April 30, 2024 • 33 mins
John Healy wasn’t a real doctor. Charles Bigelow was never a scout in the United States Army. And, the products they sold weren’t actually based on healing secrets of the Kickapoo people. Yet, the two men made a fortune from their Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company patent medicines – which, while named for them, not a single Kickapoo was involved with the company or its remedies. The story of Healy and Bigelow is one of quackery, lies, native cultural appropriation, and ... wait, did we call out the cultural appropriation? Yes? Well, then, let's talk about this.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
John Healey was not a real doctor, Charles Bigelow was
never a scout in the United State's Army, and the
products they sold weren't actually based on healing secrets of
the Kickapoo people. Yet the two men made a fortune
from their Kickapoo Indian medicine company Patent Medicines, which, while
(00:35):
named for them, not a single Kickapoo was even vaguely
involved with the company and its remedies. The story of
Helium Bigelow is one of quackery, lies, cultural appropriation, and wait,
did we call out the cultural appropriation? Yes, okay. We
(00:55):
should also point out that, while inclusive language continues to evolve,
we will be quoting excerpts that contain outdated terminology. So
here we go, Welcome to Criminalia.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm Maritromarky and I'm Holly Fry. Let's talk for a
moment about who the Kickapoo people are before we talk
about how their name was wildly misappropriated by two con
artists trying to sell quack medicine to white Americans around
the turn of the twentieth century. Historically speaking, original Kickapoo
(01:26):
homes were wooden bark covered structures. Wigwams villages were semi
permanent encampments strategically built near agricultural areas and large tracts
of agricultural lands. During the winter months, small groups would
set up temporary hunting camps. They had a reputation as
formidable warriors. The word Kickapoo can be translated as wanderer,
(01:51):
and despite the Kickapoo people not being a nomadic tribe,
Kickapoo Indians did move a lot. Their roots lie in
the present day Great Lakes region in lower Michigan, but
conflict with European colonists, conflict with the Hadenashani over hunting grounds,
and conflict with the United States government over land drove
(02:13):
them as far south as the Mexican state of Kohuila. Today,
there remained three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States,
the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas,
and the Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation
in Kansas, Okay. So now that we know really just
(02:34):
the teeniest tiny surface level bit about the kickapoo people,
we will talk about how they actually had absolutely nothing
at all to do with this story.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Texas Charlie, as Charles Bigelow was known, grew up on
a farm in Texas. But the story he told about
his life was well, well, it was total nonsense that
never actually happened. His version went like this, As an
army scout patrolling what he called quote Native American territories,
(03:06):
he contracted a fever that left him weak and heavily fatigued.
He recalled a tribal chief, though sometimes when he told
this story, this person was a medicine man took pity
on him and gave him a medicine called quote Sagua.
It worked, and Bigelow asked if he could have the recipe.
The tale goes the chiefs sent five tribal medicine men
(03:29):
to accompany Bigelow back east, where together they created kickapoof Sagua,
and it became the so called magic elixir he went
on to sell at medicine shows across the United States. Now,
that story may have been untrue, but for a very
long time it was the accepted origin story for his
popular elixir kickapoof Sagua.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
In the eighteen fifties, Bigelow had begun peddling patent medicine
across the country, but he didn't see skyscraper level of
success until eighteen eighty one, when he joined up with
a man named John Doc Healey. Healey, who had no
medical training, had served as a drummer boy in the
Union Army during the American Civil War, and he was
(04:15):
then the proprietor of a traveling theatrical troop called Healey's
Hibernian Minstrels. Like Bigelow, he dabbled in patent medicines and
was the inventor and pitchman of a dubious liniment that
he'd named King of Pain. When he and Bigelow teamed up,
money making magic happened for the pair. They fabricated what
(04:36):
would be their flagship product, the fake quote Indian medicine Kickapoo. Sagua,
and Healey had a promotional plan they would use traveling
medicine shows to hawk bottles of Sagua and their other
patent medicine products. Edward Oliver Tilburn, known best as Nevada
Ned Oliver or Doctor nt Oliver, was a veteran connard.
(05:00):
He was hired as a pitchman by Heally and Bigelow.
He later recalled quote the plan was to hire a
few Indians, rent a storeroom, and have the medicine simmering
like a witch's brew in a great iron pot inside
a tpee. And that's a pretty accurate description of how
things went.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
The Kickapoo Sagua brand name was registered by the Healey
and Bigelow Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company at the United States
Patent Office in July of eighteen eighty two. Healey set
up the first Kickapoo office and product showroom in Providence,
Rhode Island, then moved into Manhattan before settling on space
in New Haven, Connecticut in eighteen eighty seven. He secured
(05:41):
a huge warehouse and decorated it with Indigenous American cliches,
things like teepees, spears, and other stereotypical objects. And because
the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company didn't care about these cultures,
they played a bit of mix and match from any
and all tribes for what they considered to be prompts.
(06:02):
The company would grow to become one of the largest
of its kind on the medicine show circuit. Eventually employing
upwards of three hundred Indigenous Americans. While other Indian medicine shows,
as the Niche was known, paid white actors to perform
in redface, those playing tribal characters for the Kickapoo shows
were hired primarily from the Hodina Shawni tribes. As if
(06:25):
we could forget, We'll say it again. None of the
company's employees were Kickapoo people.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company's best selling product was the
Sagua Elixir. It was advertised as being made from a
secret tribal recipe containing quote, roots, herbs, barks, gums, leaves,
and buffalo fat, and much like other patent medicines at
the time, it didn't much contain the things it claimed.
(06:54):
Its actual active ingredients were rhubarb, capsicum, mandrake, gaway, and
sal soda. Or Another alternate list of Sagua ingredients reads
as quote a vegetable compound with bicarbonate of soda composed
of uba, ersi, mandrake, may apple, rhubarb, senna, aniseed, coriander seed,
(07:16):
jinchona bark, yellow doc burdock, dandelion, cascara, licorice, and aloes
regardless of which was or wasn't the accurate list, or
maybe they both were. The one significant active ingredient missing
from both lists but very much contained in the Sagua,
was a whole lot of unregulated alcohol. It was the
(07:39):
star of the elixir's content.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
This was definitely not an ingredients list put together by
a real traditional healer. The whole premise here, though, was
that Heale and Bigelow wanted you to think that only
the Kickapoo people knew exactly what went into their remedies.
