That developed into the Wassail cup being passed around everyone in the household as a toast, which is where our modern practice of drinking a toast comes from.
Proprietor Walter Staib likes to tell how it took an act of the US Congress to open his colonial era labor of love, Philadelphia's City Tavern; for most operators, convincing them to list Champagne Shrub and Wassail Cup on their beverage menu might take an order from the US Supreme Court.