Oldest alcoholic beverages found in China

[Fortuna_Wolf]

A little article from newscientist details how they've found pottery containing what is now the oldest known brew, made out of a mix of rice, honey, and a fruit; either grapes or hawthorn fruit. 7000 BC, beating the next oldest known find in Iran by 1600 years.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996759

Not quite mead, but its something.

 

[Jmattioli]

Good Post Fortuna_Wolf.
I would call it Mead. Pyment with rice.
Joe

 

[Dan McFeeley]

Thanks for posting this -- really exciting stuff!

Here's another URL:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/07/MNGSCA7P7B1.DTL

I talked about the Jiahu material at the mead history seminar I gave at this year's meadfest in Boulder Colorado, but from the material Patrick McGovern had published prior to then along with a short e-mail conversation, he wasn't positive at that time that the waxy material he had identifed in the samples was actually beeswax. Because of that, I could only tell the audience that it was very possible that honey had been used in these ancient wines, but it wasn't certain. From these recent reports, it looks like McGovern is now confident in saying, yes, these samples showed the use of honey.

I'm really excited about this! The Jiahu samples are 9,000 years old, but they point to an already established practice of making wine.

 

[Oskaar]

This is great stuff! I love the fact that 7000 - 9000 years ago was focused on making a beverage to catch a buzz and have a good time. You gotta wonder when they started inventing bowling alleys so they could get out of the house and drink with their buddies

Oskaar

 

[Norskersword]

This is great stuff! I love the fact that 7000 - 9000 years ago was focused on making a beverage to catch a buzz and have a good time. You gotta wonder when they started inventing bowling alleys so they could get out of the house and drink with their buddies

Back in the day, we didn't have bowling balls! We had to use cow skulls! And we didn't have those fancy bowling pins like you are use to! We had to carve ours out of onions! Which was the style at the time...

 

[CosmicCharlie]

I thought the style at the time was to wear the onion on your belt? Nice Grandpa reference!

 

[Oskaar]

"Aye. And in them days, we'd a' been glad to have the price of a cup o' tea."

"A cup o' COLD tea."

"Without milk or sugar."

"OR tea!"

"In a filthy, cracked cup."

"We never used to have a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper."

"The best WE could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth."

"But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor."


Cheers,

Oskaar