The pair wanted you to think the ingredients were shipped
to New Haven, where they were then combined into a
(08:02):
mixture by the quote wisest of Kickapoo Indian medicine men
who had left the reservation to serve Heale and Bigelow
and the cause of health. Now that sounds a lot
like Bigelow's fake origin story for Sagua, doesn't it. So.
On its packaging, Sagua claimed the following uses cures dyspepsia,
(08:23):
sick headache, sour stomach, loss of appetite, heartburn, depression, neuralgia,
female disorders, liver complaint, constipation, indigestions, rheumatism, impure blood jaundice, fever,
and all diseases of the stomach, liver, kidneys, and the blood.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
We're going to take a break for a word from
her sponsors, and when we're back we'll talk about the
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Companies Traveling Medicine Show and who they
hired to perform.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Welcome back to Criminalia, So grab your bottle of sagua.
We've got some traveling to do with the Kickapoo Indian
Medicine Show.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
What we haven't really talked about in detail yet is
the wildly problematic traveling Medicine show that was put together
by the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company. Historian Stuart Holbrook wrote
in his nineteen fifty nine book The Golden Age of
Quackery that Heley and Bigelow were quote the Barnum and
Bailey of the medicine show business, and he kind of
(09:35):
nailed them with that description. Heli and Bigelow made a
fortune with the combination of the appeal of miracle cure
ales with the theatrics that you would find at Barnum
Circus and Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows. From their headquarters
in Connecticut, the pair created troops of Indigenous Americans, white
vaudeville performers, and fast talking pitchmen who posed as doctors
(09:59):
to stage shows across America, and these shows became really
popular forms of entertainment, and the company sold a lot
of Kickapoo sagua. They also promoted and sold related spinoff
products including Kickapoo Buffalo salv Kickapoo Indian Cough Cure, Kickapoo Pills,
and Kickapoo Indian worm Killer.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Kickapoo Indian Medicine. Company representatives traveled ahead of the show
to the target city where they would set up advance
publicity for an upcoming show. Now this wasn't a few
posters around town. Rallies were held in front of drug
stores to promote the company's products and to promote the event.
Special window displays were set up in stores with event
(10:45):
related print advertisements and samples of the product line on display. Typically,
people of the Hodina Shawnee Confederacy were hired to appear
at these rallies to really, truly, absolutely, positively, without a doubt,
convince the audience of the alleged authenticity of the company
and its so called Indian remedies.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Nevada ned Oliver, who we mentioned earlier, booked and managed
traveling shows across the country for the Kickapoo Indian Medicine
Company in the eighteen eighties. In addition to his job
as show manager, in his spare time, he also wrote
cowboy detective crime novels. Ned was also the quote head
scout of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company and was usually
(11:32):
seen wearing buckskins and a wide brimmed hat as he
went about his work. Early Kickapoo Medicine shows began as
fairly modest events. You could expect a few indigenous people
would perform allegedly native dances, a few white singers and
acrobats would entertain the crowd, and a fake doctor such
as Nevada Ned would preach the good news of Sagua
(11:55):
and serve as master of ceremonies.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Years later, Ned described the shows in a magazine article
recalling Quote the show customarily began with the introduction of
each of the Indians by name, together with some personal history.
Five of the six would grunt acknowledgments. The sixth would
make an impassioned speech in Kickapoo, Interpreted by me, it
(12:21):
was a most edifying oration, as I translated it. What
the brave actually said I never knew, but I had
reason to fear that it was not the noble discourse
of my translation, For even the poker faces of his
fellow savages sometimes were convulsed, no matter what the performer said,
and no matter what language it may have been said.
(12:42):
In Ned's translation described all the ways the products of
the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company were miracle cures and why
you should go home with some today.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
As these shows gained popularity, he Lee and Bigelow upgraded.
They placed tps around the state. Pow wows were mimicked,
so called war dances.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Were performed, Tomahawks were.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Waved, there was the loud beating of tom tom's, and
fake cowboy and Indian conflicts acted out. Basically every tropy
thing you can think of was included in the show.
White performers now included singers and acrobats, along with contortionists, comedians,
and fire eaters. Occasionally, Texas Charlie himself appeared in front
(13:28):
of the crowd, donning a theatrically perched cowboy hat build
allegedly as the world champion rifle shooter. Bigelow would demonstrate
his expert marksmanship, and he would tell embellished and fabricated
stories of his life, including the fake origin story of sagua.
During and after the main event, which was the sales, pitch,
(13:51):
assistants would move through the crowd to sell the goods,
and from time to time these assistants would yell out
all sold out doctor as a way to motivate more sales.
It was a good use of the artificial scarcity tactic
at work. Admission to see these problematic caricature shows was
a dime.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Helei and Bigelow were so successful and widely known. Is
secured in an endorsement from Buffalo Bill Cody, who was
busy running his own very popular and very racist show
about white settlers conquering indigenous quote savages. In his endorsement,
Bill stated that quote kickapoo, Indian sagua is the only
(14:32):
remedy the Indians ever use, and has been known to
them for ages. An Indian would as soon be without
his horse, gun or blanket as without sagua. The truth,
of course, was no indigenous American used sagua, and there
was certainly no connection between the kickapoo and these products.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
But the white.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Community that knew that secret didn't care to change it.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Heli and Bigelow certain did not invent the traveling medicine show,
but they were really skilled at maximizing it to turn
a profit. The pair also were not the first to
appropriate indigenous cultures for their own game. There were other
Indian medicine shows on the traveling circuit at the same time.
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, though, was one of the
(15:20):
two biggest in the entire United States.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
By the eighteen nineties, he Lee and Bigelow were dispatching
more than a dozen Kickapoo Medicine shows across the United
States every summer. Larger troops encamped and played for weeks
in big cities, staging elaborate shows and tents that had
upwards of three thousand seats, wrote theater historian Brooks McNamara
in Step right Up, his nineteen seventy five book about
(15:46):
the history of medicine shows. Quote later, there were aerial acts,
a great deal of Irish and blackface comedy, and such
exotic novelties as the scatorial songsters who performed while glosing
around the stage on roller skates, and Jackie the only
table performer on Earth who turned somersaults on a pile
(16:07):
of tables that extended twenty five feet in the air.
