What Was The Oldest Alcoholic Beverage In The World Made Of?

The production and consumption of alcohol is one of our oldest traditions as a species. From Middle Eastern wine in 5000 B.C.E. to Mesoamerican fermented cacao in 1400 B.C.E. (how good does that sound?) to Bud Light Lime-A-Rita in 2012, alcohol has been used for religious, ceremonial, or simple everyday relaxation purposes for nearly the length of the Holocene Age, when civilizations as we know them began to form. That begs the question, which alcohol is the oldest yet found?

According to a 2004 joint study conducted by the Penn Museum, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and multiple Chinese universities, the answer is a 9,000-year-old rice-based fermented beverage found in the village of Jiahu in the Henan province. Biomarker analysis of shards of pottery vessels suggests that the drink in question was made from a combination of rice, honey, and either wild grapes or hawthorn fruit. Experts have dated it back to approximately 7000 B.C.E. and believe it was in consistent production at the time. 

Both wild grapes and hawthorn berries grow abundantly in the part of northern China where Jiahu is located, making it unclear which was the fruit in question. Hawthorn berries are tart, tangy fruits that have been used in Chinese medicine since ancient times to improve poor blood circulation among other conditions. They are considered to have significant health benefits today with positive effects on hypertension and even anti-diabetic properties.

Jiahu's fermented cereal beverage predates ancient barley beer

While Jiahu boasts the oldest discovered alcohol in the world to date, historical records suggest inhabitants of the area were only a bit ahead of the curve. Research indicates that barley beer was beginning to be cultivated in the Middle East at a similar period, and evidence of wine found in Tbilisi, Georgia was dated to 6000 B.C.E., making it the world's oldest grape-based wine. Fermented drinks found in China in the last millennium B.C.E. show the continuation of Jiahu's cereal beverage tradition, as completely preserved rice and millet wines flavored with chrysanthemum, wormwood, and other additives have been discovered.

The Sumerians were responsible for the oldest beer in the world, with records going back 5,000 years, and they were even kind enough to leave a recipe, albeit one in poem form inscribed on a clay tablet. That recipe shows the importance of reusing stale bread for fermentation as it pays homage to Ninkasi, the Mesopotamian goddess of brewing. By the time history reached the Greek empire, wine was so common that Greek elites were said to consume approximately a pint of the stuff a day, generally tempered with water, though notorious drinker Alexander the Great bucked that trend by drinking his wine straight.