A glass OF FAME

We explore the history of some of the UK's most iconic drinks

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SUGAR AND SPICE

The thriving spice trade of the 1700s brought the key ingredients for ginger beer: ginger and sugar.

The drink was created in Yorkshire before going countrywide. In 1851, over a million bottles were sold in just over five months at the Great Exhibition that was staged in London's Hyde Park.

Original fermentation produced a fiery drink with 11% alcohol, hence the beer name. But brewers chose to shorten the fermentation time to keep the drink under a new 2% tax threshold. Modern ginger beers are classed as non-alcoholic, with less than 0.5% alcohol. Lashings of ginger beer featured in picnics in 1930s children's books, and grown-ups now add it to rum to create a Dark and Stormy cocktail, and to vodka and lime for a Moscow Mule.

What a tonic!