Alcohol has been around about as long as civilization. The discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs has established the fact that purposely fermented beverages existed at least as early as circa 10,000 BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The earliest alcoholic beverages may have been made from berries or honey. Those items remain prevalent in alcohol even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rigveda (8.48.3, tr. Griffith) states,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a pretty serious incentive for wanting to drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of history is filled with accounts of beer and wine or other fermented beverages. Other books you may find in the bartending section of the bookstore have already supplied a mind numbing, boring account of the chronology of drink. Let\u2019s just skip over the Babylonians, Egyptians, and even the Chinese contributions to fermentation and jump right up to what we\u2019ve all come here to talk about\u2014distilled beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humans have always been inventive with their beverages. Even in the days of the rule of beer and wine, alcohol was drunk in many ways: warm and chilled, pure and diluted with water, plain and spiced. People like tasty things and don\u2019t want to keep drinking the same old thing over and over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first clear evidence of distillation comes from Greek alchemists working in Alexandria in the 1st century C.E. Wise men in the Arab world learned the process from the Egyptians and used it extensively in their alchemical experiments. Quite a few medicinal combinations inspire our flavored alcohols. While the Greeks and Arabs gave us the tools and techniques, they didn\u2019t provide the wondrous drink that distillation produces today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1500, German alchemist Hieronymus Braunschweig published Liber de arte destillandi (The Book of the Art of Distillation)<\/em> the first book solely dedicated to the subject of distillation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Names like “life water” have continued to be the inspiration for the names of several types of beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even the Catholic Church considered alcohol as a gift of God, created to be used in moderation for pleasure, enjoyment and health; drunkenness was viewed as a sin, not imbibing itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spirit drinking was still largely for medicinal purposes throughout most of the 16th century. It has been said of distilled alcohol that “the sixteenth century created it; the seventeenth century consolidated it; and the eighteenth popularized it.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can see, as a species we\u2019ve been making alcoholic beverages for quite a good portion of our history. Something this widespread can\u2019t be all bad. Alcoholic beverages have been used throughout history for pleasure, nutrition, medicine, ritual, remuneration and funerary purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reflecting its vital role, consumption of alcohol in moderation has rarely been questioned throughout most of recorded time. Excessive use and abuse of alcohol is no laughing matter though. Even the great sages of history understood that moderation was king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the words of the founding Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “… alcohol has existed longer than all human memory. It has outlived generations, nations, epochs and ages. It is a part of us, and that is fortunate indeed. For although alcohol will always be the master of some, for most of us it will continue to be the servant of man.” <\/em>(Dr. Morris Chafetz, 1965).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t fret that there might be negative moral consequences of drink \u2013 the drink is not evil, only our abuse of it is. Experiment, share and enjoy this gift of the Gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until next time, may all your drinks be tasty. Cheers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alcohol has been around about as long as civilization. The discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs has established the fact that purposely fermented beverages existed at least as early as circa 10,000 BC. The earliest alcoholic beverages may have been made from berries or honey. Those items remain prevalent in alcohol even today. The … Continue reading Alcohol in history<\/span>