Drinking in Britain

What drink do you think is the most popular in Britain? Tea? Yes, but actually beer has longer history than tea and have been loved by many British people. It is said that beer and wine are the oldest alcohol and have already made in Mesopotamia civilization; however, they cannot make much wine in Britain due to climate condition; therefore, beer became very popular. After Middle Age, they even brewed beer in a monaster. People in Middle Age would often drink beer with bread to get nutrition out of beer. Cider, made by fermented apple, is also a famous alcohol beverage. Especially teenagers like to drink this because this taste is really sweet and easy to drink, but you have to be careful that this is still alcohol and not to drink too much.





Gin is not really common alcohol compared to beer, but there is an interesting fact in history over Gin. In 18th century Gin, which was poor in quality, was imported to Britain from Netherland, and it became popular and was drunk among many people. Especially those who lived in slums drank in order to prevent from coldness. As the results some people got issues, such as alcoholism, health problems, which caused a lot of troubles. Due to these incidents, the law in order to restrict Gin took effect in 1736 and 1751. This law made situation better; However, Gin abuse became serious again in 19 century. The big pub, called "Gin palace" was crowded with people who were crazy about Gin, and even kids went to the pub. Again, because of this serious situation, alcohol prohibition law was made and enforced. Queen Victoria also tackled this problem and soothed this situation.






Pub is derived from "Public House", which has been really popular among British peopele. Even small village has pubs. They talk and socialize themselves, drink, and eat so called pub menu like fish and chips. One of the funny thing about pub is its name. Probably the majorest name is "Red Lion". "King's Head" and "King's Arm" are also major ones. Some pub's names are very strange. For example, "The Bucket of Blood" and "Nobody Inn". Each name of pub has its own derivation. Pub is strongly connected with life of British people.


Reference
Deguchi, Yasuo. Kobayashi, Akio. Saitou, Takako. The 21st Century Encyclopeadia of British Culture. Tokyo: Tokyo shoseki, 2009.