Drink
Water as a neutral table beverage did not appear in Europe until well into the Industrial era, when efficient water purification could ensure safe drinking water. All but the poorest drank mildly alcoholic drinks on a daily basis, for every meal; wine in the south, beer in the north and east. Both drinks came in many varieties, vintages and at varying qualities. Those northerners who could afford to do so drank imported wines, and wine remained an integral part of the Eucharist, even for the poor. Ale had been the most common form of beer in England through most of the Middle Ages, but was mostly replaced with hopped beer from the Low Countries in the 16th century.
Read more about this topic: Early Modern European Cuisine
Famous quotes containing the word drink:
“While yet it is cold January, and snow and ice are thick and solid, the prudent landlord comes from the village to get ice to cool his summer drink; impressively, even pathetically, wise, to foresee the heat and thirst of July now in January,—wearing a thick coat and mittens! when so many things are not provided for. It may be that he lays up no treasures in this world which will cool his summer drink in the next.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“At the punch-bowl’s brink,
Let the thirsty think,
What they say in Japan:
First the man takes a drink,
Then the drink takes a drink,
Then the drink takes the man!”
—Edward Rowland Sill (1841–1887)
“Waters above! Eternal springs!
The dew that silvers the Dove’s wings!
O welcome, welcome to the sad:
Give dry dust drink, drink that makes glad!
Many fair ev’nings, many flow’rs
Sweetened with rich and gentle showers,
Have I enjoyed,”
—Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)