The last Temperance Bar - this month's Waitrose Illustrated

Great Article in this month's Waitrose Illustrated on the last remaining Temperance Bar in England. Temperance bars were popular in Industrial revolution-era England and over the years (particularly in the 1960s, when Coca-Cola became the soft drink of choice) have nearly vanished.

Of the last remaining pub, Fitzpatricks, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, the author writes:

While the pub is no bigger than a corner shop, it's packed with every kind of herbal tincture, ointment, brew and remedy on the market. Lined up on its shelves are 13 different varieties of bottled home-brewed herbal drinks that the company has been making since 1890: dandelion and burdock, lemon and ginger, ginger beer, sasparilla (prepared from the aromatic roots fo the climbling plant of the same name) blood tonic (dark red, with raspberry flavour) and cream soda.

Here's a fun paper written by a college student on Temperance in Victorian England:

http://www.loyno.edu/history/journal/1992-3/smith-r.htm

While the pub is no bigger than a corner shop, it's packed with every kind of herbal tincture, ointment, brew and remedy on the market. Lined up on its shelves are 13 different varieties of bottled home-brewed herbal drinks that the company has been making since 1890: dandelion and burdock, lemon and ginger, ginger beer, sasparilla (prepared from the aromatic roots fo the climbling plant of the same name) blood tonic (dark red, with raspberry flavour) and cream soda.

I love dandelion and burdock - it was my drink of choice as a youngster (along with canned shandy - strange to think that I once lived in a country where a 6-year old could buy a soft drink that contained beer, even though there wasn't much beer in there).

I wonder if there is anywhere in Chicago were one could purchase dandelion and burdock? Maybe one of the Irish markets on the South Side?