From the moment man discovered the art of fermentation, and later distillation, alcohol has been an important part of human history. In peace but definitely also in war liquor helped to shape the world as we know it.
For decades Canada and Denmark have had a territorial dispute about a small island in the Nares Strait, between Canada and Greenland. Hans Island is only 1.3 square kilometers big, and it has no vegetation or valuable natural resources. Basically it’s a big rock in the middle of nowhere. Still both NATO-allies fight a Cold…
Many Christians around the world started a period of fasting yesterday at Ash Wednesday. For the remaining 46 days (or 40 when skipping Sundays) until Easter people give up meat, smoking or alcohol. Although this can be seen as the ultimate sacrifice, and that’s what the Lent Fast is essentially about, we’d like to present…
Everywhere in the world craft beers are re-gaining popularity. People are fed up with the many traditional brands, that messed up their original recipes to make more money. But in the small country of Lithuania, people were way ahead of this so-called Craft Beer Revolution. Their centuries old homebrew culture never left. Not even when the Communists…
Beer has been around for ages, more than 5.000 years actually. But the stuff our ancient ancestors drank was quite a different brew than the large variety of beers we know today. In 2013 the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland (USA) joined forces with archaeologists from the nearby University of Chicago to brew a beer…
The First World War was for New Zealand the period of national awakening. The country with back then just over a million inhabitants in total sent more than 100.000 soldiers and nurses to the frontline. Many of them gave their life in the Battle of Gallipoli or at the Western Front. But their most important…
If the Historical Drunkards section has taught us anything it must be that many influential people in the past were quite fond of alcoholic beverages. Things weren’t different in 8th century China during the Tang Dynasty. In fact the eight most brilliant minds of this immense country were quite the wine enthousiasts. The alcohol consumption…
An interesting archaeological find in Bulgaria this week gave new life to the discussion when the art of distilling became a thing in Europe. This part of an 11th century distillation vessel is the third piece of hard evidence from Bulgaria that it’s national drink rakia was around a few hundred years before the Western Europeans started distilling, which is believed…
