spa?

[tenngun]

"Instead of spa we'll drink brown ale" Gerryowen. I can not find a drink called spa. Any one know what it is?

 

[Wes/Tex]

Only one I can find is gin, lime juice, cucumber puree and a few sprigs of mint.! Think I'd switch too!!

The Chorus goes:

"Instead of spa we'll drink brown ale
and pay the reckoning on the nail,
for debt no man shall go to jail;
from Gerry Owen in Glory!"

 

[Billnpatti]

Ya know, when you first read it, it sounds pretty terrible with the cucumber puree in it :barf: but when you think abut it, :hmm: it may not be so bad but I think I'd use cucumber juice rather than the puree. I have always thought that gin was a nice summer drink. Cucumber is not a strongly flavored vegetable so it might be okay. The lime and mint along with the gin sounds as if it might be a rather tasty refreshing drink after all.....with the cucumber juice in place of the puree, of course. If I had some gin, I just might give it a try.

 

[tenngun]

I think i'll take the brown ale. Gin was popular at the time in England, don't know how popular it was in Ireland. I wonder if it was a poor mans drink , a man too poor to buy brown ale. I'm thinking this song must be from 1830/40,after lighted streets and before the starvation

 

[Claude Mathis]

In Europe beginning in the late seventeen hundreds, it became fashionable to visit the natural mineral springs to either drink of the "healthful" waters or to bathe in them. The wealthy promoted and gathered at these "watering places" or spas which catered to their needs and their pocketbooks.

Spas were also becoming popular in the New World, and as early as 1767, the waters of Jackson's Spa in Boston were bottled and sold to satisfy a rapidly growing demand for its therapeutic miracles.

About 1800, the waters of a mineral spring near Albany, NY were bottled commercially, and in 1820, the first Saratoga Springs bottled water was sold.

The bottling of natural mineral waters peaked in the late 1800's, and by 1900 was being phased out by the increasing use of "Soda Waters".

 

[Wes/Tex]

Claude, your post reminds me of that old standby:
"Pluto Water; America's Physic"!
Talk about cleaning out your pipes, that stuff was suppose to be the champ at it!! :wink:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

BOY I AM GLAD CLAUDE found out what they were singing about with "spa". It was driving me crazy. :youcrazy: I was trying to figure out if it was some sort of shortening of an Irish term for some sort of beverage... so a slang term for mineral spring water..., that makes sense.



Now I can rest....

OH and I did find out that the title is actually gerrai Eóghan or gerrai eoin which means "Eóghan's Garden" or "John's Garden" as in a beer-garden.

LD

 

[tenngun]

Thanks, of corse if you look spa up it only refers you to resorts

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Only one I can find is gin, lime juice, cucumber puree and a few sprigs of mint.! "

I can't help but think that many of the old drinks were built for a hot day in a time when ice was unlikely.

If it was a hot July, no AC and no ice for miles, you just hoed the beans in the blazing sun, the above drink wouldn't sound half bad.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I think I'd go with switchel in an earthen pitcher that had been set in a few inches of running water in the springhouse.

LD