According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was first used in 1695 to describe a mixture of beer, rum, and sugar, heated with a red-hot iron ("Thus we live at sea; eat biscuit, and drink flip").
In this work, Thomas declares that, "The essential in flips of all sorts is to produce the smoothness by repeated pouring back and forward between two vessels and beating up the eggs well in the first instance the sweetening and spices according to taste.
[4][6] Finally, the drink was served in a cup or tankard and finished using a dedicated iron fireplace poker called a flipdog, hottle, or toddy rod.
It was a narrow piece of iron about three feet long with a slightly bulbous head about the size of a small onion, used for heating tar or pitch to make it pliable.
[4] The drink is central to an annual winter woodchopping event in Harriet Beecher-Stowe's 1869 comedy Oldtown Folks, which seeks to illustrate New England culture (specifically Massachusetts) circa 1820.
[9] A recipe of the old drink, as written in The Cook's Oracle (1822):[6] To make a quart of Flip:— Put the Ale on the fire to warm, — and beat up three or four Eggs with four ounces of moist Sugar, a teaspoonful of grated Nutmeg or Ginger, and a quartern of good old Rum or Brandy.