So big city or small town. These shows included at
least a dozen performances, each interrupted for three or four
pitches by the Master of ceremonies. For Kickapoo Sagua.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we come back, we'll talk about
another problematic piece of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine company, their
use of cultural appropriation and racist stereotypes in their advertising materials.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how Healey and
Bigelow made their products seem exotic to their audiences with
user testimonies and primarily cultural appropriation.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
The cultural appropriation and racial stereotypes used to promote some
patent medicines was intended to make the products seem exotic
and other to white American communities. In the nineteenth century,
it had become kind of trendy for Americans to read
up on the secrets of tribal medicine and how they
might use these so called natural remedies for themselves. The
(17:28):
Indian Guide to Health and the Indian Doctor's Dispensary, for instance,
was a popular selling book. If you were the villain
in this story, it was the time to capitalize on
what cultural appropriation could do for you financially. In a
statement by the company regarding their name choice, Heally and
Bigelow claimed, quote, we have called our remedies Indian. Now,
(17:51):
this is a dangerous word. It is so liable to
be abused if it is honest and true. It is
a glorious word, but it has it's so often been
assumed by quacks and charlatans to cover gross humbug and
fraud that people are right in demanding that what they
buy for Indian is truly so and not an imposition.
(18:13):
So that whole statement sort of falls under the old
adage that every accusation is a confession.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company advertised and marketed their products
as made by quote wise medicine men, when in reality
the people behind the products were two white American men
seeking to capitalize on specific racial imagery. A four page
advertisement ran in the company publication, The Kickapoo Indian Guide
(18:42):
to Health and Longevity in nineteen hundred, for instance, and
laid out what kickapoo medicines could cure, but also included
problematic language, such as this quote, The kickapoo Indians are
now traveling with their medicine men, squaws and papoosas in
the various cities and villages throughout the United States in
(19:03):
the wintertime, and camping in public halls and in the
summertime in tents or wigwams. To illustrate Indian life and habits.
They give free exhibitions of the scalp buffalo war and
other dances. And I'm going to do this as an
aside to say that is in all caps in his advertisement,
(19:24):
and many other wonderful and curious features of the Aboriginal
tribes of the far West. Also actual exhibitions of medicine
making showing how the kickapoo remedies are made and prepared
from roots, herbs, barks, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Crowds of people kept coming to their shows, and most
importantly to the bottom line, they kept buying kickapoo products.
Testimonials of those who had tried the kickapoo products were
published in the very popular almanac of the early twentieth century,
Doctor D. James Medical Almanac and Guide to Hell. One
(20:01):
testimonial used in company promotional materials was as follows, and
maybe brace if you're squeamish. Quote. I have been troubled
for years with a disease that baffled the doctors. I
finally bought and took one twenty five cent box of
Kickapoo Indian worm Killer, and soon enough, to my great astonishment,
(20:22):
I passed a tapeworm measuring head and all of full
fifty feet.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
With that kind of success, Heale and Bigelow both purchased
mansions near Kickapoo's Connecticut headquarters.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
In addition to promoting Kickapoo Sagua at medicine shows, the
company also made their product line available at local drug stores.
They also began advertising their products as pseudo news reports
in local newspapers. These were professionally written stories and testimonials
that appeared to be news stories, and they touted such
(21:00):
things as quote the belief among many white Americans that
the Indian was a natural physician who possessed secrets unknown
to the white man. Articles were placed prominently in newspapers,
along with advertisements promoting when the medicine shows would be
in town.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Their promotional materials and their traveling shows were used to
give some so called native legitimacy to their products and
lumped all indigenous cultures into a racist symbol they used
over and over in their patent medicine advertising materials, faces, identities, traditions.
They were all appropriated for the profit of white American
(21:41):
manufacturers like Helian Bigelow. The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company advertised
its remedies as all natural and therefore harmless, which is
basically the company line for all patent medicine manufacturers, but
that its products also had a powerful ability to help
people quote achieve total well being an exploitation of the
(22:05):
stereotypical image of the quote noble savage, a well known
trope of an indigenous person who has not been corrupted
by white American civilization and who is living in harmony
with nature.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
If you've been with us so far this season, guess
what our favorite character is coming to the table. The
Pure Food and Drug Act of nineteen oh six shows
itself again in this story, but by the time the
act was passed, he Lee had already sold his half
of the company to Bigelow. The company's official response to
the crackdown was to claim that as a result of
(22:41):
printing the ingredients of its products on their package labels
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company remedies should not be regarded as
quote patent medicines, and they also claimed they were also
then exempt from the Act. They even went as far
as to state in an advertising spread the great of
the Food and Drug Act, saying, quote, one of the
(23:03):
most beneficial laws ever enacted in the United States is
the Pure Food and Drug Act of June thirtieth, nineteen
oh six, that has put out of business more fake
patent medicines and so called remedies containing dangerous drugs than
anything else that was ever done in this country. The
(23:23):
implication here was that they, in their company were above
all of that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Though no Kickapoo product shipments were seized for federal testing
under the Act, at least not that we know of,
the company was impacted by it when its Kickapoo cough
cure was declared misbranded in nineteen eleven, and it happened
for three reasons. One because it contained a large percentage
of alcohol that the bottle's label failed to disclose. Two,
(23:54):
it was labeled a quote cough cure when there was
no evidence it had those curative effects. And three. While
the label claimed the remedy possessed properties recognized as appropriate
treatment of lung diseases, the product did not list such
active ingredients. Surprisingly, there was no fourth reason, but the
ingredients list makes it seem like maybe there should have been.
(24:17):
The first ingredient was unexpectedly, at least to us TAR.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
After Bigelow sold the company for two hundred and fifty
nineteen twelve, its new owner continued selling Kickapoo Sagua in
local drug stores, but ended the traveling medicine shows. Bigelow
moved to England, where he kept his hand in the
game because there he manufactured an elixir that was remarkably
similar to Sagua, and he called it Kimko. That's kim coo,
(24:49):
a nod to the initials of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
This is a terrible story. Let's have a cure.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yes, this drink is very yummy and it does something
really interesting. I was thinking specifically about the ways that
things in many of the patent medicines we've talked about
(25:19):
this season are combined with other things that completely hide
any of their flavors, so you can't pick them out.
