Until today, the exact historic period when alcohol was first produced and consumed, has not been specified.
The term alcohol derives from the Arabic word "al kohl".
Even in early civilizations, laws regulated the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. For example, the Hammurabi Code contained provisions that determined the internal rules of operation of "wine-drinking houses".
It is also worth noting that the use of alcohol is frequently recorded in medicine. It is characteristic that the Sumerians and the Egyptians used beer and wine as a component of medical prescriptions.
The oldest reference to alcohol (800 B.C.) concerns a distilling method used by the Chinese for the production of strong drinks from a kind of rice beer. In the Western world, after the Christ era, there are texts on distilled drinks, which became particularly popular in the Middle Ages and onwards as production methods and techniques gradually improved. Human resourcefulness achieved better results in the course of time.
In the early agricultural civilizations, alcohol was used for libations during the various religious rituals and was considered to be one of the most precious goods along with milk and honey. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia and Egypt used alcohol practically every evening as a means of relief and refreshment after a tiresome day. In Ancient Egypt there were taverns where free people together with slaves consumed alcohol in order to relax and have fun.
The great advance in the relationship between men and alcohol was made when the separation of the "essence" of wine or beer from the other ingredients was made possible and with its subsequent exploitation for the production of other drinks. The word alcohol simply means the "spirit" of wine.
Every alcoholic beverage has its own origin, history and evolution. In addition, some drinks have "marked" whole decades with their savory presence.