Initially an exercise in historical curiosity, fuelled by a desire to better understand ancient distilling techniques and, of course, have a taste of what our ancestors were drinking, we have resurrected an otherwise extinct but wonderful drink. This recipe was published in 1718, and we have gone to extreme lengths to make it exactly as specified, although there was some puzzling over the old English the recipe is written in! Usquebaugh is the English spelling of "Uisge Beatha", Gaelic for "Water Of Life". "Uisge Beatha" Became simply "Uisge", and from there it wasn't much of a jump to "Whisky". This is the stuff whisky was born from. Maturation was not known about until around 1780, and didn't become common until the 1820s. Until then, this is how they would make the strong spirit palatable.