So this is a really interesting to me anyway drink
because it has some flavors that it shouldn't like, the
things combined together to make a flavor that you're like,
how does it taste like that? And things that you
(25:42):
think are going to drive the bus have you can't
taste them at all.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So well, now I'm super intrigued by this drink.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Listen, did I want to call this drink worm killer?
Just for fun? Yes, it's not going to kill any worms,
but that's what we're calling it because it's funny.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It's gotta be lighthearted here. This is just never gonna
work out.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's lighthearted. And this is I will tell you at
the top, if you make it the way I am
describing making it, it is a seasonal thing. But there
is a workaround if the ingredient in question is not
in season for you. The first thing we're gonna do
to make worm Killer is to make rhubarb syrup. So
(26:25):
for rubarb syrup, super easy, a cup of water, a
cup of sugar, and dice up two to three stalks
of rhubarb.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I am super excited that this drink has rhubarb, and
I am a big fan.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Me too. I love rubarb and it's very funny. I
will tell you a side story, which is that I
went to the grocery store this morning to get some
because I have been checking and keeping my eye on
when it was coming out, and it apparently just got
put on the shelf because there was no signage for it.
And when I went to check out, the person at
(26:59):
the checkout, who I see all the time, went oh,
what is this? And I was like, it's rhubarb, and
she was like, oh, okay, it was in the system.
It just hadn't all caught up. But it's ruburb time.
And when I say you're gonna dice it, basically like
if you cut it all the way along the long
length into two pieces of the stalks, and then you
(27:20):
cut those into like half inch pieces, you're pretty good.
You're gonna throw that together. You're gonna let it simmer.
You may have a moment early on where you're like,
is this gonna do anything? Because rhubarb is so stiff
when you first put it in, and it's gonna stay
stiff for a little while, and then all of a
sudden it gets gooshy and you're like, oh, this syrup
has turned pink. And now all of the rubarb is
(27:41):
very soft. I think I made syrup, so let that
cool strain off your rhubarb. Don't throw that out, as
we often say when we're making any kind of fruit syrup.
This way you can keep that and put it on
ice cream, you can put it on toast, you can
put it on anything. It is so yummy. But for
(28:03):
now we want that rhubarb syrup as the workaround. If
rubarb is out of season where you are, or you
just maybe your stores don't carry it, you can order
rubarb syrup online. Most of the time it's gonna be
a rhubarb strawberry situation. That's great, But for this you
want to keep it rubarbie. Okay, and now we can
make our drink. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I am ready?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Into your shaking tin. You're gonna put three quarters of
an ounce of fresh squeezed lime juice. I say fresh squeeze. Look,
if you only want to deal with the bottle, great,
It's not gonna be as delicious or bright, but that's fine.
I'm not gonna judge you three quarters of an ounce
of this delicious rhubarb syrup, which means you're gonna have
a lot leftover to do yummy things with an ounce
and a half of Reposodo tequila and then a splash
(28:50):
and I'm talking about a splash of aniset less than
a quarter ounce, just the tiniest bit. And I know
you're thinking, I hate licorice flavor. Don't sweat it. It's
not gonna be an issue. You are gonna shake this
altogether with ice. Put your ice in last, because you
don't want to dilute any of the flavors until you're
(29:10):
actually doing it. You want to minimize dilution, so you
don't put the ice in before you pour your ingredients.
You're gonna shake it, You're gonna strain it into a
glass over fresh ice, and then you're gonna top it
with ginger beer. Okay, we have not made a margarita. However,
when you sip it, something about this combination of ingredients
(29:32):
gives you the sensation of the salty flavor you get
if you have a salt rimmed margarita. Look, I don't
know the science behind it. I don't know how that works,
but it does. It's very interesting and it's really delicious.
This is a great one if you don't like a
particularly sweet cocktail. If you like a drink that's a
little less sugary. Even though I used regular ginger beer
(29:57):
in it, I didn't use sugar free on this one.
It still didn't taste super sweet because that even though
the rhubarb syrup is sweet, the rhubarb flavor is different
than other fruit flavors, so you're not getting like that
cloying fruit sweetness. You're getting a different kind of sweetness
that has a little bit of sharpness in it. It's
a yummers. This is a super yummy, mummy one. And
(30:19):
if you're not a tequila person, I mean, it does
taste a little like a margarita, but it's not to
my palate a hard tequila flavor. The tequila is not
shining through. Mostly you're like, what is going on in
this dream? I of course taste tested with my favorite
guinea pig and he was like, I don't know what's
in this, but it is very yummy. And I was like, great,
(30:40):
that's all you need. Check it off. You can go
back about your business, sir. So that is wormkiller. To
make a mocktail of this is really really easy because
what we're gonna do keep your lime juice, you keep
your rhubarb syrup. Obviously we're not including the tequila. You
are gonna put a splash of licorice syrup if you
(31:02):
have it, and then you'll do your ginger beer. But
this is one where it is not optional. I often
say it is optional. You want to put about five
to seven drops of saline in it, so basically your salt.
Different people like different proportions to make a saline that's
made for cocktails. I'm very much in the one part
(31:26):
to four parts one part salt to four parts water
for me, exactly that seems exactly right. But you can
play with it see what you like. Other people like
more one part to five parts. Some like one part
to two or three parts if they really like salt.
But that just brings all those flavors together. Obviously you're
using a salt at this point, so you're not creating
the same magic trick. But it tastes very close to
(31:48):
the original drink and is pretty yummy. Again, not going
to rid you of any worms, but we're calling it
worm killer just the same. And I will tell you
that I resisted temptation here for a couple of reasons,
because I was looking over this story and the rhubarb
jumped out at me, because we have never used rhubarb
in a drink to the best of my recollection. But unfortunately,
(32:10):
the thing I initially thought of is something I purchased
on a whim recently, which is a rhubarb gin. But
I promised we weren't going to keep doing gin because
we've done gin a few times as of late year,
and I don't know if everybody can get that gin,
but anybody can make rhubarb syrup or get some online,
but rhubarb gin might be trickier to get a hold of.
