What To Drink, by Bertha E. L. Stockbridge

Published in 1920, What to Drink: The Blue Book of Beverages by Bertha E. L. Stockbridge is, at first glance, a drinks manual defined by the lack of alcohol; there are no wines, spirits, or liqueurs that are typically found in beverage books of the era.

The context is crucial. The book emerges in the same year as Prohibition in the United States, when the production, sale, and distribution of alcohol had just been outlawed. Rather than resisting this shift outright, Stockbridge leans into it, producing a guide tailored for hostesses – home entertaining was always the woman's domain at the time – navigating a newly dry social landscape. Her aim is not to replicate alcohol exactly, but to ensure that the rituals of hospitality survive intact.

The book is an astonishingly extensive collection – over 420 recipes – of fruitades, punches, syrups, shrubs, and what she terms “temperance cocktails" like highballs.

The drinks themselves are inventive, if occasionally demanding. A ginger ale julep, for instance, has the structure of a mint julep, but replaces bourbon with effervescence and spice. Fruit cups layer juices and syrups in combinations that prioritize brightness and refreshment. Elsewhere, shrubs – vinegar-based drinks – introduce a tangy, almost fermented character, echoing older preservation techniques while offering complexity that plain juices might lack.

What to Drink is less about the drink; it's more about preserving a ritual. The host is tasked with maintaining standards – of taste, of presentation, of hospitality – despite the constraints of Prohibition. She does have a thing for fancy glasses though, where she notes more than once: "Good glasses cost no more than ugly ones. And surely any drink is more pleasing to the palate if the eye is pleased." She also emphasizes the importance of serving drinks in well-polished, pretty glasses.

For modern readers, particularly those immersed in cocktail history, the book predates the craft cocktail revival by decades, yet anticipates some of its principles: an emphasis on fresh ingredients, house-made components, and layered flavors.

In the end, the absence of alcohol forces a reconsideration of what a “drink” can be, and in doing so, reveals how much of drinking has always been about more than alcohol itself.

If anything, the book is a great compendium for whenever you want to entertain guests of all ages, and it's especially useful if you intend to participate in any temperance movements like Dry January.