[Sca-cooks] Drinks at feasts (was: what's wierd-ish, what isn't)

[David Friedman]

William de Grandfort wrote:

>Certainly, of all the items you mentioned, Sekanjabin is the one 
>which I would pick to toss out.
>Not only is it a revolting beverage, but it is so over-used in the 
>SCA as to be 'mundane'.
>Personal opinion.

The question then becomes, what do you serve for people to drink at 
feasts? As someone else indicated, at least it isn't iced tea, which 
as far as I can tell was never been served to anyone in our period; 
sekanjabin and the other syrup drinks are at least reasonably 
appropriate for Islamic personas. What we should be serving for 
European feasts is pretty clearly wine, beer, mead, etc.; the problem 
with these is that we run into mundane constraints, including; (1) 
people often have to drive home after the feast; and (2) sites often 
don't allow alcohol; and (3) the SCA alcohol policy won't let you 
spend SCA money on them. At my last feast I compromised by serving 
small mead I had made myself from one of Digby's recipes, and 
donating it, which isn't horribly expensive, along with water and 
sekanjabin.

How do other people handle this?

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook