Humans have been hunting rhinoceros for their horns for a long time. It turns out, we wanted to drink out of the horn. Cultures from China to Spain, India to Ethiopia, have all carved cups out of rhino horn for its medicinal properties. These cups were luxury items fit for emperors and kings.
Thomas Jefferson did so many great things in his life that they often cloud his alcoholic accomplishments. Jefferson was the greatest wine lover of his time! He also became a locally renowned brewer of ale. While he did not drink hard liquor, America’s first book on distillation was even dedicated to the President. His love of these drinks came from an understanding that they were farm products.
Hooch is a name for moonshine. The term comes from hoochenoo, the name of a native Alaskan tribe. The history of Western settlement in Alaska is underlined by a policy of prohibition for native peoples. Thanks to these restrictions, natives learned to smuggle and later distill their own spirits. Hoochenoo was the name of molasses moonshine, and was later adopted by the rest of America as ‘hooch’.
The pokal is a piece of occasional glassware. While we may discredit it as just a glass for pilsners today, this variety of cup was traditionally used for communal drinking. Besides drinking, this cup was repurposed as a trophy, particularly in the DFB-Pokal football tournament. The pokal exhibits cultural attributes of both community and competition.
In several sections of the Old Testament, a unique practice of the Israelites is mentioned-shouting accompanied the stomping of grapes. This so called “vintage-shout” is described in various ways. The shout was sometimes violent, accentuating the damage done to grapes. Usually, it was joyous, celebrating the fruit of many months of labor. In the Holy Land, the wine making process was loud.
Many species of orchids have two bulbs. One can be dried and ground into a powder called salep. In Turkey, this powder is used to make a thick, hot beverage in the winter and ice cream in the summer. Many believed that the orchid had medicinal and aphrodisiacal powers, so the powder and drink have long been coveted. Over-harvesting orchids has threatened some species, so substitutes are common.
Modern soda was made possible by the discovery of an Englishman named Joseph Priestley. A close friend of Benjamin Franklin, the chemist discovered how to artificially introduce carbon dioxide into water. While early scientists thought the drink had medicinal benefits, the discovery heralded the start of the soda industry including the founding of Schweppe’s in 1783. Surprisingly, carbonated drinks had close ties with the founding fathers.
Do we really get drunker when we drink on a plane? The theory goes that altitude exaggerates our state of intoxication, so that 2 drinks in flight is like 4 on the ground. The reality is more complicated. Some academic studies support the theory, but others flatly contradict it. Overall, no one has really cared enough to prove it. So, we may never know if we really do get drunker at altitude.
Germans developed lager style beer by fermenting in cellars for long periods of time. When immigrants arrived to America in the 1800s from Germany, they found brew-worthy caves in St. Louis. Thanks to its geography, Missouri became home to America’s lager industry, eventually producing beer giant Anheuser-Busch, which was founded out of a cave. St. Louis owes its early development to lager beer.
In Ghana, palm wine has been an important cultural drink for centuries. Europeans introduced distillation, and palm wine was distilled into akpeteshie. When British colonial government attempted to tax spirits in Ghana, locals opted to distill their gin at home. The drink became a symbol of pride and anti-colonial sentiment. Since independence, the spirit has been legal and culturally salient.
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