General History of Beverage

General History of Beverage
The earliest humans had no cups or ways to store water, so, by necessity, they frequented water holes or other source of standing or running water. It is presumed that the earliest humans channeled run off, drank melted snow and consumed rainfall collected from tree crotches or natural depressions. Simple observations on the timing and quality of rainfall and the probability of water at any specific geographical location would have served ancient humans well. Eventually through observation and trial and error, early humans learned to predict sources of water even on subsurface deposits beneath the sands of dry stream beds and also learned which fruits and succulents in arid lands offered refreshing lifesaving fluids to drink.

Since remote antiquity, there has existed a world of different beverages: fresh water, fresh plant juice, fresh animal fluids (whether blood, milk), fermented plant and animals products, and various mixtures. Some beverages are primarily water, but others were prepared form myriad fresh or drinks barks, flowers, pods, resins and roots and resins. Some are drunk to satisfy thirst or provide simple pleasures, and some are drunks for cultural and religious significance, whereas still other for medicinal value.

Water is one of the oldest known beverages and one of the first to be medicinally characterized with respect to effect on health. During Han dynasty times in ancient China, already had a wide range in beverage choices that had rapidly become available and how they closely associated with medicine and the healing process. The ancient Chinese medical system defined five organs (heart, liver, lung, kidney and spleen) and integrated factors of hot-cold, wet dry, male-female, set within complex integration of Yang, Neutrality and Yin. Alcoholic beverage (except beer) and coffee are classified as Yang or hot/heating, whereas fruit juice, milk tea, and unboiled water are classified as Yin or cold/cooling. Further more, Chinese Buddhist monks followed strict dietary codes that limited their eating time to the morning hours, and the foods/beverage forbidden to them included: fermented items, milk, cream, fish and meat.
General History of Beverage