Vinegar

Condiments

Vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid produced by the double fermentation of a sugar source, first into alcohol and then into acid by acetic acid bacteria. In beverages it acts as a souring and preserving agent, lending sharp acidity that balances sweetness and refreshes the palate.

How vinegar is prepared

Vinegar is diluted with water or soda and sweetened to make refreshing drinks such as posca, switchel, sekanjabin, and oxymel; it forms the base of sweetened fruit syrups known as shrubs or drinking vinegars used in sodas and cocktails; and some rice and black vinegars are sipped on their own as health tonics. It also serves as a clear, citrus-alternative acidulant in mixed drinks.

Other preparations

Beverages using this preparation · 3
MURI
MURI × ESSE: The Finale
Still amber<0.5% ABV
prepared as Vinegar

Vinegar is listed as an ingredient. Its base and application are not specified; no additional fermentation is inferred.[8]

MURI
MURI × ESSE: The Middle
Still red<0.5% ABV
prepared as Vinegar

Vinegar is listed as an ingredient. Its base and application are not specified; no additional fermentation is inferred.[8]

MURI
Sherbet Daydream
Sparkling rosé<0.5% ABV
prepared as Douglas Fir-Infused Vinegar

Douglas fir needles are infused into vinegar used to pickle the rhubarb. Some pickle liquor is added at blending; this is not evidence of vinegar fermented from fir.[9][10][11]

Service signal Sharp, resinous, citrus-pine acidity.

In depth

Ancient origins as food and medicine

Vinegar likely emerged wherever alcohol was made, as wine, beer, or fermented fruit naturally soured under the action of airborne bacteria. The oldest documented vinegar making comes from ancient Babylonia around 3000 BCE, where dates, figs, and beer were converted into an acidic liquid used both in cooking and as medicine. From Mesopotamia the practice spread to neighboring cultures, with traces surviving in Egyptian vessels. In East Asia the craft was formalized early: China had specialized vinegar makers by the Zhou dynasty, concentrated around what is now Shanxi province, and the Greeks and Romans commonly turned wine into vinegar for seasoning and preservation. This deep link between fermentation and souring set the stage for vinegar's long career in drinks.[1]

Posca: the vinegar drink of ancient Rome

One of the earliest beverages built on vinegar was posca, made by mixing water with wine vinegar to produce a tart, thirst-quenching drink. Bracing but cheap, it was the everyday drink of Roman soldiers, laborers, the poor, and enslaved people, valued because its acidity made questionable water safer and more palatable on campaign. Generals and emperors sometimes drank posca to show solidarity with their troops, and a fourth-century decree even set out when common soldiers should receive it. The drink is famously referenced in the Gospels, where a sponge soaked in sour wine or vinegar is offered to Jesus. The tradition continued into the Byzantine era under the name phouska, sometimes elaborated with herbs and spices such as cumin, fennel, and anise into a flavored, mildly medicinal version.[2]

Oxymel and the honey-and-vinegar tonic tradition

Parallel to posca ran a family of honey-and-vinegar preparations valued as much for health as for refreshment. The best known is oxymel, whose name combines the Greek words for acid and honey; ancient authors including Cato recorded recipes combining honey with vinegar in fixed proportions, sometimes further blended with water as hydromel or with sour grape juice as omphacomel. Oxymel appeared repeatedly in medical and pharmacopoeial texts from antiquity through the Renaissance and into the Victorian era, prescribed for ailments ranging from sore throats to fainting spells. Related sweet-and-sour vinegar tonics such as the Persian sekanjabin belong to the same lineage. Though primarily medicinal, these drinks were genuine beverages, sipped diluted, and they anchor the idea that a balance of sweetness and acidity can be both restorative and pleasant.[3]

Shrubs and drinking vinegars in England and colonial America

By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, vinegar had become central to the shrub, a term covering two related drinks. In England a fruit cordial made with rum or brandy, sugar, and citrus went by the name, popular even among smugglers who used fruit flavoring to mask spirits fouled by seawater. The distinctly vinegar-based version, which took root in colonial America, began as a preservation method: vinegar poured over berries and other fruit drew out their flavor, and the strained liquid was sweetened and reduced into a syrup, also called drinking vinegar. This sweet-and-sour base could be mixed with plain or carbonated water for a soft drink or combined with spirits in cocktails. Raspberry vinegar was a celebrated early example, sold through apothecaries and enjoyed as a refreshment. Shrubs faded with the arrival of home refrigeration but never entirely disappeared.[4]

Switchel: the haymaker's punch

North America developed its own vinegar refresher in switchel, also called ginger-water or haymaker's punch. Made from water, vinegar, and a sweetener such as molasses, honey, sugar, or maple syrup, and usually spiced with ginger, it is thought to have originated in the Caribbean, though New England also claims it. By the late seventeenth century it was a popular summer drink in the American colonies, and by the nineteenth century it was the traditional restorative served to farmers laboring through the hay harvest, since its ginger and acidity let workers drink freely without the shock of ice-cold water. Regional variants added oatmeal or lemon juice, and switchel was sometimes spiked with rum, particularly at sea. A closely related honey-and-cider-vinegar drink was later promoted under the folk name honegar as a health tonic.[5]

East Asian rice vinegars as drinks and tonics

In East Asia, vinegar made from fermented rice wine developed a distinct beverage role alongside its culinary uses. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese rice vinegars tend to be milder, sweeter, and less harshly acidic than Western distilled vinegars, and some varieties are consumed as drinks in their own right. The most notable is kurozu, a dark Japanese black vinegar made from unpolished rice, traditionally diluted and sipped for its purported health benefits, including claims linked to its amino acid content. Elsewhere in China, aged black vinegars from Zhenjiang and Shanxi are prized for their deep, malty, almost smoky complexity, and various fruit vinegars, such as persimmon vinegar in Korea, can be diluted and sweetened for refreshment. These traditions show vinegar functioning simultaneously as seasoning, medicine, and drink.[6]

Aged wine vinegars and their beverage character

Europe refined vinegar into aged luxury products whose sweetness and depth suit them to drinks as well as the table. Balsamic vinegar, developed over centuries in the Italian provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia, is made from cooked grape must and aged in a succession of wooden casks, producing a rich, sweet, syrupy liquid that historically was even taken as a restorative tonic and energy-giving beverage. Its high grape-sugar content softens its acidity into a mellow balance. Spain's sherry vinegar, produced within the sherry triangle around Jerez and aged in oak by the solera system, offers a similarly complex, sometimes sweet profile, especially versions made from Pedro Ximénez grapes. While chiefly used in cooking, these aged wine vinegars carry the sweet-sour balance that underlies vinegar's role in beverages and inform the flavor of modern craft shrubs.[7]

The modern revival in low- and no-alcohol drinks

After decades in the background, vinegar-based drinks returned to prominence in the early twenty-first century. From around 2011, bartenders in the United States, Canada, and London revived the shrub, using sweetened, fruit-and-herb-infused drinking vinegars as an alternative to bitters and citrus in cocktails and as tangy, low-sugar sodas. Because vinegar acidulates without clouding a shaken drink, it appeals to mixologists seeking clarity and bright flavor, and its acidity makes shrubs well suited as apéritifs. Switchel likewise re-emerged as a ready-to-drink category, with commercial producers in North America. The parallel rise of kombucha and other fermented, low-alcohol drinks in the late 2010s further popularized vinegar's tart profile, cementing its place at the center of the contemporary specialty non-alcoholic beverage movement.[4]