(32:30):
But I might do a version of it with that
and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Gotta try.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
In any case, now we need to know. I hope
if you're experimenting at home with this drink or others,
and again, try switching things out. If a drink you
really like has a spirit you don't like, switch out
those spirits and see how it tastes. Often it will
be delicious. We will keep bringing you more drinks like
this that you can play mix and match and build
your own adventure. We will be right back here next
(32:56):
week with another such item and another story of snake oil.
Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
John Healey was not a real doctor, Charles Bigelow was
never a scout in the United State's Army, and the
products they sold weren't actually based on healing secrets of
the Kickapoo people. Yet the two men made a fortune
from their Kickapoo Indian medicine company Patent Medicines, which, while
(00:35):
named for them, not a single Kickapoo was even vaguely
involved with the company and its remedies. The story of
Helium Bigelow is one of quackery, lies, cultural appropriation, and wait,
did we call out the cultural appropriation? Yes, okay. We
(00:55):
should also point out that, while inclusive language continues to evolve,
we will be quoting excerpts that contain outdated terminology. So
here we go, Welcome to Criminalia.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm Maritromarky and I'm Holly Fry. Let's talk for a
moment about who the Kickapoo people are before we talk
about how their name was wildly misappropriated by two con
artists trying to sell quack medicine to white Americans around
the turn of the twentieth century. Historically speaking, original Kickapoo
(01:26):
homes were wooden bark covered structures. Wigwams villages were semi
permanent encampments strategically built near agricultural areas and large tracts
of agricultural lands. During the winter months, small groups would
set up temporary hunting camps. They had a reputation as
formidable warriors. The word Kickapoo can be translated as wanderer,
(01:51):
and despite the Kickapoo people not being a nomadic tribe,
Kickapoo Indians did move a lot. Their roots lie in
the present day Great Lakes region in lower Michigan, but
conflict with European colonists, conflict with the Hadenashani over hunting grounds,
and conflict with the United States government over land drove
(02:13):
them as far south as the Mexican state of Kohuila. Today,
there remained three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States,
the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas,
and the Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation
in Kansas, Okay. So now that we know really just
(02:34):
the teeniest tiny surface level bit about the kickapoo people,
we will talk about how they actually had absolutely nothing
at all to do with this story.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Texas Charlie, as Charles Bigelow was known, grew up on
a farm in Texas. But the story he told about
his life was well, well, it was total nonsense that
never actually happened. His version went like this, As an
army scout patrolling what he called quote Native American territories,
(03:06):
he contracted a fever that left him weak and heavily fatigued.
He recalled a tribal chief, though sometimes when he told
this story, this person was a medicine man took pity
on him and gave him a medicine called quote Sagua.
It worked, and Bigelow asked if he could have the recipe.
The tale goes the chiefs sent five tribal medicine men
(03:29):
to accompany Bigelow back east, where together they created kickapoof Sagua,
and it became the so called magic elixir he went
on to sell at medicine shows across the United States. Now,
that story may have been untrue, but for a very
long time it was the accepted origin story for his
popular elixir kickapoof Sagua.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
In the eighteen fifties, Bigelow had begun peddling patent medicine
across the country, but he didn't see skyscraper level of
success until eighteen eighty one, when he joined up with
a man named John Doc Healey. Healey, who had no
medical training, had served as a drummer boy in the
Union Army during the American Civil War, and he was
(04:15):
then the proprietor of a traveling theatrical troop called Healey's
Hibernian Minstrels. Like Bigelow, he dabbled in patent medicines and
was the inventor and pitchman of a dubious liniment that
he'd named King of Pain. When he and Bigelow teamed up,
money making magic happened for the pair. They fabricated what
(04:36):
would be their flagship product, the fake quote Indian medicine Kickapoo. Sagua,
and Healey had a promotional plan they would use traveling
medicine shows to hawk bottles of Sagua and their other
patent medicine products. Edward Oliver Tilburn, known best as Nevada
Ned Oliver or Doctor nt Oliver, was a veteran connard.
(05:00):
He was hired as a pitchman by Heally and Bigelow.
He later recalled quote the plan was to hire a
few Indians, rent a storeroom, and have the medicine simmering
like a witch's brew in a great iron pot inside
a tpee. And that's a pretty accurate description of how
things went.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
The Kickapoo Sagua brand name was registered by the Healey
and Bigelow Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company at the United States
Patent Office in July of eighteen eighty two. Healey set
up the first Kickapoo office and product showroom in Providence,
Rhode Island, then moved into Manhattan before settling on space
in New Haven, Connecticut in eighteen eighty seven. He secured
(05:41):
a huge warehouse and decorated it with Indigenous American cliches,
things like teepees, spears, and other stereotypical objects. And because
the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company didn't care about these cultures,
they played a bit of mix and match from any
and all tribes for what they considered to be prompts.
(06:02):
The company would grow to become one of the largest
of its kind on the medicine show circuit. Eventually employing
upwards of three hundred Indigenous Americans. While other Indian medicine shows,
as the Niche was known, paid white actors to perform
in redface, those playing tribal characters for the Kickapoo shows
were hired primarily from the Hodina Shawni tribes. As if
(06:25):
we could forget, We'll say it again. None of the
company's employees were Kickapoo people.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company's best selling product was the
Sagua Elixir. It was advertised as being made from a
secret tribal recipe containing quote, roots, herbs, barks, gums, leaves,
and buffalo fat, and much like other patent medicines at
the time, it didn't much contain the things it claimed.
(06:54):
Its actual active ingredients were rhubarb, capsicum, mandrake, gaway, and
sal soda. Or Another alternate list of Sagua ingredients reads
as quote a vegetable compound with bicarbonate of soda composed
of uba, ersi, mandrake, may apple, rhubarb, senna, aniseed, coriander seed,
(07:16):
jinchona bark, yellow doc burdock, dandelion, cascara, licorice, and aloes
regardless of which was or wasn't the accurate list, or
maybe they both were. The one significant active ingredient missing
from both lists but very much contained in the Sagua,
was a whole lot of unregulated alcohol. It was the
(07:39):
star of the elixir's content.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
This was definitely not an ingredients list put together by
a real traditional healer. The whole premise here, though, was
that Heale and Bigelow wanted you to think that only
the Kickapoo people knew exactly what went into their remedies.
The pair wanted you to think the ingredients were shipped
to New Haven, where they were then combined into a
(08:02):
mixture by the quote wisest of Kickapoo Indian medicine men
who had left the reservation to serve Heale and Bigelow
and the cause of health. Now that sounds a lot
like Bigelow's fake origin story for Sagua, doesn't it. So.
