1954 Practical Bar Management by Eddie Clarke

PRACTICAL BAR MANAGEMENT

What,then, must he know in order to become the ideal answer to all these demands ? Suppose we start at the very beginning, and as"drink"will be the major theme running throughoutthese pages, let us dwell for a while on this interesting subject. If one were to trace back the history of alcohol as a beverage, the thousands of years involved would be no greater than the number of reasons for drinking it, or the number of ways. This is neither the time nor the place to probe the mysteries regarding the discovery of fermentation or distillation. So many books have already been written about this, and so many theories propounded. The greatest of all books, the Bible, has continual references to wine, not the least of these being at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. The New Testament, however, does not contain by any means the earliest mention of"drink"; it is a well-known fact that the Ancient Egyptians buried wine with their dead Pharaohs. The Chinese had a similar custom, as had other races of a bygone era. Different countries contribute their own native potions to the world's varieties of to-day, although some are very little known in Britain. For example,the Japanese have for centuries made rice wines and Saki. The Hawaiians' own native brew, called Okelehao, was drunk on those tropical islands long before the first European sail was sighted over their distant horizon. Naturally, then,throughoutthe ages,voyagers and discoverers like Columbus, Drake, Raleigh and other great men, carried in their ships the various local brews that they encountered back to their homes or to other strange lands. Thus the inhabitants had the opportunity of sampling new-tasting liquors, which they either adopted or discarded as their palates dictated. In this country some of these potions have withstood the test of time, and have now become traditional and accepted into our everyday social life—for example, those very familiar wines from near at home. Vermouth from sunny Italy, Port of Oporto, and Madeira, once a great favourite, from the isle from which it takes its name. Drinking as a method of quenching one's thirst is, of course, fundamental, and it is significant to note that in countries where the supply of water was not always sufficient or pure enough for this purpose, man was quicker to find a substitute than he was to find means to augment or to purify. Whilst some humans need,