I feel like this joke would have landed better 5, or maybe even 3 years ago. Every even remotely fancy restaurant I go into has jumped on the mocktail bandwagon and offers plenty of options for people avoiding alcohol.
That’s great news! Occasionally I browse the NA beers and last week I thought how great it would be to be able to drink a Guinness! Maybe it arrives here sometime.
Even then, it’s not really accurate anyway. A cocktail is a bunch of ingredients mixes together. You can usually get them without the alcohol if you ask for it (obviously this doesn’t work for every drink). They list of cocktails is so large because there’s a lot of ways to combine a few ingredients to make different things. They don’t actually stock that many types of drinks or anything. They’re made on demends, and can usually be modified if you ask.
Human sacrifice was also pretty popular for a pretty long time, as was autocracy. Alcohol isn’t that bad, obviously, if bad at all, but age isn’t a good argument on it’s own.
Also; factually inaccurate. I’m not sure how much evidence of alcohol there is in the New World civilisations, and Islam, which forbids it, has been around for a millennia and a half.
You can’t ban something unless it exists and is a part of your society. Alcohol existed prior to Islam in Arabia and still exists there today. Legal Prohibitions do not cause a substance to disappear.
Alcohol is just fermented grain. Everyone had grain. Therefore everyone had alcohol. Including the Americas
So yes, there is evidence of alcohol consumption in the New World prior to European contact. Indigenous peoples in various parts of the Americas developed fermented beverages from local ingredients long before Europeans arrived.
North America: Various tribes produced alcoholic drinks from berries, maize, and other native plants. For example, the Apache made tiswin from corn, and the Chicha was popular among many tribes in North America.
Central America: The Aztecs brewed pulque from the sap of the agave plant. This drink was not only consumed for enjoyment but also held religious significance.
South America: Chicha, a beer made from maize, was widely consumed across the Andean region. This beverage was integral to social and ceremonial functions.
These indigenous beverages varied widely in production, ingredients, and cultural significance but demonstrate that alcohol consumption was indeed present in the New World prior to European contact.
Fair enough. It looks like pulque, at least, was recorded as not being used recreationally, which is probably what I was remembering, but even that I doubt, just based on human nature.
It’s still highly unlikely Alpharabius ever discussed political philosophy over a beer. There might have been local Jews that could supply it, but the cultural taboo would have long since been totally integrated. It wasn’t ye olde prohibition or something. And it’s still not supported that drinking is objectively, universally desirable in some aesthetic sense, which is kind of what “it is cool” suggests in the original context.
I feel like this joke would have landed better 5, or maybe even 3 years ago. Every even remotely fancy restaurant I go into has jumped on the mocktail bandwagon and offers plenty of options for people avoiding alcohol.
I was just in Dublin and saw Guinness 0.0 in a bunch of places. Things are definitely shifting if that can exist in Ireland.
That’s great news! Occasionally I browse the NA beers and last week I thought how great it would be to be able to drink a Guinness! Maybe it arrives here sometime.
they do sell them in the US
I’ve not had it, but someone (who also likes regular Guinness) told me that Guinness zero was genuinely great. Need to check it out sometime.
Even then, it’s not really accurate anyway. A cocktail is a bunch of ingredients mixes together. You can usually get them without the alcohol if you ask for it (obviously this doesn’t work for every drink). They list of cocktails is so large because there’s a lot of ways to combine a few ingredients to make different things. They don’t actually stock that many types of drinks or anything. They’re made on demends, and can usually be modified if you ask.
Cocktails without alcohol cost way too much for what they are. That would be like paying 15 bucks for a burger without meat.
Restaurants sometimes also have like dozens of types of beer, wine, etc. but the best non-alcoholic they can do is a water or a coca cola softdrink?
At least in North America. I get the sense Europe still thinks drinking is cool across the board.
Alcohol has been an essential facilitating element of human socialization in every human civilization since Mesopotamia
Which is cool
Human sacrifice was also pretty popular for a pretty long time, as was autocracy. Alcohol isn’t that bad, obviously, if bad at all, but age isn’t a good argument on it’s own.
Also; factually inaccurate. I’m not sure how much evidence of alcohol there is in the New World civilisations, and Islam, which forbids it, has been around for a millennia and a half.
https://youtu.be/gK4DMt8ARyU
I was wrong, I dint notice that the other commenter said “every human civilization” we can’t know this as we don’t know every human civilization.
You can’t ban something unless it exists and is a part of your society. Alcohol existed prior to Islam in Arabia and still exists there today. Legal Prohibitions do not cause a substance to disappear.
Alcohol is just fermented grain. Everyone had grain. Therefore everyone had alcohol. Including the Americas
So yes, there is evidence of alcohol consumption in the New World prior to European contact. Indigenous peoples in various parts of the Americas developed fermented beverages from local ingredients long before Europeans arrived.
North America: Various tribes produced alcoholic drinks from berries, maize, and other native plants. For example, the Apache made tiswin from corn, and the Chicha was popular among many tribes in North America.
Central America: The Aztecs brewed pulque from the sap of the agave plant. This drink was not only consumed for enjoyment but also held religious significance.
South America: Chicha, a beer made from maize, was widely consumed across the Andean region. This beverage was integral to social and ceremonial functions.
These indigenous beverages varied widely in production, ingredients, and cultural significance but demonstrate that alcohol consumption was indeed present in the New World prior to European contact.
Fair enough. It looks like pulque, at least, was recorded as not being used recreationally, which is probably what I was remembering, but even that I doubt, just based on human nature.
It’s still highly unlikely Alpharabius ever discussed political philosophy over a beer. There might have been local Jews that could supply it, but the cultural taboo would have long since been totally integrated. It wasn’t ye olde prohibition or something. And it’s still not supported that drinking is objectively, universally desirable in some aesthetic sense, which is kind of what “it is cool” suggests in the original context.
Chicha can be made from any fruit with glucose in it, it’s basically another word for alcohol.