the
Speaker 1: largest patent medicine companies in the United States at the time.
Speaker 1: Their product line was mostly personal health products, but they
Speaker 1: also made a well known sasparilla drink HOODS Sasparilla. Their
Speaker 1: product was inspired at least in part by the success
Speaker 1: of another brand, and that was AYR Sasparilla. A R
Speaker 1: Sasparilla was marketed as a quote blood medicine that could
Speaker 1: remove quote poisons from your blood. Spoiler by the way, no,
Speaker 1: it did not, But if you believe the labeling on
Speaker 1: a lot of the Sasparilla drinks at the time, they
Speaker 1: claimed a whole lot of things. In addition to quenching
Speaker 1: your thirst, of course, they promised to restore your health
Speaker 1: and vigor. They promised to treat tuberculosis. Some even promised
Speaker 1: to reverse hair loss. Sasparilla, it was claimed, could allegedly
Speaker 1: cure headaches, stomach aches, tumors, as well as quote general wearinesses.
Speaker 2: And there's more. Some of the medicinal claims also stated
Speaker 2: it could cure impotence and prevent flatulence, and could treat
Speaker 2: a variety of skin conditions such as exema and psoriasis
Speaker 2: if you applied it to your skin. Manufacturers claimed it
Speaker 2: would relieve various digestive disorders too, and let's not forget
Speaker 2: that for a time, depending on who you asked. It
Speaker 2: was also believed to be a cure for various sexually
Speaker 2: transmitted infections, specifically herpes, syphilis, and gonorrhea, but like most
Speaker 2: patent medicines, sasparillesota was credited with way way more healing
Speaker 2: potential than it actually had. It didn't cure any of
Speaker 2: these things, but people believed it might, mainly because it
Speaker 2: said so on the label, and it also had a
Speaker 2: slightly medicinal flavor.
Speaker 1: And word got around. But it wasn't just word of
Speaker 1: mouth that helped its popularity, so did the media. California's
Speaker 1: first newspaper, the San Francisco Californian, for instance, included a
Speaker 1: sasparilla advertisement in its August seventh, eighteen forty seven edition.
Speaker 1: Shelley and Norris, a store at the corner of Clay
Speaker 1: and Kearney Streets, offered more than one hundred products, including
Speaker 1: sasparilla soda. Quote for sale, low for cash. The very
Speaker 1: first issue of the Marin Journal, which debuted on March
Speaker 1: twenty third, eighteen sixty one, contained an advertorial that's part advertisement,
Speaker 1: part editorial by the makers of San Sasparilla, who proclaimed
Speaker 1: that quote, the promontory symptoms of disease are the precursors
Speaker 1: of many fatal maladies, taken upon the first indication of
Speaker 1: an attack. If anything will relieve the sufferer, purify the blood,
Speaker 1: restore a vigorous character, and thoroughly renovate the system, it's
Speaker 1: San Sasparilla. This Sasparilla, they were telling consumers, was not
Speaker 1: just a drink, it was medicine.
Speaker 2: During the latter half of the nineteenth century, several other
Speaker 2: brands of Sasparo Lnesota were similarly advertised in newspapers across
Speaker 2: the country, and brands like Halls, Airs, Bristols, Scoville's, Talafaro's,
Speaker 2: and Hoods were all represented. These were all national companies
Speaker 2: except for Talafaro's, a local brand out of Oakland. Using
Speaker 2: a local formula created by a local physician named doctor
Speaker 2: Alfred W.
Speaker 1: Talafaro, Sasparo Milnesota became a go to drink for the
Speaker 1: health conscious of the nineteenth century, and it was widely
Speaker 1: consumed across the United States. If your town didn't have
Speaker 1: a pharmacy or apothecary, it was still easy to find.
Speaker 1: They carried it at your local saloon. We came across
Speaker 1: a few instances where modern historians made an interesting observation
Speaker 1: that sasparilla was kind of like the kombucha of today.
Speaker 1: It could fix the hitch in your gidea up if
Speaker 1: you weren't feeling well, or put a little pep in
Speaker 1: your step if that's what you needed.
Speaker 2: We are going to take a break forward from our
Speaker 2: sponsors now, but when we're back we have a bit
Speaker 2: of a bombshell to share about what's really in those
Speaker 2: sasparilla sotas.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about what sasparilla is,
Speaker 1: where it comes from, and why you should also know
Speaker 1: about an ingredient called sassafras.
Speaker 2: If sasparilla SODA's popularity wasn't solidified before, it sure was
Speaker 2: with this anecdote regarding President Calvin Coolidge and prohibition. When
Speaker 2: briefed that Americans were discontent of a prohibition because, quote, sir,
Speaker 2: the people have no beer. The president is said to
Speaker 2: have replied, quote, well, then let them drink sasparilla.
