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Beverage production is the production of beverages for human consumption. Common beverages produced include bottled water, fruit juices, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, milk, coffee, and tea. Newer beverage categories include sports drinks and energy drinks.
Production of any beverage must take care to ensure that the beverages are free of microorganisms which can cause disease. While in some production processes, such as fermentation, certain types of microorganisms are desirable or even necessary, illness or death can result from drinking beverages contaminated by unwanted organisms.
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[edit] Historical production of beverages
Many types of beverages have been produced throughout history, some even before recorded history.
[edit] Water
Potable water has always been an extremely important resource. While non-potable water can be used for irrigation, any human civilization must have access to a supply of water suitable for drinking. Historically, civilizations often formed near lakes and rivers. However, these water sources can become polluted by runoff and waste, especially as rivers were also often used for waste disposal and bathing, potentially polluting the water supply with bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Unpurified water supplies may also contain toxic heavy metals such as lead and arsenic. [1]
While the vast majority of water on Earth is contained in the oceans, ocean water's salinity renders it unsuitable for drinking. Only in recent times has the ability to desalinize ocean water into drinking water become available.
Before the advent of modern plumbing, ancient societies addressed this problem in various ways, including digging wells to tap into clean groundwater, the use of barrels and cisterns to collect rainwater and dew, and in some societies the use of aqueducts to bring a clean water supply into a city.[2]
[edit] Milk
History of dairying, 8000-9000 BCE with domestication of goats and sheep in Iran/Iraq
Lassi, koumiss, kefir: need lactose-fermenting varieties of microorganisms
Lactose intolerance
milkshakes
[edit] Juices
The fresh juices of various fruits have always been a popular drink, but were difficult to keep from spoiling before the invention of refrigeration technology. Fermentation of these juices was used before refrigeration to prevent spoilage, often resulting in a "hard" or alcoholic juice.
[edit] Tea
Legend has it that green tea was discovered by Buddhist monks trying to meditate on enlightenment for great lengths of time. Black tea leaves are produced by a browning process; the Indian Darjeeling tea is perhaps the most prized of teas.
Making tea is an extraction, ; hot water is used to extract substances from the leaves. Different substances are extracted at different rates; that's why it's important that the tea water be ideally a few degrees below boiling and that the tea be allowed to steep for only a few minutes. Longer steeping times result in bitter tannins being extracted.
[edit] Coffee
Coffee was discovered in ancient times in Abyssinia. According to legend, goatherds noticed that goats frolicked energetically after eating the berries of certain bushes. After eating these berries, the goatherds also felt the effects of coffee's stimulant chemical, caffeine.[3] After this, the head of a nearby monastery learned of the finding, and found the beverage useful during the monks' all-night prayers.[4]
Coffee cultivation then spread to Mecca. The first known coffeehouse was opened in Constantinople in 1475.[4]
Coffee remains an extremely popular beverage in many parts of the world.
Coffee is prepared by a hot water extraction from the coffee bean. Historically, coffee was made by boiling the coffee beans whole. In recent times, however, coffee beans are ground or pulverized and placed in a filter. Hot water is then run through the ground beans ("grounds"), passing through the filter while leaving the grounds behind.
[edit] Soft drinks
Plant extractions
Root beer, birch beer, ginger ale, coca cola, cherry cola (Dr. Pepper), orange, Orangina
[edit] Wine
Wine has historically been made by many societies, and has been mentioned in many ancient texts. It is produced by allowing fruit, most often grapes, to be fermented by yeast. During this process, some of the fruit's sugars are consumed by the yeast and turn to vinegar. The dryness of the wine is dependent on how much sugar is consumed in this manner. Wine residues were discovered in a flask approximately 7,500 years old, leading historians to believe winemaking may have been part of human society for as long as 10,000 years. Wine containers labeled with vintage and location have been found in Egyptian tombs and dated to 5,000 years old.[5]
[edit] Mead
A wine-like beverage, mead, can be made from fermenting honey. A variant called melomel can be made by adding fruit. [6]
[edit] Beer
Similar to wine, beer is brewed by allowing yeast to ferment sugary juices (the wort) produced from barley and other grains. The grains are partially germinated to awaken their enzymes and browned (malting), then cracked and steeped in water (mashing) to allow those enzymes to produce sugar from the seed's starch. After removing the grains (except perhaps a few for flavor), the wort is boiled with hops (a preservative and flavor-adding agent), cooled and then fermented with yeast, taking care to eliminate just enough of the proteins so that the beer is clear but still gives a good foam head.
[edit] Fermented rice beverages
The Chinese and Japanese make fermented beverages from rice (chhü and sake, respectively) that are similar in principle to beer, but use mainly the mold Aspergillus oryzae instead of yeast for fermentation.[7]
[edit] Liqueurs
Brandy, cognac, whiskey, vodka, gin
[edit] Modern beverage production
Flavorings = extractions
[edit] References
- ^ Mazze, Sarah. "Diving Into Danger." Aug. 3, 2006. Eugene Weekly.
- ^ Wåhlin, Lars. The Family Cistern: 3,000 Years of Household Water Collection in Jordan. June 1995.
- ^ Ryan, Erin. "Coffee Culture, the Gospel of the Bean". Boise Weekly. Boise, Idaho: Nov 18, 2003.Vol.12, Iss. 19; pg. 14
- ^ a b Pendell, Dale. "Goatherds, smugglers, and revolutionaries: A history of coffee". Whole Earth. Summer issue 2002. Issue 108, p. 7-9.
- ^ Nash, J. Madeleine. "The First Vintage." Nov 24, 2003. Time.
- ^ Ludwig, Mike. "Brimming flagons of mead quaffed, compared in holiday contest." The Athens News. Dec. 11, 2006. Athens, Ohio.
- ^ James E. Galagan, Sarah E. Calvo, Christina Cuomo, Li-Jun Ma, et al. "Sequencing of Aspergillus nidulans and comparative analysis with A. fumigatus and A. oryzae." Nature. London: Dec 22, 2005.Vol.438, Iss. 7071; pg. 1105.
