Wassail

Mulled ale, roasted apples, and spices — the Anglo-Saxon waes hael (be well) predating 1066, the Twelfth Night orchard ritual giving English the word toast.

Wassail carries over a thousand years of midwinter tradition in every cup. The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon toast waes hael, meaning be well or be in good health, with the expected response being drinc hael — drink and be healthy. The custom predates the Norman conquest of 1066 and took two distinct forms in medieval England. The house-visiting wassail sent groups door to door singing and offering a shared bowl of warm, spiced drink in exchange for food, coins, or gifts. The orchard-visiting wassail, most strongly rooted in the cider-producing counties of Somerset, Herefordshire, and Sussex, saw revelers gather around apple trees on Twelfth Night (January 5th or 6th) to sing, bang pots and pans, and pour cider over the roots — a ritual intended to drive off evil spirits and bless the coming harvest. This orchard practice gave English the word toast: pieces of spiced bread were hung in the boughs of trees as offerings, and when the bowl was raised, those floating pieces of bread were called the toast. The traditional wassail bowl was made from silver or pewter and held a frothy mixture of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, eggs, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. The pulp of the roasted apples gave the surface its woolly appearance, earning the drink the nickname Lamb's Wool.