Speaker 1: The plant commonly known as sasparilla is native to North
Speaker 1: and Central America, and it was used by indigenous peoples
Speaker 1: for various medicinal cures as well as a way to
Speaker 1: spice up foods and drinks. A true sasparilla drink is
Speaker 1: made from the dried root bark of any of several
Speaker 1: plants that are part of the genus Smilax, which are green,
Speaker 1: climbing vines with these sort of christmasy looking red berries.
Speaker 1: Smilax plants have been used in medicinal teas everywhere from
Speaker 1: China to Mexico and all places in between. The name
Speaker 1: sasparilla comes from a Spanish word, zarsaparia, which has a
Speaker 1: long history of use as a blood cleanser and tonic.
Speaker 1: Back to the sixteenth century, sasparilla root was used as
Speaker 1: a therapy for arthritis, psoriasis, and other inflammatory disorders. So
Speaker 1: it's possible that maybe some of those patent medicine claims
Speaker 1: weren't wrong, but they were over promising and they were misleading.
Speaker 2: And here's the catch, Flassic sasparilla drinks weren't made from
Speaker 2: the extract of the sasas sperrilla plants, its ingredients were
Speaker 2: actually from a different root. Instead, drinks were typically made
Speaker 2: from sassafras, So let's talk about sassafras. This is a
Speaker 2: dried root bark of flowering trees, not vines, and there
Speaker 2: are several native to the United States. Although not listed
Speaker 2: as ingredients in early versions of the American drink, later
Speaker 2: brews included various vegetable extracts too, such as dandelion, man drake,
Speaker 2: and juniper berries. Sometimes these sasparilla free drinks were called sasparilla,
Speaker 2: but sometimes they were called and you might guess this
Speaker 2: root beer. Root beer was less bitter than sasparilla offerings,
Speaker 2: but its main ingredient was also sassafras and often winter green,
Speaker 2: along with birch oil, licorice root, and maybe some nutmeg.
Speaker 1: Like the soft drinks that we mentioned earlier, the sasparilla
Speaker 1: sodas of today are not quite the same as they
Speaker 1: wents were, and that's because of a few things, but
Speaker 1: the big one. Those ingredients can be deadly. The roots
Speaker 1: and barks of the sassafras tree contain a high concentration
Speaker 1: of a chemical called saffrol, and saffrol, the main ingredient
Speaker 1: in the drink, is actually really bad for you. Today,
Speaker 1: we know that saffrol can cause liver damage. It may
Speaker 1: also be carcinogenic, and the risk of developing cancer increases
Speaker 1: with how much you consume and for how long of
Speaker 1: a period of time you consume it. Side effects can
Speaker 1: include vomiting, high blood pressure, sweating, hot flashes, skin rashes,
Speaker 1: and even hallucinations. To that point, saffrol is also used
Speaker 1: in the production of the stimulant and psychedelic drug MDMA.
Speaker 2: Consuming five milliliters of saffrol, which is roughly just one teaspoon,
Speaker 2: is deadly for an adult. Natural sassafras or saffral have
Speaker 2: been banned for commercial use by the United States Food
Speaker 2: and Drug Administration since the nineteen sixties. Additionally, drinks bearing
Speaker 2: the name sasparilla don't contain actual sasparilla either, as it
Speaker 2: too has been banned by the FDA. And it's not
Speaker 2: just drinks. Sassafras was also once used as a food additive,
Speaker 2: including in sassafras tea tea. We mentioned tea earlier in
Speaker 2: its use around the world. It sounds healthy, right, but
Speaker 2: hold on though, because sassafras tea contained a high concentration
Speaker 2: of saffral about four and a half times allowed by
Speaker 2: government regulation, and the FDA has also prohibited the use
Speaker 2: of sassafras as a food additive because of that, which
Speaker 2: also includes its use in root beer.
Speaker 1: So what does this.
Speaker 2: Mean for what we're really drinking in our sasparilla and
Speaker 2: root beer sodas well? They all now use synthetic flavoring
Speaker 2: in its place, and you really would never know.
Speaker 1: And over time, of course, the claims of medicinal benefits
Speaker 1: associated with these sodas fell away, or they were legislated away,
Speaker 1: but people had developed a taste for them, so the
Speaker 1: drinks continued to be marketed. But today they're just touted
Speaker 1: as refreshing beverages rather than cure alls. But Maria, would
Speaker 1: you like a little sip of something that cures what
Speaker 1: ails you?
Speaker 2: As long as it doesn't have saffrol in it.