On its packaging, Sagua claimed the following uses cures dyspepsia,
(08:23):
sick headache, sour stomach, loss of appetite, heartburn, depression, neuralgia,
female disorders, liver complaint, constipation, indigestions, rheumatism, impure blood jaundice, fever,
and all diseases of the stomach, liver, kidneys, and the blood.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
We're going to take a break for a word from
her sponsors, and when we're back we'll talk about the
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Companies Traveling Medicine Show and who they
hired to perform.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Welcome back to Criminalia, So grab your bottle of sagua.
We've got some traveling to do with the Kickapoo Indian
Medicine Show.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
What we haven't really talked about in detail yet is
the wildly problematic traveling Medicine show that was put together
by the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company. Historian Stuart Holbrook wrote
in his nineteen fifty nine book The Golden Age of
Quackery that Heley and Bigelow were quote the Barnum and
Bailey of the medicine show business, and he kind of
(09:35):
nailed them with that description. Heli and Bigelow made a
fortune with the combination of the appeal of miracle cure
ales with the theatrics that you would find at Barnum
Circus and Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows. From their headquarters
in Connecticut, the pair created troops of Indigenous Americans, white
vaudeville performers, and fast talking pitchmen who posed as doctors
(09:59):
to stage shows across America, and these shows became really
popular forms of entertainment, and the company sold a lot
of Kickapoo sagua. They also promoted and sold related spinoff
products including Kickapoo Buffalo salv Kickapoo Indian Cough Cure, Kickapoo Pills,
and Kickapoo Indian worm Killer.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Kickapoo Indian Medicine. Company representatives traveled ahead of the show
to the target city where they would set up advance
publicity for an upcoming show. Now this wasn't a few
posters around town. Rallies were held in front of drug
stores to promote the company's products and to promote the event.
Special window displays were set up in stores with event
(10:45):
related print advertisements and samples of the product line on display. Typically,
people of the Hodina Shawnee Confederacy were hired to appear
at these rallies to really, truly, absolutely, positively, without a doubt,
convince the audience of the alleged authenticity of the company
and its so called Indian remedies.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Nevada ned Oliver, who we mentioned earlier, booked and managed
traveling shows across the country for the Kickapoo Indian Medicine
Company in the eighteen eighties. In addition to his job
as show manager, in his spare time, he also wrote
cowboy detective crime novels. Ned was also the quote head
scout of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company and was usually
(11:32):
seen wearing buckskins and a wide brimmed hat as he
went about his work. Early Kickapoo Medicine shows began as
fairly modest events. You could expect a few indigenous people
would perform allegedly native dances, a few white singers and
acrobats would entertain the crowd, and a fake doctor such
as Nevada Ned would preach the good news of Sagua
(11:55):
and serve as master of ceremonies.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Years later, Ned described the shows in a magazine article
recalling Quote the show customarily began with the introduction of
each of the Indians by name, together with some personal history.
Five of the six would grunt acknowledgments. The sixth would
make an impassioned speech in Kickapoo, Interpreted by me, it
(12:21):
was a most edifying oration, as I translated it. What
the brave actually said I never knew, but I had
reason to fear that it was not the noble discourse
of my translation, For even the poker faces of his
fellow savages sometimes were convulsed, no matter what the performer said,
and no matter what language it may have been said.
(12:42):
In Ned's translation described all the ways the products of
the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company were miracle cures and why
you should go home with some today.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
As these shows gained popularity, he Lee and Bigelow upgraded.
They placed tps around the state. Pow wows were mimicked,
so called war dances.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Were performed, Tomahawks were.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Waved, there was the loud beating of tom tom's, and
fake cowboy and Indian conflicts acted out. Basically every tropy
thing you can think of was included in the show.
White performers now included singers and acrobats, along with contortionists, comedians,
and fire eaters. Occasionally, Texas Charlie himself appeared in front
(13:28):
of the crowd, donning a theatrically perched cowboy hat build
allegedly as the world champion rifle shooter. Bigelow would demonstrate
his expert marksmanship, and he would tell embellished and fabricated
stories of his life, including the fake origin story of sagua.
During and after the main event, which was the sales, pitch,
(13:51):
assistants would move through the crowd to sell the goods,
and from time to time these assistants would yell out
all sold out doctor as a way to motivate more sales.
It was a good use of the artificial scarcity tactic
at work. Admission to see these problematic caricature shows was
a dime.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Helei and Bigelow were so successful and widely known. Is
secured in an endorsement from Buffalo Bill Cody, who was
busy running his own very popular and very racist show
about white settlers conquering indigenous quote savages. In his endorsement,
Bill stated that quote kickapoo, Indian sagua is the only
(14:32):
remedy the Indians ever use, and has been known to
them for ages. An Indian would as soon be without
his horse, gun or blanket as without sagua. The truth,
of course, was no indigenous American used sagua, and there
was certainly no connection between the kickapoo and these products.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
But the white.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Community that knew that secret didn't care to change it.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Heli and Bigelow certain did not invent the traveling medicine show,
but they were really skilled at maximizing it to turn
a profit. The pair also were not the first to
appropriate indigenous cultures for their own game. There were other
Indian medicine shows on the traveling circuit at the same time.
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, though, was one of the
(15:20):
two biggest in the entire United States.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
By the eighteen nineties, he Lee and Bigelow were dispatching
more than a dozen Kickapoo Medicine shows across the United
States every summer. Larger troops encamped and played for weeks
in big cities, staging elaborate shows and tents that had
upwards of three thousand seats, wrote theater historian Brooks McNamara
in Step right Up, his nineteen seventy five book about
(15:46):
the history of medicine shows. Quote later, there were aerial acts,
a great deal of Irish and blackface comedy, and such
exotic novelties as the scatorial songsters who performed while glosing
around the stage on roller skates, and Jackie the only
table performer on Earth who turned somersaults on a pile
(16:07):
of tables that extended twenty five feet in the air.
