Alcohol: a pretty old stuff

From a simple glass of beer or wine to the most ingenious cocktail: with an assortment of hundreds of types of alcoholic drinks, we can safely say that the choice is huge. That was different thousands of years ago. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors preferred to drink mead, a drink made from honey.

You probably already knew that alcoholic beverages have been popular worldwide for centuries. For example, the oldest document about alcohol is a beer brewer's recipe that is 5,000 years old. The recipe, written on a clay table, comes from Sumer. This area was part of ancient Mesopotamia (an area in present-day Iraq) and is known as one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The Sumerians were probably the first discoverers of beer. The Egyptians were able to further refine the process and, according to ancient texts, even developed different types of beer.

Bacchanal

The Greeks and Romans preferred to drink wine. They saw beer as a drink for the uncivilized, such as the Germans and the Celts (our ancestors). The Romans even had a god that was strongly linked to wine and pleasure. This was Bacchus. The worship of this god of fertility was accompanied by lavish celebrations. That's why we still call an alcohol-soaked dinner a 'bacchanal'. Source: Rijksmuseum.nl.

God's drink

Although beer and wine go way, way back, there is one alcoholic beverage that surpasses them. And that's co. This drink, based on honey, water and yeast, was already drunk about 8,000 years ago. Like many inventions, the recipe for mead was probably discovered by chance when honey and water came into contact with yeast in a warm place. Mead was first made in Asia. After that, its use extended from China to Scandinavia. Especially in Norse mythology there is a lot of talk about this 'drink of the gods'. Source: jellinek.nl and alcoholinfo.nl.

Honeymoon

While mead is still made today, it won't be in many people's top ten favorite alcoholic drinks. Yet we still encounter several references to this honey drink in our daily language. For example, the word 'medicine' can be traced back to the word 'metheglin': partly with herbs. And, according to historians, the word 'honeymoon' refers to the period when a newly married couple in the fifth century received a gift from all guests. The bridal couple then drank this drink after the first full moon. It would increase the chances of having a son. Source: northernmead.nl.

Did all this info about mead make you want a spicy honey drink? There is also non-alcoholic mead; )