The History of Booze for Breakfast: 7 Morning Drinks
Farmers tap the pajarete fountain.
After learning about the modest parajete, a rustic yet legendarily sumptuous concoction of instant coffee, cocoa, sugar, tequila, and unpasteurized frothy cow milk (squeezed straight from the udder to a cup), I was inspired by Mexican farmers’ use of booze to get their usual morning energy boost. With starch squarely in crosshairs, high protein buzz foods like egg-whites, spinach, and chicken breast are the usual go-to breakfast recommendations health writers tend to recommend, so it was damn cool to hear about these farmers, whose workdays are eight times as taxing, skipping the protein and heading straight for sugar, caffeine, alcohol and, of course, warm, raw fat. Here’s an awesomely DIY video of the process complete with killer rock soundtrack. Squirt away, guys:
I wanted to know where else in history has booze kickstarted the day. After some snooping, I uncovered monks, soldiers and even cold, impoverished (and maybe lucky) children who used some combination of drink to wake themselves up in the morning. Check out the LA Weekly article to get some ideas for tomorrow morning:
Karsk
“Put a coin in a cup. Pour on coffee till you can no longer see the coin. Pour on alcohol till you can see the coin again.” These were the instructions used by the residents in the Norwegian Bohuslän district as early as 1795 to make one of the most popular drinks of the time. Russian moonshine is traditionally used because of the small amount of aftertaste, but it’s also drunk with vodka. The name comes from the Old Norse adjective karskr, meaning healthy, vigorous or agile, the three things most of us won’t be if we follow the recipe literally.
More booze here.