So big city or small town. These shows included at
least a dozen performances, each interrupted for three or four
pitches by the Master of ceremonies. For Kickapoo Sagua.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we come back, we'll talk about
another problematic piece of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine company, their
use of cultural appropriation and racist stereotypes in their advertising materials.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how Healey and
Bigelow made their products seem exotic to their audiences with
user testimonies and primarily cultural appropriation.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
The cultural appropriation and racial stereotypes used to promote some
patent medicines was intended to make the products seem exotic
and other to white American communities. In the nineteenth century,
it had become kind of trendy for Americans to read
up on the secrets of tribal medicine and how they
might use these so called natural remedies for themselves. The
(17:28):
Indian Guide to Health and the Indian Doctor's Dispensary, for instance,
was a popular selling book. If you were the villain
in this story, it was the time to capitalize on
what cultural appropriation could do for you financially. In a
statement by the company regarding their name choice, Heally and
Bigelow claimed, quote, we have called our remedies Indian. Now,
(17:51):
this is a dangerous word. It is so liable to
be abused if it is honest and true. It is
a glorious word, but it has it's so often been
assumed by quacks and charlatans to cover gross humbug and
fraud that people are right in demanding that what they
buy for Indian is truly so and not an imposition.
(18:13):
So that whole statement sort of falls under the old
adage that every accusation is a confession.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company advertised and marketed their products
as made by quote wise medicine men, when in reality
the people behind the products were two white American men
seeking to capitalize on specific racial imagery. A four page
advertisement ran in the company publication, The Kickapoo Indian Guide
(18:42):
to Health and Longevity in nineteen hundred, for instance, and
laid out what kickapoo medicines could cure, but also included
problematic language, such as this quote, The kickapoo Indians are
now traveling with their medicine men, squaws and papoosas in
the various cities and villages throughout the United States in
(19:03):
the wintertime, and camping in public halls and in the
summertime in tents or wigwams. To illustrate Indian life and habits.
They give free exhibitions of the scalp buffalo war and
other dances. And I'm going to do this as an
aside to say that is in all caps in his advertisement,
(19:24):
and many other wonderful and curious features of the Aboriginal
tribes of the far West. Also actual exhibitions of medicine
making showing how the kickapoo remedies are made and prepared
from roots, herbs, barks, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Crowds of people kept coming to their shows, and most
importantly to the bottom line, they kept buying kickapoo products.
Testimonials of those who had tried the kickapoo products were
published in the very popular almanac of the early twentieth century,
Doctor D. James Medical Almanac and Guide to Hell. One
(20:01):
testimonial used in company promotional materials was as follows, and
maybe brace if you're squeamish. Quote. I have been troubled
for years with a disease that baffled the doctors. I
finally bought and took one twenty five cent box of
Kickapoo Indian worm Killer, and soon enough, to my great astonishment,
(20:22):
I passed a tapeworm measuring head and all of full
fifty feet.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
With that kind of success, Heale and Bigelow both purchased
mansions near Kickapoo's Connecticut headquarters.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
In addition to promoting Kickapoo Sagua at medicine shows, the
company also made their product line available at local drug stores.
They also began advertising their products as pseudo news reports
in local newspapers. These were professionally written stories and testimonials
that appeared to be news stories, and they touted such
(21:00):
things as quote the belief among many white Americans that
the Indian was a natural physician who possessed secrets unknown
to the white man. Articles were placed prominently in newspapers,
along with advertisements promoting when the medicine shows would be
in town.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Their promotional materials and their traveling shows were used to
give some so called native legitimacy to their products and
lumped all indigenous cultures into a racist symbol they used
over and over in their patent medicine advertising materials, faces, identities, traditions.
They were all appropriated for the profit of white American
(21:41):
manufacturers like Helian Bigelow. The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company advertised
its remedies as all natural and therefore harmless, which is
basically the company line for all patent medicine manufacturers, but
that its products also had a powerful ability to help
people quote achieve total well being an exploitation of the
(22:05):
stereotypical image of the quote noble savage, a well known
trope of an indigenous person who has not been corrupted
by white American civilization and who is living in harmony
with nature.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
If you've been with us so far this season, guess
what our favorite character is coming to the table. The
Pure Food and Drug Act of nineteen oh six shows
itself again in this story, but by the time the
act was passed, he Lee had already sold his half
of the company to Bigelow. The company's official response to
the crackdown was to claim that as a result of
(22:41):
printing the ingredients of its products on their package labels
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company remedies should not be regarded as
quote patent medicines, and they also claimed they were also
then exempt from the Act. They even went as far
as to state in an advertising spread the great of
the Food and Drug Act, saying, quote, one of the
(23:03):
most beneficial laws ever enacted in the United States is
the Pure Food and Drug Act of June thirtieth, nineteen
oh six, that has put out of business more fake
patent medicines and so called remedies containing dangerous drugs than
anything else that was ever done in this country. The
(23:23):
implication here was that they, in their company were above
all of that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Though no Kickapoo product shipments were seized for federal testing
under the Act, at least not that we know of,
the company was impacted by it when its Kickapoo cough
cure was declared misbranded in nineteen eleven, and it happened
for three reasons. One because it contained a large percentage
of alcohol that the bottle's label failed to disclose. Two,
(23:54):
it was labeled a quote cough cure when there was
no evidence it had those curative effects. And three. While
the label claimed the remedy possessed properties recognized as appropriate
treatment of lung diseases, the product did not list such
active ingredients. Surprisingly, there was no fourth reason, but the
ingredients list makes it seem like maybe there should have been.
(24:17):
The first ingredient was unexpectedly, at least to us TAR.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
After Bigelow sold the company for two hundred and fifty
nineteen twelve, its new owner continued selling Kickapoo Sagua in
local drug stores, but ended the traveling medicine shows. Bigelow
moved to England, where he kept his hand in the
game because there he manufactured an elixir that was remarkably
similar to Sagua, and he called it Kimko. That's kim coo,
(24:49):
a nod to the initials of the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
This is a terrible story. Let's have a cure.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yes, this drink is very yummy and it does something
really interesting. I was thinking specifically about the ways that
things in many of the patent medicines we've talked about
(25:19):
this season are combined with other things that completely hide
any of their flavors, so you can't pick them out.
So this is a really interesting to me anyway drink
because it has some flavors that it shouldn't like, the
things combined together to make a flavor that you're like,
how does it taste like that? And things that you
(25:42):
think are going to drive the bus have you can't
taste them at all.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So well, now I'm super intrigued by this drink.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Listen, did I want to call this drink worm killer?