Speaker 1: I have a very yummy drink this time, because Maria
Speaker 1: accidentally set me up in the best way, because I
Speaker 1: told her a few weeks ago. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember this, Maria, but I had a thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to use in a cocktail and I was waiting
Speaker 1: for just the right time, and you accidentally invoked it
Speaker 1: in this episode, and here we are, and here we are.
Speaker 1: So we're going to start by talking about how to
Speaker 1: make dandelions, sirup, Yeah, because dandelions, and I am a
Speaker 1: fan of dandelions. You start this out by gathering a
Speaker 1: handful of dandelions. You may in your yard have what
Speaker 1: you think are dandelions, but they're actually Carolina desert chickery.
Speaker 1: Guess what those are? Also? Okay, both of these plants
Speaker 1: are completely fine for you. They're safe for human consumption.
Speaker 1: But I also want to say, because we are suggesting
Speaker 1: that people pick things from the wild, please be careful
Speaker 1: anytime you forage. Use an Identify your app when you can.
Speaker 1: I have one on my phone where if I take
Speaker 1: a picture of a flower where I'm not one hundred
Speaker 1: percent shore or any plant, it'll come back and be like, no,
Speaker 1: that one's safe. No, that's not what you think it is,
Speaker 1: et cetera. There are many of those, and they're great. Also,
Speaker 1: as I just mentioned, just about all parts of the
Speaker 1: dandelion or the desert chickery are edible. You can saute
Speaker 1: the leaves, I read a story about somebody even boiling
Speaker 1: the stems to be like noodles, which sounded interesting. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of options, but I also want you
Speaker 1: to be sure to consult well healed resources for how
Speaker 1: to handle them, just so you're eating safely anytime you're
Speaker 1: eating something that's grown in the wild. So now that
Speaker 1: we have scared you get your dan allions together. You're
Speaker 1: gonna rinse those flowers really thoroughly. You can even dunk
Speaker 1: them in a bowl of water for a little while
Speaker 1: to make sure any visitors you didn't mean to invite
Speaker 1: along the way are eliminated. Rinse them again after that.
Speaker 1: I know some recipes for dandelion syrup have you soaking
Speaker 1: the dandelion pedals overnight. I don't do that. I do
Speaker 1: a different thing. That version has you strain off the
Speaker 1: water and then use the remaining water in your syrup.
Speaker 1: But I put the dandelion pedals right on in there.
Speaker 1: We'll strain later. You're gonna pluck the petals from the stems.
Speaker 1: And when I say a handful, I think I had
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty dandelions. I wish they were a little
Speaker 1: bit further along in progression. Mine were kind of like
Speaker 1: right at the beginning of starting to bloom. But the
Speaker 1: timing is what it is. I can't make them hurry,
Speaker 1: So you pluck the petals from them. You just drop
Speaker 1: them into a small saucepan with about one and a
Speaker 1: quarter cups of water and a cup of sugar or
Speaker 1: sugar substitute, and you're gonna turn up the heat and
Speaker 1: heat it on medium until it comes to a boil,
Speaker 1: and then you'll reduce the heat to a simmer. How
Speaker 1: long it simmers will depend on what sweetener you use,
Speaker 1: at least ten minutes, but basically you want to let
Speaker 1: it reduce by about half and then you're just gonna
Speaker 1: let it cool and then you're gonna strain it off.
Speaker 1: You may want a double strain yours. There's always a
Speaker 1: little bit of sediment that comes with anything that you're
Speaker 1: making like this, especially when you're using natural, unprocessed ingredients.
Speaker 1: So if that really bugs you give it a good
Speaker 1: double strain. But you do want a good mesh strainer
Speaker 1: to begin with that's got a pretty fine a pretty
Speaker 1: fine mesh to it. Now you have your dandillion syrup,
Speaker 1: and we are ready to make a drink, and we
Speaker 1: are going to make this by starting out with three
Speaker 1: quarters of an ounce of dandelion syrup. You're gonna match
Speaker 1: that with three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice,
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna make Maria very happy because you're
Speaker 1: gonn an ounce and a half of rye.
Speaker 2: Ah, here we go.
