What If A Man From The Year 1900 Were To Drink Today’s Whisky?

Awhile back, Kurt Bradley our Editor at The Gentleman’s Flavor posed an interesting question to me:

“If you gave a man from the year 1900 a glass of whisky from today, what would he think of it? What about other types of alcohol?”

This question gave me pause for a moment to weigh all the different possibilities in my head and think of a suitable response. At first this triggered some even bigger questions:

How puzzled would he be by all these handheld kinetoscopes we are constantly staring at? Would he be shocked by seeing women wearing pants? Would the apparent lack of roving pack animals and the availability of refrigeration completely boggle the mind?

Before allowing my thoughts to spiral out of control, I began thinking about whisky. Scotch in particular.

With many of today’s distilleries in Scotland predating 1900 and making many of the same products in the same place and in the same manner, I feel there would not be too much difference for him to wrestle with when it comes to Scotch. A classic Ardbeg or Bowmore expression of today likely varies little from that of over a century ago.

The Ardbeg Distillery in Islay, Scotland established 1815

When it comes to modern whisky, I feel that the first thing a man from 1900 would notice would be the relative weakness in strength, since most are watered down to below 50% abv.

Cask strength would likely have been much more of the norm over a century ago when it comes to whisky.

Any whiskies that make use of modern chill filtration or include the addition of E150 caramel for color would certainly seem odd from a visual standpoint to Mister 1900. In addition to this, the many modern finishing techniques that use sherry or other unique barrels that previously held other liquid would also be quite foreign to a 1900s whisky drinker. They were first put into practice in the 1980s.

The Balvenie Caribbean Cask is an example of a modern whisky that utilizes a special cask finish

On the nose, I doubt that the man of 1900 would be able to discern many of the aromatic nuances of modern spirits at all, since his life was spent much more in the presence of animals, wood and coal smoke, and all manner of unpleasant odors. Also, given the simplicity of his regional diet, he would have much less gastronomical reference points to draw from when nosing or tasting spirits.

Speaking of spirits, I would also surmise that he would be much more familiar with a high proof rum since they too have changed very little. Many of the rum distilleries continue in this tradition from past centuries with a very similar type product today.

Many age old distillery practices are still the same today

Other than the modern availability of cold beer, a man from 1900 would be quite used to the concept of craft brewing given that the beer he drank was either made regionally or onsite at most places in his day. Depending on where he was from, he might never have consumed a beer that was brewed more than a hundred miles from where he lived.

In America, Yuengling have been around the longest. However, depending on his geography, the 1900s man would possibly have had a beer made by Coors, Miller, Busch or maybe Rainier. In Canada, he would possibly have consumed a Labatt, Carling, or Molson product.

Vintage Indianapolis Brewing Advert, 1904

Europe of course opens up much more possibilities for similar products that would be recognizable to someone from 1900  – or even 1800 in many cases! I would wager that a modern day Peach Saison or some wacky micro porter might seem like sheer madness to the man from the past, and be perceived as something other than a beer.

On the topic of tobacco, the man of 1900 would likely have a difficult time comprehending why we are not all smoking everywhere all the time, and furthermore, why he cannot smoke wherever he pleases. He would likely consider it rather odd discovering that men smoke cigarettes, as in his time cigarette smoking was primarily the domain of women – and generally only in private.

He would also be far more familiar with smoking a pipe over any type of cigar since those were a luxury item even back then. If he were to have a cigar, he would likely remark on their extreme moisture in comparison to the drier cigars in his time, since climate control was a tricky thing and humidity control was practically unheard of.

Final Thoughts

When answering this vast hypothetical question, there are simply a limitless number of variables to take into consideration. One variable that I’ve left off the table in this discussion is notions of class. Of course, things would be quite different between the common man of 1900 and someone who was rather well to do at the time when it comes to drinking.

However, regardless of class it would no doubt be be shocking to placed in some future time period. It might however, be comforting in some way to discover that certain things of your time period are indeed still present – and in familiar form – in a future time.

When you get right down to it, I guess some good things just don’t need to change all that much.

-Sean Douglass