It would not be surprising if, despite being a drink almost 300 years old and a well-known word in Oceania (where it is used to refer to any alcoholic beverage), your knowledge of Grog dates back to at most 1990, when it became famous for its appearance in The Secret of Monkey Island.
Now on everyone’s lips once again thanks to the announcement of Return to Monkey Island, the joke of the Grog, the drink that according to the LucasArts video game contains kerosene, propyl glycol, artificial sweeteners, sulfuric acid, rum, acetone, red dye No. 2, SCUMM, axle grease, battery acid and/or pepperoni, has become a classic of the history of the video game. His originas you may have imagined, is very different.
What is Grog?
The short story is that the Grog It is an alcoholic drink made up of hot water, a tablespoon of lemon juice and some liquor such as rum or cognac. Depending on the country you are in, the mixture can vary, adding a cinnamon stick, tea, orange or pineapple juice, honey or even mixtures of different types of rum such as aged white or black.
What is common everywhere is the English term groggy (groggy in the language of Cervantes), a word we use to define someone who is lethargic or does not think clearly, usually due to sleepiness, fatigue or because the opposing boxer has left him lying on the canvas with a right hand.
Although the relationship between the drink and the word seems obvious, the story behind it is much more interesting than drawing our own conclusions. To get to know it, you have to travel to the Age of Discovery, when the British Royal Navy embarked on long voyages to try to scrutinize every corner of the new world.
The trips were long and heavy for the crew, so to keep them alive during the journey, the boats were loaded with food, water, brandy and beer with low alcohol content.
It is not that they planned to have a party during the trip, it is that the water they transported ended up spoiling due to the algae that arose from prolonged stagnation, so to sweeten the drink they added liquor, wine or beer and rationed the supply to a gallon ( about three and a half liters) per person per day of water mixed with alcohol.
The harsh wars of the time often complicated the arrival of these alcoholic beverages across the Atlantic, so when the British discovered that rum was rampant in the West Indies (Antilles and Bahamas), they decided to start using it as currency of exchange in their transactions in order to continue mixing alcohol with water.
The creator of the Grog
Rum had not originated there, it is a liquor created from fermented sugar that originated in ancient Greece and conquered the palate of Marco Polo on his well-known walks through the Middle East, but for some strange reason its consumption had gone unnoticed in Europe and began to spread to England thanks to the Caribbean distilleries.
With its rise, the British fleet changed its usual spirits for rum, dictating that half a pint (about 250 ml) of the spirit was equivalent to the three and a half liters of beer with water that was used. The difference is that if the alcohol volume of the beers that were used was between one and three percent, that of the rum could reach up to 20%so the two daily rations given to the sailors caused colossal cogorzas and triggered indiscipline and fights.
The answer to the problem was found by Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, nicknamed “the old grog” for the layer of grosgrain that he usually wore, a common fabric in the bows of the decorations, but also in accessories such as belts and hats.
He didn’t break his horns too much with the solution, he just ordered to go back to the old habit of mixing the rum with water in the portions, a drink that over time and in a derogatory manner became known as grog in honor of its inventor’s nickname.
The half pint allowance per man will be mixed with a quart of water, mixed on deck in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch, who shall see that the men are not defrauded of their Rum allowance. It will be served in two portions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Men who are good husbands will be able to save their rations of salt and bread to acquire sugar and lime to make water a more palatable good.
The importance of Grog
However, what began as a tantrum against the decision to deprive them of their precious rum to give them grog with sugar and lime, would end up becoming a concoction that would save thousands of sailors from death. The main cause of death in those voyages and naval wars was not starvation or death by enemy cannon fire, but scurvy, a disease that, by vitamin C deficiency and the lack of collagen production in the body, causing gum ulcers and bleeding.
For example, the Seven Years’ War for control of North America and India took over 1,500 British sailors in the thick of the war. In the same period, between 100,000 and 200,000 seafarers died due to diseases, with the scurvy the most common of them.
Without knowing it, those poor drunkards who had exchanged their ration of bread and salt for a dressing for their grog, were treating themselves with the most important medicine of the time, a drink that would save their lives and whose use on ships would extend beyond the WWII.
On July 30, 1970, 230 years after a grosgrain layer gave it its name, grog was banned under a British Navy mandate recognizing its important heritage and service to the troops.
At a time when hunger was no longer common on deck and ships had high technology that demanded more and more attention and responsibility, that a sailor kept his two daily rations to stick to the father party night after night no longer it was an option. Grog became part of a beautiful story with a happy ending and became a thing of the past. Or almost.
From Monkey Island to League of Legends, the other history of the Grog
In 1990, during the first bars of the adventure, the parody of the pirate stories of ‘The Secret of Monkey Island’ introduced grog as one of the island’s favorite drinks, even appearing in vending machines with various variants as if it were the pirates’ Coca Cola.
From there, grog becomes a regular classic of the saga with different appearances in some of its sequels, so the joke becomes a classic of the video game world that many other titles use to pay homage to Ron Gilbert’s game.
We saw it in Spanish ‘Hollywood Monsters’ as one of the three ingredients to prepare a Nessie Boom, in other adventures such as ‘Runaway 2’, as a first-aid kit in ‘Risen’, as an ork drink in ‘Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’ (although there the change from beer to grog from The Hobbit by Peter Jackson also had something to do with it), in ‘Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag’, among the pirates of ‘World of Warcraft’ and even in ‘League of Legends’where one of the heroes is a pirate with an ability called Grog’s Soaked Blade.
Due to its remarkable history in maritime life, the grog It has not only been referenced in the video game world, but also in books, from Jules Verne to Moby Dick, or movies like Master and Commander. It may have disappeared from naval voyages, but it’s going to be much harder for it to make it out of our memories, especially if you’re one of those who prefers it with pepperoni.