Speaker 1: Give this a shake in your shaking tin, get it
Speaker 1: getting cold, pour it over fresh ice, and then you
Speaker 1: top the whole thing with root beer. I use a
Speaker 1: low sugar root beer because I just I don't like
Speaker 1: super sweet drinks, and that lower sugar just lets some
Speaker 1: really cool stuff happen. Because this drink turns into nothing
Speaker 1: you expect. It doesn't taste the way it smells. The
Speaker 1: lemon juice completely changes the flavor profile of the root
Speaker 1: beer as well as the rye. You can't really even
Speaker 1: taste the rye, which is a little bit of a shocker,
Speaker 1: because rye is a very prominent flavor in drinks that
Speaker 1: it's in. When you taste your dandelion syrup, to my palette, anyway,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have a prominent floral note. But somehow, when
Speaker 1: these things combine, you get that sense of flowers were
Speaker 1: involved here. It's a really cool little trick. It happened accidentally.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if this was all gonna work, but
Speaker 1: it did, and then just enjoy your sip. To make
Speaker 1: this a non alcoholic version, it's pretty easy. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get rid of your rye. This is one where you
Speaker 1: want to brew a black tea and maybe add some
Speaker 1: bitters if you are not averse to using bitters. As
Speaker 1: we always say, they have alcohol content, but it's minute
Speaker 1: at the point where you're adding two to three drops.
Speaker 1: But if you do absolutely none, I would put black
Speaker 1: pepper in your tea that's substituting for rye and mix
Speaker 1: it that way. And we are gonna call this one
Speaker 1: the cure Nothing because it won't except for your sadness,
Speaker 1: perhaps because it's so yummy. Yeah, it's the cure nothing,
Speaker 1: because these things didn't really cure anything either. I also
Speaker 1: wanted to use root beer instead of a sasperrilla sota
Speaker 1: because we mentioned that so many of them were actually
Speaker 1: not made with real saasperlet anyway.
Speaker 2: They had similar ingredients anyway, and this sounds like it
Speaker 2: could be possibly my drink of the season.
Speaker 1: It's really good. I will say this too. The other
Speaker 1: reason I wanted to steer away from sasparilla is that
Speaker 1: you can buy it, but it's not as readily available
Speaker 1: on shelves as a root beer. So I'm I never
Speaker 1: want to like come up with a thing that's hard
Speaker 1: for anybody to get a hold of. Ideally, the good
Speaker 1: news is most people have dandelions. If you have a
Speaker 1: perfectly manicured lawn and you never get dandelions, ask a neighbor,
Speaker 1: visit your neighbor. The neighbors can all come to my
Speaker 1: house because even if I try to curtail the dandelions impossible,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work. And that's fine too. This is the
Speaker 1: cure Nothing. Cure's nothing at all, but it cured my
Speaker 1: blues because it worked, which is always a delight when
Speaker 1: you're doing an experiment. I hope you try the Cure Nothing,
Speaker 1: because honestly, it's really delicious. It delivers in stages. You
Speaker 1: get three different flavors, but none of those flavors are
Speaker 1: what you think they're gonna be, and it's not in
Speaker 1: a way where you're like, what is going on here?
Speaker 1: This is quite fascinating. So it's a little scientifically interesting thing.
Speaker 1: And if you make yours with Carolina desert chickory instead
Speaker 1: of dandelion, that I think might change it a little
Speaker 1: bit too. I picked both and only ended up making
Speaker 1: syrup with the dandelions because I just didn't have time
Speaker 1: to do a whole other thing with it. But that's
Speaker 1: also very interesting to me. And chickory shows up everywhere.
Speaker 1: The roots are used in coffee in the South all
Speaker 1: the time. Interesting stuff. I hope you enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy making floral syrup. If you haven't done
Speaker 1: that with us before, you could start adding all kinds
Speaker 1: of flowers as long as they are edible, into syrups
Speaker 1: and getting some really interesting things. I talking' roses, carnations,
Speaker 1: just about anything that you can think of. Violets, It's
Speaker 1: easy to make your own violet syrup. They are completely edible, Chrysanthemums,
Speaker 1: all kinds of things. Make yummy syrups with plants, and
Speaker 1: it's really fun. I will say, if you do this,
Speaker 1: those syrups do not have the same shelf life as
Speaker 1: one you would buy from a store, where those tend
Speaker 1: to last forever. This one's gonna last you two to
Speaker 1: four weeks, depending on what your sweet nerve choice is.
Speaker 1: You do want to keep it refrigerated. Ideally, if you
Speaker 1: are anything like me, you start adding it to everything,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna have dandelion syrup in my coffee. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have dandalion syrup my muffin in the morning.
Speaker 2: Right, What does this taste like on wobble?
Speaker 1: Right? What does it taste like if I just add
Speaker 1: it to a little bit of sparkling water with some
Speaker 1: lemon juice? Answer? Delicious, Highly recommend. So I hope that
Speaker 1: this gives you some food for thought and causes you
Speaker 1: to think of yummy experiments of your own. We will
Speaker 1: be right back here next week with another tale of
Speaker 1: snake oil and another drink that may or may not
Speaker 1: inspire many other drinks. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland
Speaker 1: Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.