Just a spoonful of honegar

Not all inventions have managed to improve our lives. In fact, some should have been taken out behind the Patent Office and forgotten. And when Life magazine set out to find 30 dumb inventions, a few food choices naturally made the list.

The prime example is something called Honegar:

Inventor of a honey and vinegar mixture, called Honegar, Dr. DeForest C. Jarvis. Honegar was said to be a folk remedy for aches and pains, though it mainly sounds like a cure for lack of nausea.

With a label that evoked a bee hive and a consistency that mirrored that of caster oil, this seems like an invention that might have warned off would-be drinkers. Apparently it’s still made — here’s a current recipe that ” tastes better than it sounds.” And those who drink a cider-vinegar version swear that it a homeopathic cure for arthritis.