The Refreshing Yet Surprising Favorite Drink Of Abraham Lincoln
NEWS
BY ROBERT HAYNES-PETERSON
Though he worked with Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant, who loved their booze, President Abraham Lincoln seems to have barely touched alcohol and preferred water.
Lincoln seems to have more or less pretended to sip wine or beer at social events, but according to his assistant, John Hay, he almost exclusively drank water while in office.
There's little evidence Lincoln abstained for moral reasons. As Hay wrote, he seems to simply have "never cared for wine or liquors of any sort, and never used tobacco."
While water was Lincoln's libation of choice, Hay noted in his letters that Abe sipped coffee at breakfast and would have a glass of milk "in winter" during lunch.