Just for fun? Yes, it's not going to kill any worms,
but that's what we're calling it because it's funny.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
It's gotta be lighthearted here. This is just never gonna
work out.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's lighthearted. And this is I will tell you at
the top, if you make it the way I am
describing making it, it is a seasonal thing. But there
is a workaround if the ingredient in question is not
in season for you. The first thing we're gonna do
to make worm Killer is to make rhubarb syrup. So
(26:25):
for rubarb syrup, super easy, a cup of water, a
cup of sugar, and dice up two to three stalks
of rhubarb.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I am super excited that this drink has rhubarb, and
I am a big fan.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Me too. I love rubarb and it's very funny. I
will tell you a side story, which is that I
went to the grocery store this morning to get some
because I have been checking and keeping my eye on
when it was coming out, and it apparently just got
put on the shelf because there was no signage for it.
And when I went to check out, the person at
(26:59):
the checkout, who I see all the time, went oh,
what is this? And I was like, it's rhubarb, and
she was like, oh, okay, it was in the system.
It just hadn't all caught up. But it's ruburb time.
And when I say you're gonna dice it, basically like
if you cut it all the way along the long
length into two pieces of the stalks, and then you
(27:20):
cut those into like half inch pieces, you're pretty good.
You're gonna throw that together. You're gonna let it simmer.
You may have a moment early on where you're like,
is this gonna do anything? Because rhubarb is so stiff
when you first put it in, and it's gonna stay
stiff for a little while, and then all of a
sudden it gets gooshy and you're like, oh, this syrup
has turned pink. And now all of the rubarb is
(27:41):
very soft. I think I made syrup, so let that
cool strain off your rhubarb. Don't throw that out, as
we often say when we're making any kind of fruit syrup.
This way you can keep that and put it on
ice cream, you can put it on toast, you can
put it on anything. It is so yummy. But for
(28:03):
now we want that rhubarb syrup as the workaround. If
rubarb is out of season where you are, or you
just maybe your stores don't carry it, you can order
rubarb syrup online. Most of the time it's gonna be
a rhubarb strawberry situation. That's great, But for this you
want to keep it rubarbie. Okay, and now we can
make our drink. Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I am ready?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Into your shaking tin. You're gonna put three quarters of
an ounce of fresh squeezed lime juice. I say fresh squeeze. Look,
if you only want to deal with the bottle, great,
It's not gonna be as delicious or bright, but that's fine.
I'm not gonna judge you three quarters of an ounce
of this delicious rhubarb syrup, which means you're gonna have
a lot leftover to do yummy things with an ounce
and a half of Reposodo tequila and then a splash
(28:50):
and I'm talking about a splash of aniset less than
a quarter ounce, just the tiniest bit. And I know
you're thinking, I hate licorice flavor. Don't sweat it. It's
not gonna be an issue. You are gonna shake this
altogether with ice. Put your ice in last, because you
don't want to dilute any of the flavors until you're
(29:10):
actually doing it. You want to minimize dilution, so you
don't put the ice in before you pour your ingredients.
You're gonna shake it, You're gonna strain it into a
glass over fresh ice, and then you're gonna top it
with ginger beer. Okay, we have not made a margarita. However,
when you sip it, something about this combination of ingredients
(29:32):
gives you the sensation of the salty flavor you get
if you have a salt rimmed margarita. Look, I don't
know the science behind it. I don't know how that works,
but it does. It's very interesting and it's really delicious.
This is a great one if you don't like a
particularly sweet cocktail. If you like a drink that's a
little less sugary. Even though I used regular ginger beer
(29:57):
in it, I didn't use sugar free on this one.
It still didn't taste super sweet because that even though
the rhubarb syrup is sweet, the rhubarb flavor is different
than other fruit flavors, so you're not getting like that
cloying fruit sweetness. You're getting a different kind of sweetness
that has a little bit of sharpness in it. It's
a yummers. This is a super yummy, mummy one. And
(30:19):
if you're not a tequila person, I mean, it does
taste a little like a margarita, but it's not to
my palate a hard tequila flavor. The tequila is not
shining through. Mostly you're like, what is going on in
this dream? I of course taste tested with my favorite
guinea pig and he was like, I don't know what's
in this, but it is very yummy. And I was like, great,
(30:40):
that's all you need. Check it off. You can go
back about your business, sir. So that is wormkiller. To
make a mocktail of this is really really easy because
what we're gonna do keep your lime juice, you keep
your rhubarb syrup. Obviously we're not including the tequila. You
are gonna put a splash of licorice syrup if you
(31:02):
have it, and then you'll do your ginger beer. But
this is one where it is not optional. I often
say it is optional. You want to put about five
to seven drops of saline in it, so basically your salt.
Different people like different proportions to make a saline that's
made for cocktails. I'm very much in the one part
(31:26):
to four parts one part salt to four parts water
for me, exactly that seems exactly right. But you can
play with it see what you like. Other people like
more one part to five parts. Some like one part
to two or three parts if they really like salt.
But that just brings all those flavors together. Obviously you're
using a salt at this point, so you're not creating
the same magic trick. But it tastes very close to
(31:48):
the original drink and is pretty yummy. Again, not going
to rid you of any worms, but we're calling it
worm killer just the same. And I will tell you
that I resisted temptation here for a couple of reasons,
because I was looking over this story and the rhubarb
jumped out at me, because we have never used rhubarb
in a drink to the best of my recollection. But unfortunately,
(32:10):
the thing I initially thought of is something I purchased
on a whim recently, which is a rhubarb gin. But
I promised we weren't going to keep doing gin because
we've done gin a few times as of late year,
and I don't know if everybody can get that gin,
but anybody can make rhubarb syrup or get some online,
but rhubarb gin might be trickier to get a hold of.
(32:30):
But I might do a version of it with that
and see what happens.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Gotta try.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
In any case, now we need to know. I hope
if you're experimenting at home with this drink or others,
and again, try switching things out. If a drink you
really like has a spirit you don't like, switch out
those spirits and see how it tastes. Often it will
be delicious. We will keep bringing you more drinks like
this that you can play mix and match and build
your own adventure. We will be right back here next
(32:56):
week with another such item and another story of snake oil.
Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Maria Trimarchi
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