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They made sweet drinks by using lead vessels to store wine/vinegar with acetic acid in it. That created lead acetate; sweet and toxic.

I'm sure it started accidentally but was continued because it magically turned shitty sour wine into sweet wine.

A side note; we still actively use artificial sweeteners from petrochemical sources.

Dunno if lead acetate is/was sweet, or the lead just scavenged the acetic acid that was making the wine bad.

Wikipedia[1] says:

Lead(II) acetate (Pb(CH3COO)2), also known as lead acetate, lead diacetate, plumbous acetate, sugar of lead, lead sugar, salt of Saturn, or Goulard's powder, is a white crystalline chemical compound with a sweet taste.

So clearly (?) it would add a sweet taste, regardless of how much of the acid was chemically consumed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate

Lead acetate. The original, all natural, sugar free sweetener.

Actively. IIRC, they would sweeten wine with lead.

Lead/lead-coated vessels were used in preparation and/or storage to deliberately affect the taste.