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"A glass of swizzle, the most salubrius beveragein
hot weather." 1843.
Swizzle
The name Swizzle has been applied to variously com
pounded drinks, and while it is said the origin of the
word is unknown it appears to be just another way of
pronouncing Switchel, a drink made of molasses and
water, sometime with the addition of vinegar, gin, and
rum. Also applied to strong drinks sweetened and
flavored with bitters.
To make a Swizzle a swizzle-stick is necessary—a
round wooden stick or dowel with swollen bottom end
from which protrude five smaller sticks like the spokes
of a wheel. The swizzle-stick is rotated rapidly between
the palms to mix the drink thoroughly. A Swizzle,
according to legend, is a liquid institution of Demerara,
British Guiana, and became quite popular in the West In
dies before it made its appearance in Old New Orleans.
There were many references to the drink over a century
ago, such as "The boys finished the evening with some
fine grub, swizzle, and singing." (1813), and a British
traveler. Lady Brassy, more intrigued with the way the
drink was concocted with a swizzle-stick than with the
drink itself, wrote in 1885: "I mean to take home some
'swizzle-sticks.' They are cut from some kind of creeper,
close to a joint, where four or five shoots branch out at
right angles, so as to produce a star-like circle. The whole
ismixed with powdered ice, and stirred or 'swizzled' until
it froths well."
As early as 1800 this same drink was known as Swit
chel, an Englishman noting that "the dauntless Yankees
still drank their switchell," so that derivation of stvizzel
from stvitchel seems plain.
"We were never 'groggy', 'intoxicated', 'swizzled', or 'tight',
but once." 1843.
Eighty-two