Ambrosa

Ambrosa is an expensive alcoholic intoxicant, either golden or red in color ^{(TOS: "The Long Patrol", "Murder on the Rising Star")}.

The rarity of the beverage makes it valuable amongst the survivors of the Twelve Colonies; even during the war, 500-yahren-old ambrosa was not believed to exist.^[1]

Ambrosa is bottled in flute-style bottles^[2] with plastic corks.

Starbuck imagines being rich after finding many storage bins filled with ambrosa on Proteus, a penal colony that made ambrosa for the Colonial war effort. Were it not for the Cylon attack on Proteus, he would have become quite wealthy ^{(TOS: "The Long Patrol")}.

Tie-in Material Information

According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):

Ambrosa is a rare and delicate drink. Its happy effects on the human spirit have been celebrated by poets since the Era of Darkness: Ambrosa warms the heart, opens the mind and brings love into flower.

Ambrosa improves with age. At less than one yahren it is almost undrinkable, but after one hundred it is sublime. It is best distilled and purified under low-gravity conditions, making the output of small heavily bodies, such as the Proteus Asteroid, especially valued. ^[3]

Related Imagery

Starbuck with a 500 yahrens-old bottle of ambrosa from Proteus ^{(TOS: "The Long Patrol")}.
Bottles of contraband ambrosa dumped upon Proteus' ground. (TOS: "The Long Patrol").
Forger 7 with an 100 yahrens-old bottle of ambrosia from Proteus (TOS: "The Long Patrol").

References

↑ Starbuck first estimates that the bottle found on Robber's stolen shuttle was 50 yahrens old, giving an idea—as well as an upper limit—of the rarity of older vintages on the Colonies in the yahrens before the end of the war ^{(TOS: "The Long Patrol")}.
↑ This style of bottle, the flûtes d'Alsace, is commonly associated with Alsace wines and is likely the basis of the original props used in the episode.
↑ Kraus, Bruce (1979). Encyclopedia Galactica, p. 13.

[1] Starbuck first estimates that the bottle found on Robber's stolen shuttle was 50 yahrens old, giving an idea—as well as an upper limit—of the rarity of older vintages on the Colonies in the yahrens before the end of the war ^{(TOS: "The Long Patrol")}.

[2] This style of bottle, the flûtes d'Alsace, is commonly associated with Alsace wines and is likely the basis of the original props used in the episode.

[3] Kraus, Bruce (1979). Encyclopedia Galactica, p. 13.

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