Switchel

Switchel (also called haymaker’s switchel, harvest drink, haymaker’s drink, and ginger water) is a beverage usually made with molasses, water, vinegar, and spices (most often ginger) and occasionally with rum. Switchel, thought to be of New England origin, was drunk by field workers to quench their thirst during harvest time and is frequently mentioned in nineteenth-century accounts of whaling expeditions and merchant ship voyages.