About DrinkingFolk
Why Drinking?
There is something about drinks–all kinds of drinks.
At the very least, they are the backbone of life. The importance of water to human life (and culture) is self-evident. But we drink more than water, much more.
Sometimes, sociologists considered staple drinks to be total social facts. What does this mean? It means that the drink permeates every element of human life in a given culture: religion, economy, nutrition, society. Take a moment to reflect on the ubiquity of drink in human life. There is wine in the church, governmental control in the booze market, coffee machines in the work place, and healing potions in medicine. Beverages fill the vessel of human culture.
In order to appreciate the scope of human ingenuity when it comes to drinks, we must look within our own communities as well as around the world.
Why Traveling?
I am from Massachusetts, where we drink tap water from the Quabbin Reservoir, IPAs from craft breweries, and iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts. This is my drinking culture.
Traveling to consume drinks is not uncommon, but producing media about those drinks as an outsider can have its drawbacks. David Bell’s 2008 article Destination Drinking introduces the term and concept of alcotourism. He says that the experience often involves “scripted liminality” where the rules of one’s life are suspended and indulgence, drunkenness, and the exotic can rule.
This is not the kind of travel that is being used to produce DrinkingFolk. I travel using public transit and couch-surf with local folks wherever possible. Ideas about drinks are taken from participants within a drinking culture, although comparisons, commentaries, and analyses are provided by me. I travel and meet locals who make drinks, drink drinks, and know about their own drinks. I ask them questions, record their answers, taste their products, and experience their rituals. This is the consumption of culture–but beverages are consumable material culture in the first place. Moreover, it’s the preservation of culture.
Traditional drinks around the world are dying as cheap mass market beers and sodas invade new markets and compete with more labor intensive ancestral beverages.
Finally, drinks bring people together. I believe they can bring us all together, bridging gaps between communities.
Why Writing?
Some drinks are stuck in place and time. That means you cannot find an authentic version of the drink outside of the area where it is produced close to when it is produced. Writing is the best way to preserve these drinks without compromising their original form.
Our writing is Folk-focused, Fact-based, and Full-scoped.
Folk-Focused: DrinkingFOLK–it’s in the name. There are plenty of writers who take an interest in the business of beverages, but DrinkingFolk’s focus is on the cultural side. Over 100 years ago, William Graham Sumner wrote about folkways, identifying them as norms that influence nearly every aspect of our life in an informal manner. Culture becomes more constraining and rigid from here.
The informal, formal, and ritualized ways of drinking are the focus of DrinkingFolk. From the way drinks are produced and prepared, to the way they are shared and consumed, behaviors from others are learned, mimicked, and reproduced. These inform the world of drinking around us.
DrinkingFolk stories focus on the folkways of beverage, the human side of drink.
Fact-Based: This writing is based on facts. What does DrinkingFolk consider a fact? The usual suspects apply: reliable sources, proper citations, and an ear for biases. But folklore, superstitions, and faith are facts when presented as the beliefs of a group or individual. Fact-based means that this writing is researched in books and in communities. Information is presented with qualifications, disclaimers, and context. Drinking is full of myths. It is important to present that myth as a fact of human culture, even if it is not a fact in and of itself.
Full-Scoped: Drinking can be controversial. DrinkingFolk is not here to call teetotallers sanctimonious or alcoholics amoral. It is not here to rant against corporate Coca Cola or to fetishize the brand as quintessential Americana. It is not here to only present western beverages to the world. There are uncountable drinking traditions that the English-language writing community has neglected entirely.
Drinking is universal. DrinkingFolk strives to be catholic in its treatment of the topic. Accordingly all drinks are welcome here: water, soda, juice, tea, coffee, milk, beer, wine, spirits, and other potables that humans have developed. Much has been written about food culture, but drinking is often siloed into one of only a few categories: most often cocktails, wine, or fine spirits. This is part of the story, but to present the full picture, everyday drinking needs to take center stage.
DrinkingFolk is beverage writing. It is not anthropology, history, or sociology in the academic sense. My qualifications to write about the culture of drinks are only that I am becoming a momentary participant in that culture myself.
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About the Author
N. C. Stevens
The author discovered his interest in the folkways of drinking on the island of Madagascar where homemade beer, juice, and spirits are widespread. Upon returning to the United States, he became interested in home distilling and took it up as a hobby. He spent the years of the pandemic doing research on beverages and preparing to document them in person.
The author has traveled extensively, searching for local beverages and beverage traditions. The results of this search are published here.
View works published on other platforms here!
Nic@drinkingfolk.com
