Taste of Life: How ginger beer quenched thirst in Poona summer

Last month, I received an email from a college student in Bhubaneshwar who was working on a project that involved theorising food slang. She had compiled quite an impressive list and wanted me to add to it.

“Ginger” was the first on her list, and I was correct in assuming that she was a fan of “Modern Family”, a chart-topping sitcom. Mitchell Pritchett, one of the lead characters in the sitcom, was ginger. This association reminded me of how the word “queer” was replaced by “Brighton Pier”, and afterwards by “ginger beer”, then being shortened to “ginger”, an expression for a homosexual man.

This, of course, then reminded me of Charles Cooper, probably the first manufacturer of ginger beer in Poona. He was mentioned in the Bombay Almanac of 1852. The Thacker’s Directory of 1866 mentioned Charles Cooper having a ginger beer business on Medow Street in Bombay.

There were several beer manufacturers in Belfast and Birmingham by the name of Charles Cooper in the mid-nineteenth century. Charles Cooper of Poona might have arrived in India from these two cities since they were known for their excellent ginger beer.

Ginger beer was a popular summer beverage in Poona and elsewhere in the Bombay Presidency. Several accounts written by Europeans mention it as their drink of choice during the hot months.

Sir George Watt mentioned in “The Commercial Products of India” that ginger beer was commonly made at home in the Bombay Presidency by infusing bruised ginger in hot water, adding, when cool, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, and essence of lemon, with sugar. A slice of bread was toasted, floated on the top of the liquid in an open pan, and a tablespoonful of yeast was placed thereon. Twenty-four hours later, the yeast and toast were removed, and the liquid was placed in small bottles to “work”. A ginger beer for ordinary use in hot weather was made much weaker.

The “Pharmaceutical Review” (March 1872) mentioned that ginger for beer should be fresh, dry, heavy, not brittle, of a reddish-grey exterior; the interior, when broken, should be resinous and of a pungent taste.

The manufacture of ginger beer and ginger ale formed a large portion of the mineral water trade in nineteenth-century Britain, some of it being exported to India. Ginger beer made in the UK with the “finest bleached Jamaica ginger” was always in demand at good prices in the Poona market in the twentieth century, after which came Cochin and African bleached ginger.

In the early nineteenth century, a guest was supplied with a basket of four or six bottles of beer and was supposed somehow to get through that supply during the repast. This practice, however, died out, and by the mid-nineteenth century, the demand had been steadily made for a higher-grade, lighter beer.

The term small beer was a common designation for the light fermented beers, better known as root, spruce, tonic, birch, lemon, Peruvian, ginger, and other similar beers. The richness of flavour, delicate aroma, and body of the liquid, obtained by fermentation, could not be approached by the beverage prepared by carbonating, and therefore, great care had to be taken in the manufacture of these fermented beers, as they were, when well prepared, pleasant and invigorating. Pop was a slang term used for ginger beer or any such small beer.

Ginger beer was usually put up in opaque, glass or stone bottles. All who could leave Bombay and Poona during the summer took up their residence at Matheran or Mahabaleshwar. They carried with them a large stock of ginger beer and ginger ale. Small beers, especially ginger beer, were available with the Parsee shopkeepers at the hill stations.

At Poona and Bombay railway stations, vendors of bottled lemonade, ginger beer, ginger ale, and soda water were always on hand. The absence of pure water and the excessive heat and humidity gave these dealers considerable patronage. Ginger beer and ginger ale were made available to soldiers in the Poona Cantonment.

In the early 1800s, the terms ginger ale and ginger beer were interchangeable, but eventually, they became somewhat distinct products. Ginger beer became associated with the fermented beverage and was targeted by the temperance movement because of its alcoholic content. Ginger ale became associated with the nonalcoholic, artificially carbonated version.

Belfast ginger beer and ginger ale were considered the best across Great Britain and the US. The popularity of Belfast ginger ale was attributed to capsaicin from hot peppers. The capsaicin was used to duplicate the spicy zing of fresh ginger because the compound in ginger that gave it its kick, gingerol, rapidly broke down in the presence of water, creating zingerone that was far less pungent than gingerol. Hence, the need arose to add capsaicin, as a replacement. Advertisements in Bombay newspapers indicated that ginger beer manufacturers in the Presidency in the twentieth century added capsaicin to ginger beer to boost its flavour.

Ginger wine and ginger beer were made of the same ingredients, but the former was more completely fermented for preservation, whereas the latter was made for immediate use, and bottled in such a state as to acquire in the course of a few days such a degree of fermentation as would make it very frothy when it was poured out. Moreover, ginger wine was generally more alcoholic than ginger beer. It was one of the great advantages of genuine and well-made ginger beer that by its spice and effervescence it was highly refreshing, while by its low alcoholicity, it was an agreeable stimulant without being intoxicating.

Ginger champagne was made by fermenting with yeast a mixture of ginger, sugar, water, orange or lemon juice, or both, and chopped raisins, in various proportions.

Ginger beer powder was advertised in Bombay newspapers and was available in a few stores in Poona. It contained all the ingredients (except sugar) necessary for brewing a really good ginger beer. A pound of the powder made approximately twenty gallons of ginger beer.

In the late nineteenth century, soluble essences of ginger, available in Poona, came to be used for making good ginger beer, and Belfast and American ginger ales.

The street trade in ginger beer commenced in London in 1822 when a man, during a most sultry drought, sold extraordinary quantities of “cool ginger beer” and of “soda–powders” near the Royal Exchange.

In the late 1850s, “fountains” for the production of ginger beer became common in the London streets. This trade in the open air was only for the summer season. While most street sellers brewed their beer, there was a class of street sellers who obtained their stock of ginger beer from the manufacturers. The beer was often let out on credit, or in some cases, security was given, and the empty bottles had to be duly returned.

The “Telegraph and Courier” reported on April 17, 1856, that Charles Cooper of Poona had written to the officials of the East India Company to let him employ men to sell beer on the streets in Bombay. His request was not granted by the authorities.

Finding Charles Cooper of Poona, the manufacturer of ginger beer, has kept me busy for several years now. Was he the same Charles Cooper who had business in Bombay?

I wish I knew.

Chinmay Damle is a research scientist and food enthusiast. He writes here on Pune’s food culture. He can be contacted at chinmay.damle@gmail.com