This story was originally published in July 2018. On these hot summer days, it’s critical to stay hydrated, a task that lots of modern-day Mainers do by gulping glasses of water or bottles of electrolyte-rich sports drinks. A few, though, are eschewing neon-colored Gatorade and choosing a more old-fashioned beverage instead: switchel.
The fermented drink, which is also known by the name haymaker’s punch, is traditionally made with cider vinegar, molasses or maple syrup, ginger and water. And if you were haying in hot summer fields 100 or 200 years ago, it probably would have been your drink of choice. “It’s basically an electrolyte replacement,” Sherry Davis, the executive director of the Maine Forest and Logging Museum at Leonard’s Mills in Bradley, said of the drink.
“It’s the early version of Gatorade. ..
. It’s much better for you and less expensive than Gatorade.” Back then, farmers were likely to have a stoneware jug of switchel tucked away in the shade or cooling in a stream, waiting for them to put down their scythes and have a break from long days of haying and other work in the field.
Switchel was easy to make, Davis said, and has health benefits that might not have been completely understood by the farmers of yore but would have been appreciated nonetheless. Ginger is an anti-inflammatory, raw apple cider vinegar can soothe tummy troubles and molasses is high in potassium, an electrolyte. “It would be more refreshing than water,” she said of .