The Inquirer
A BRITISH boff working over the pond claims that humanity's first technological breakthroughs were because of the development of beer.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39004
Chris
Beer was responsible for technology
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Sit Heel Speak
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- Joined: Fri 31 Mar 2006, 03:22
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I remember reading somewhere, long ago, that throughout all history, every victor in clashes between two empires has always been the side which had better beer. Except one: the largest empire of all, Genghis Khan's. The Mongols' home climate was too cold to grow grains. Instead they drank fermented mare's-milk, called kumiss. However, Genghis Khan himself, late in life, said he himself preferred the red wines of the Shiraz district of Persia.
His grandson Mangu Khan, in his pavilion at Karakorum, had a fabulously elaborate two-story-tall gold-and-silver fountain, fashioned to resemble a tree, from the branch-tips of which flowed constant streams of every alcoholic beverage known to his empire. Plus fruit juices, milk, even naturally-carbonated springwater. It was made by William Bouchier, famous 13th Century goldsmith from Paris.
Since the Mongols also had a "pony express" by which ice was routinely brought from nearby mountains, I deduce that Mangu Khan's fountain-tree was, at least in theory, the original bar where a thirsty world-conqueror could order scotch-and-soda-on-the-rocks!
His grandson Mangu Khan, in his pavilion at Karakorum, had a fabulously elaborate two-story-tall gold-and-silver fountain, fashioned to resemble a tree, from the branch-tips of which flowed constant streams of every alcoholic beverage known to his empire. Plus fruit juices, milk, even naturally-carbonated springwater. It was made by William Bouchier, famous 13th Century goldsmith from Paris.
Since the Mongols also had a "pony express" by which ice was routinely brought from nearby mountains, I deduce that Mangu Khan's fountain-tree was, at least in theory, the original bar where a thirsty world-conqueror could order scotch-and-soda-on-the-rocks!
Last edited by Sit Heel Speak on Sat 21 Apr 2007, 22:45, edited 2 times in total.