for vinegar or, when his strength was failing, would add a little wine.” But hope is not lost for being able to recreate this ancient thirst quencher thanks to some much later recipes! Although the only known recipes date several centuries after the known recipes date several centuries after the fall of the Western Empire, they can give us a vague idea of what else would have been put into posca and the ratios of the different ingredients.
It may come fewer fun colors and have less added sugar, but if you wish to hydrate like the ancient Romans, this is the recipe for you! To make the ancient Roman Gatorade, posca,you’ll need the following ingredients:
2 tbsp vinegar ( red wine vinegar if you have it)
250 ml water
1 tbsp honey
A pinch of salt
Optional herbs for flavor like spikenard and crushed coriander seed
Instructions
Step 1:
Melt honey in microwave for about 20 seconds. Then add honey to water and stir together. Once mixed, add the vinegar
Step 2:
Add salt and herbs to mixture and let them soak for a while before straining them out.
Step 3:
Enjoy your posca!
October doesn’t just mean that spooky season is right around the corner, it’s also the most exciting month for sports fans! With it being the middle of the Fall Sports season, it’s game on for middle and high school athletes who play sports like football, soccer, cross country, field hockey, and many more. October also brings The World Series, MLB playoffs, the start of the NBA and NHL seasons, full swing of the NFL, college basketball, college football rivalry matches- the list goes on! With all the sports going on this season, it’s important that our fellow JCLers stay hydrated! But, water is so bleh and Gatorade is so boring- I prefer to quench my thirst the old fashioned way: With the Gatorade of Ancient Rome!
Posca is an ancient Roman drink that was commonly drank by soldiers and slaves. It’s a blend of vinegar and water that originated in Greece. Dating as far back as the mid Roman Republic (509-27 BCE), posca was rationed to military troops alongside grains, meat and cheese. While the Romans did drink water, it’s possible that it wasn’t their drink of choice. Because the Romans praised wine for its supposed health benefits and posca contained vinegar made from off-wine, it’s likely it was preferred over water.
Posca was the essential drink for Roman soldiers. It doubled the soldiers' liquid ration by diluting wine that had gone bad (a cheap and effective source of calories easily distributed in bulk) with water. Posca also had some supposed health benefits. The acidity and slight alcohol content probably killed off bacteria, making it safer to drink than plain water. It was also thought that vinegar would prevent scurvy, but that has since been disproven.
There are no known recipes for posca, the closest thing being what Plutarch wrote about Cato the Elder when he was fighting in the Punic Wars: “Water was what he drank on his campaigns, except that once in a while, in a raging thirst, he would call