Things We drink

In the earlier posts I mentioned several liquids that we regularly consume; Coffee, water, tea and beer. Except for Coffee I didn't get into much detail on the others.

My last post was 'more on soup' and of course water is the key to that. Water was also gotten into in earlier posts as well.
I mentioned beer in one also. I'd like to expand on that a little:

Definitions:
Beer          :  An alcoholic drink made from malt, grains, and flavored with hops
                  : A non-alcoholic drink made from plants or roots of plants.
                    and example would be "root beer".

Malt         : Grains, such as barley soaked in water and used in the making of alcoholic
                   beverages.
 
Sarsaparilla: (commonly pronounced "Sasparilla").
                   : The leaves and flowers of this vine plant are used in giving bitter flavor
                     to malted liquors.
                     The roots of this plant used in making non-alcoholic root beer.

The origin of Beer is old...old and foggy. Researchers have pinned the origin to ancient Mesopotamia (a part of the middle east between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers extending from the mountains of SE Asia to the Persian Gulf.), in 6 BC. That plus a Sumerian Tablet depicting people sitting around a large bowl apparently sipping from the bowl through straws. But how they came to the conclusion that they were sipping beer is beyond me. Consider that in 6 BC There was no written language, and even if there was, most of the people were illiterate. Even into the middle ages the written word and writing was the domain of monks and friars. But that is just my opinion and has nothing to do with beer except that there is also no evidence of a  recipe for making beer. The Hymn of Ninkasi notwithstanding (in spite of). That hymn supposedly had in its wording the method for making beer. And in this way had a recipe that could be passed on easily.
Therefore lets just skip all that and concentrate on times and places that are verifiable.

According to Statistics, beer is in 3rd place as the most consumed beverage world wide, behind water and tea.
However, That conclusion may or may not be true. in London during the middle ages Water was not a big favorite as a drink, due to pollution. Most of the rivers and streams of England and most of Europe too, were also used as sewers. So Beer, being plentiful and Cheap, and could be made easily by most anyone, was uniformly drank by nearly every citizen. Tea at that time was very expensive. and had to be imported by ship from the far east.
It has been said that the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock instead of further south was because they ran out of beer. I can go with that because of how much water would be needed by passengers and crew and the live animals that were also on those first ships, that beer would have been the primary source of beverage for the people.

So, In the US the most popular and most consumed beverage is Water; followed by Soda (all soft drinks); then Coffee, then Beer. and lastly, Milk.