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The Swarm: English

The English had a malted hydromel of their own which Moffett highly commends. "Lately," he says, "the English found out a new composition of Hydromel, (they call it Varii) and serves better for ships than any Wine. Mead "The preparation is this : "Take Barley torrefied after due steeping in water, what you please, boyl it long in five quarts of fountain water, till it taste well of the malt: one pound of this boyled with eight pounds of honey, and twenty pounds of water, makes a drink that tastes most sweet, and is most healthful for use."

Oxymeli, a drink made from vinegar and honey, is described but not approved by Pliny. "Vinegar even has been mixed with honey; nothing, in fact, has been left untried by man. "This mixture is compounded of ten pounds of honey, five semi-sextarii of old vinegar, one pound of sea-salt, and five sextarii of rain-water. This is boiled gently till the mixture has bubbled in the pot some ten times, after which it is drawn off and kept till it is old; all these wines, however, are condemned by Themison (as drinks no doubt; and with good reason as to most of them!), an author of high authority. And really, by Hercules! the use of them does appear to be somewhat forced, unless indeed we are ready to maintain that these aromatic wines are so many compounds taught us by Nature, as well as those that are manufactured of perfumes, or that shrubs and plants have been generated only for the purpose of being swallowed in drink."