First Cocktail 5,000 Years Old

Praxiteles writes "The first cocktail was...grog?! From the article: 'The first cocktail ever was made in Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago, using wine, beer, apple juice and honey. Patrick McGovern defined the mix as "grog", an archaic drink that in the United States is sold as the Midas Touch'."

Redefines My Definition

[slothjammin]

D'oh,
This whole time I thought Grog was the screen name for http://www.lemis.com/grog/ [lemis.com] *nix developer, Greg Lehy.

Origins of colloquial "grog"?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure about other English speaking parts of the world, but Australians still refer to "grog" as a general term for alcoholic drinks.

Interestingly, dictionary.com quotes its origins [reference.com] as such

"After Old Grog, nickname of Edward Vernon (1684-1757), British admiral who ordered that diluted rum be served to his sailors, from grogram(from his habit of wearing a grogram cloak)."

Blow Your Lunch...

[mwaggs_jd]

Punch. Modern version of this, big coleman cooler, a bottle each of Everclear, Vodka, Whiskey, a case of beer, several cans of fruit punch, chunks of fruit, a bag or two of ice, close lid, shake, serve. Guarenteed to curdle your stomach

Re:Arrrr!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's true. [wikipedia.org] Pirates used rum to keep stagnant water from making them sick.

Wisdom from Ancient Mesopotamia

[Quirk]

I can't provide a referrence, but I read an adage said to be from an equally ancient time frame. An anoymous scribe wrote:

"Cloth to wear
Cooked meat to eat
Beer to drink"

The important things never change.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZONK!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yesterday you said your birthday was coming up. We wanted to wish you a good one, because this will be your last birthday before you get Bonked and replaced by TripMaster Monkey as Games editor. We sure hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and speaking of TMM, we asked him what he was going to do for your birthday and he said ^_^

Love from the Slashdot crowd.

--
Trolling all trolls since 2001.

ancient beer/wine != modern beer/wine!

[myowntrueself]

Those old beer and wine recipes are quite different from their modern counterparts.

The main differences would probably be the lack of effective filtration and the yeasts.

The filtration is probably the biggest difference.

We are used to beer and wine being relatively clear; in ye olde days the beers and wines were rather murky.

This has the interesting side effect that modern beers and wines are substantially less nutritious than their ancient counterparts.

The Egyptian beer (which built the pyramids) has been described as 'mildly alcoholic, liquid bread'

I've tried making wines and beers like these, they have a much lower alcohol content and are far more tasty.

People also tend to turn their noses up at them cos they look cloudy and have bits floating around. More for me! Yum!

And ahhh genuine Cornish scrumpy cider... even though I know they throw a dead rabbit into the vat, it still tastes good! :)

Okay, it's a slow day, but . . .

[erikharrison]

Despite the total lack of useful information in this article, does it strike any one as odd that they did not consider the possibility that the same container was used to hold multiple things over time?

It's not like they had industrial strength santizing dish washers 5000 years ago - over ten years of use, one could imagine an accumulation of residue inside such a container

Re:Wisdom from Ancient Mesopotamia

[bladesjester]

Beer was important in a lot of cultures for one very good reason - the water often wasn't safe to drink straight due to native bacteria, population centers dumping sewage straight into waterways, etc.

When the water can kill you and the beer is safe to drink (not to mention neutritious), you drink the beer.

Re:ancient beer/wine != modern beer/wine!

[st0rmshad0w]

Real old beer never had hops either, they were added by decree of the church, to limit the randiness of drunks, which lead to "brewer's dropsy"

Re:ancient beer/wine != modern beer/wine!

[Vellmont]

The main differences would probably be the lack of effective filtration and the yeasts.

I'd agree that the yeasts were definitely different (the strains used today have been developed by selection by brewers over the last several hundred years). I wouldn't agree that one of the major differences in beer between today and the past was filtering. I'm a homebrewer and I never have filtered my beer. The difference is taste isn't really noticeable. Most beer that is is filtered is done so for cosmetic reasons (getting rid of haze), and also to get rid of any sediment on the bottom. Most strains of yeast have a fairly high "floctuation" (that is clump up together) and fall to the bottom of the tank, so they don't often tend to be hazy. It's possible that yeasts of old didn't have high floctuation, and thus beer had a more yeasty taste (think hefe-weizen, which means yeast wheat). The strain of yeast used to make hefe-weizen has low floctuation, and thus tends to be cloudy.

The biggest difference between beers of old and modern beer is the addition of hops. Hops weren't even used in beer until somewhere around 700-800 AD. Until then there were using various other herbs added to beer to add flavor (and probbably preservative qualities) that hops provides. Hops didn't become widely popular in much of europe until somewhere after the 14th century.

This has the interesting side effect that modern beers and wines are substantially less nutritious than their ancient counterparts.

I guess I don't know why beer would be more nutrituous for lack of yeast (most of which settles out anyway). Anyway, many modern beers aren't filtered (maybe even most, but I really don't know that for sure). Guiness is one good example of an unfiltered beer.

Re:ancient beer/wine != modern beer/wine!

[Ours]

You may want to try the Venezuelan chicha. I've drank industrial-made chicha for breakfast and it tastes very good. I think they made theirs with rise. Nice rich and nutricious milkshake-like drink.

Re:"Grog" is now sold by it's commercial name:

[1u3hr]

Grog means Rum. This is beacuse Admiral Grog, of the (British) Royal Navy ordered that all British sailors be given a tot of rum every day.

Grog is not (straight) rum, there was no Admiral Grog, and the sailors already drank rum, since the 17th C, and it became part of their official ration in 1731.

"Old Grog" was the nickname of Admiral Vernon (1684-1757), from his grogram cloak, afterwards applied to the mixture he ordered to be served out to sailors instead of neat rum.

By Vernon's time straight rum was commonly issued to sailors aboard ship - and drunkenness and lack of discipline were common problems. On August 21, 1740, Vernon issued an order that rum would thereafter be mixed with water. A quart of water was mixed with a half-pint of rum on deck and in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch. Sailors were given two servings a day; one between 10 and 12 AM and the other between 4 and 6 PM. To make it more palatable it was suggested sugar and lime be added. In 1756 the mixture of water and rum became part of the regulations, and the call to "Up Spirits" sounded aboard Royal Navy ships for more than two centuries thereafter.