Fimilar Drink Summary

Standage begins his book with a fimilar drink to just about everyone. Beer. Beer is thought to have been brewed near 6,000 years ago by the Sumerians. During a mass nomadic time period and just after the end of the ice age, the Fertile Crescent became a gold mine for farming. In those times, the first crops grown in the Fertile Crescent region were wheat and barley. By accident, the prehistoric dwellers who collected wheat found that when wheat comes in contact with water it tastes sweet and becomes “malted”. Also, they found that if gruel was left sitting it turned in a fizzy and “pleasantly intoxicating” (Standage 15). Thus gruel turned into beer. In addition to being a brew of nomadic times, beer was used as a form of payment to slaves
Possibly discovered by accident through the ingesting of naturally fermented grapes. In Greece, wine was used as a social status, as a medicinal asset, and a cultural drink. Naturally one could connect wine to Dionysus of Greece and Bacchus of Rome. Wine became a luxurious drink that one would drink during a party or while one was relaxing. Also, for the first time the ‘brand’ of a drink mattered. If someone had very good tasting wine he or she was considered to be more well off than one who had a not very good tasting wine. In addition, philosophers said that wine “’reveals what is hidden’” (Standage 63). Plato depicts his mentor, Socrates, as ‘the good drinker’ who after a party is completely unaffected by the wine he has drunk because he uses it as a pursuit of truth in order to maintain control over his body. Wine then spread to Rome, who received it with open arms. Roman’s loved their wine and loved very good Greek wine. In Rome, the significance of an expensive wine and a cheap wine had much more of an affect due to their strict social hierarchies. Wine became so significant in Rome that in every feast or party guests would assume there to wine, good wine. In addition, while Jesus hung on the cross Roman soldiers dipped a sponge in wine for him to drink. Regarding Christianity, Catholics consume the Blood of Christ in physical form of wine. In conclusion, although, in my opinion, wine did not affect history during the times of the Greeks it did affect history significantly because of its religious