OUR OLDEST ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 201, 18 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR OLDEST ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE.

Many people labour under the impression that cider is a non-alcoholic beverage; but in tins belief they are. entirely wrong. Cider is alcoholic, ant if consumed in large quantities will have the effect of making a man .pur as "tipsy" as will eithc- bt.er o-- spirits, though'its after-cffe:h ,it s true, wi:' not do him much mum. Cide: is lh. i'li-mented juice of the apple, and is n very ancient beverage. Pliny calls cider and perry the " wine of apples and pears"; and his descitpt'.on aptly fits the beverage. In Saxon times cider was known as Aeppelwin, while some kind of fermented drink from the jmce ot wild apples seems to have been popular when the Romans were in tin* country; and that is many centuries a"o Mead (or Moddyglin), which pTinv declared had all the bad qualities of wine and few of its good ones appears to have been the only alcoholic drink known in the British isles before the introduction of agriculture. Now that sugar is costing so much, it s quite hkely that "mead" will again make a h : d for popularity. The war has had the effect of bunging thingsi bacs from the forgotten past, and it will not bo surprising if this proves yet one more. Already its possibilities are spoken of. It is an ancient drink derived originally from ra'n and honey; but modern science will doubtless improve upon its method of production. The honey bee, however, will have n big " voice" in the matter.