DrinkThis is not a book for would-be wine connoisseurs, nor a tract written for or against the pleasures of alcohol. It is an exploration of our drinking habits, our reasons for drinking, our choice of drinks, and the way these have changed through history. Naturally it covers wine and beer in all their variety, but it ranges over the whole field of drink consumption from distilled spirits to mineral water and from chocolate to Coco-Cola, and it sets them in the context of our changing life-style. Licensing laws and lager louts; the British invention of champagne; Gin Lane; expresso bars; Victorian dinners and the psychology of the British beer drinker: these are just a handful of the topics touched on in this survey of one of mankind's favourite activities. |
Contents
THE CIVILIZATION OF BRITISH TASTE | 25 |
FOOD DRINK AND SENSUAL PLEASURE | 67 |
NOBLE ROT | 106 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
alcohol consumption alcoholic drinks American Anne Wilson apéritif Australia Australian wines became beer Bill bottle brandy brewed brewers Britain British Burgundy caffeine campaign cent Certainly champagne Chardonnay cited claret classes closing coffee houses Company consumed consumption of alcohol customers dinner distillation Dom Pérignon drank draught drinkers drugs drunk drunkenness Dutch duty early effect eighteenth century England English Europe European excise fact fermentation flavour France French wines gin palaces Government grapes half heart disease History increased India industry introduced John lager licensing laws liquor London Lord meals medicine nineteenth century opening opium Party Pinot Noir pint popular port practice produced prohibition publicans pubs reason red wine restaurants result saloop Scotland Second World War sell served seventeenth century sherry smuggling social spirits Sunday taste teetotal temperance temperance movement trade tradition vines vineyards Wales whisky wine-makers