![Drink like it's 1699 Cocktail glasses on a bar](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2024/08/Drink-like-its-1669_Sept-2023-401-aspect-ratio-900-900.jpg?resize=900%2C900&gravity)
Booking and details
Coming SoonDates Sat, Oct 26 at 5pm
Venue The Great Hall
Tickets $25
Tickets will go on sale Oct 8
Without alchemy there would be no mixology. No cocktails, no spirits, no liqueurs! Join the Folger Institute as we explore esoteric views, search for the fifth essence, and lean in on the hot debate—can lead be turned into gold?
Doors open at 5pm for a fun night of cocktails, trivia, a costume contest, and prizes. Who knows? You might even uncover the secret of immortality.
Trivia
Show us your knowledge (and learn a few fun facts along the way)! Trivia teams may have up to six people; bring your own team or meet new friends to form a team at the event!
About Folger Institute
The Folger Institute is a center for early modern research at the Folger Shakespeare Library that brings public audiences together with researchers to explore the cultures and legacies of the early modern world. Learn more.
Folger Institute’s “Mixology” series
![Martini cocktail glass in hand splashing on dark toned smoky background or colorful cocktail in glass with splashes and olives. Party club entertainment. Mixed light. Selective focus Martini cocktail glass splashing on dark toned smoky background or colorful cocktail in glass with splashes and lemon.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2024/07/hazydrinks-e1721902347418.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Shax it Off: Taylor Swift-themed cocktails inspired by recipes in our collection
Three Taylor Swift-themed cocktails inspired by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century recipes from our collection.
![SwiftGuitarShaxDream list3 Two images side by side to form a single banner image: at left, Taylor Swift on stage playing a guitar, and at right, a period illustration from about the 19th century of Shakespeare lying down outdoors beside a tree, with his head lifted on one arm as he gazes thoughtfully at the ground](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2025/10/SwiftGuitarShaxDream-list3.jpeg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Taylor Swift and Shakespeare
“Lend me your ears”: Harvard English professor Stephanie Burt explores the songs and songwriting of Shakespeare and Taylor Swift.
![1699 LIsting 2](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2023/08/1699-LIsting-2.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Four Cocktails Inspired by the Folger Collection
Learn more about—and how to make!—the four cocktails featured at Folger Institute’s upcoming Mixology event.
![Herbal infusion fennel tea in glass cup and glass tea - Foeniculum vulgare a glass cup of tea with a basin of fennel seeds](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2023/04/coriander-cumin-fennel-tea-sm.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
The coriander connection: Brain health in early modern English recipes and Ayurvedic practices today
An Ayurvedic doctor explores resonances between traditional Indian medicine and an early modern English recipe in the Folger collection that prescribes coriander to “helpe the memorie.”
![Mixology Listing](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2023/04/Mixology-Listing.png?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
"To preserve the memorie": Cocktails inspired by the Folger Collection
The Folger Institute has partnered with two DC mixologists to bring you cocktail and mocktail recipes featuring the key memory-enhancing ingredient from Mrs. Baker’s recipe book: coriander.
![Baker receipt book a handwritten book of recipes](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2023/04/Baker-Receipt-Book.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Recipes to remember: Coriander, gallyngale, and the legacies of the lost
The Receipt Book of Margaret Baker, compiled in 1675, contains a recipe for a memory-potion called “Confect of Coriander Seed.”
![Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream Oberon and Titania](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/07/29208-sm-1.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Love-in-idleness, Part Two: Intoxicating botanicals in 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'
Love-in-idleness, a flower also called pansy or heartsease, plays an important role in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as Marissa Nicosia explores.
![Heartsease cordial in a cocktail purple pansy floating in pink cocktail](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-01-14.57-heartsease-cocktail.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial
Marissa Nicosia adapts an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial. This purple pansy syrup was used to “clear the heart” – to treat the chest and lungs or to reduce fever – but also for healing heartaches.
Assistive listening devices
Our assistive listening devices, which work with headphones or with T-Coil wireless transmission, are available at no extra charge.