Powcohicora beverage

The history of pecans can be traced back to the 16th century. The only major tree nut that grows naturally in North America, the pecan is considered one of the most valuable North American nut species. Pecans were also considered a valuable commodity for the Native Americans because they consumed them daily and then began to use the pecans in exchanges with explorers.

Because wild pecans were readily available, many Native American tribes in the U.S. and Mexico used the wild pecan as a major food source during autumn. Native Americans ate pecans but also made pecan milk for infants and the elderly.

They first cultivated the wild pecan tree, relied on its nourishing kernels as a major food source and created what could be considered the original nut milk, called powcohicora (where the word “hickory” comes from), by fermenting pecans into a drink.

A historical record from the mid-1500s by the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca revealed that Native Americans in south Texas would gather pecans in autumn and then grind them and soak them in water to make a milky beverage to sustain them throughout the winter.

This rich, nutty concoction was added to broth to thicken it, and to corn cakes and hominy as a seasoning. This liquid also formed the base of a fermented beverage called powcohicora.

As a salute to the pecan’s indigenous heritage, many pecan varieties are named after Native American tribes, such as Cheyenne, Sioux, Apache, Osage, Pawnee, Mohawk, Kiowa and Choctaw.

Thomas Jefferson planted the trees at his beloved Monticello. In 1865, they became popular in the North when Union soldiers carried them home after the Civil War.
Powcohicora beverage

History of ginger beer

Originally, ginger beer came first invented in Yorkshire in England during the colonial spice trade in the mid of 18th century, Ireland following hot on their heels developing ginger ale in the 1851.

It was initially made as a fermented alcoholic beverage brewed by leaving water, sugar, ginger, optional ingredients such as lemon juice and cream of tartar, and GBP (ginger beer plant) to ferment for several days, converting some of the sugar into alcohol. Once the mixture was bubbly and slightly alcoholic it would be strained off and a portion of the old batch would be used to make the new.

Ginger beer travelled across the Atlantic, soon to become one of Canada’s favorite soft drinks. During the first decade of the 20th century, John McLaughlin re-invented the Irish style of ginger ale, developing what known today as Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

In the 1900s, the ginger ale was available in two types - Golden and Dry. Golden Ginger Ale had a much more distinctive ginger flavor and rich in color and is the lesser known of the two today.

The English began exporting alcoholic ginger beer to the US, but a non-alcoholic version was soon created in response to the 1920s Prohibition laws.
History of ginger beer

Kefir: A traditional popular Middle Eastern beverage

The world of kefir is said to have originated from the Turkish word ‘Keyif’ which means ‘good feeling’. It is the product of fermentation of milk with kefir grains and mother cultures prepared from grains.

Households of the Caucasian Mountains and Tibetan region of China produced kefir traditionally using the kefir grains which were inherited from their ancestors for kefir preparation.

It originates in the Caucasus Mountains in the former Soviet Union, in Central Asia and has been consumed for thousands of years. The Caucasian people discovered that the fresh milk carried in leather pouches would occasionally ferment into an effervescent beverage. Owing to this area’s name, more commonly isolated strain of kefir as it is now known as Lactobacillus kefiri, formerly named as Lactobacillus caucasicus.

Kefir grain were passed down from generation to generation among the tribes of Caucasus and considered a source of family wealth.

In the later part of the nineteenth century, the benefit of kefir was highlighted when it helped for effective treatment of tuberculosis, intestinal and chronic diseases in the Caucasus region. The benefits of kefir were first reported by the Russian doctors working in this region.

Although kefir is just being discovered in some areas of the world, it has been very popular in the former Soviet Union, Hungary and Poland for many years.
Kefir: A traditional popular Middle Eastern beverage

Kumis: Fermented milk

Koumiss is a traditional milk beverage produced from fermentation of mares’ milk by indigenous microorganisms. Koumiss is also known by other names like koumiss, kumiss, kumis, kymis, kymmyz.

In Central Asia and China, kumis is a traditionally fermented drink made from the milk of horses and it is one of the most important basic foodstuffs.

For centuries, human civilization has used different approaches to preserve and to prepare food products. Probably the longest part of this history was based on empirical knowledge, gained by experience without former knowledge either of mechanisms or the scientific basis of fermentation.

Historically, the fermentation of milk can be traced back to around 10,000 B.C. Fermentation takes place through the natural microflora present in milk.

Aristotle (322 BC) reported the existence of a dairy product in Mongolia that processed mare’s milk to transform it into a fermented product.

According to Herodotus kumis is the ancient beverage which Scythian tribes (Central Asia Steppes) used to drink some 25 centuries ago and it is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented mare's milk.

The Scythians were the first of numerous waves of warriors on horses who swept westward over the vast Eurasian steppes. Scythians belong to a group generally categorized as the “steppe nomads”, who share a similar lifestyle of nomadic pastoralism centered on the use of the horse that remained largely unchanged for thousands of years.

With the advent of scientific methods, the different classes of microorganisms present in the fermented dairy products have been detected. In the middle of the 19th century, in south Russia, mainly in the region of Samara and Orenburg but also in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, there were centers successfully using kumis therapy in treating lung diseases, mainly tuberculosis, and in strengthening the body.

Today, commercial koumiss is made from cow's milk and additional sugar to better replicate the alcohol content.
Kumis: Fermented milk

Dom Pérignon – monk and cellar master

Dom Pérignon (1638-1715) entered the religious life at the age of 15. At the age of 20, he entered the hilltop Abbaye St-Pierre in the tiny village of Hautvillers, south of Reims, where it was his job to tend to the vines.

Dom Pérignon soon the improved the techniques that would forever revolutionize champagne making methods – finding just the right blend of wines; select only the finest grapes from the harvest; pressing red grapes in a way that prevented the skins from coloring the white juices; and using chalk cellars to preserve a constant temperature.

It was him who perfected the process of fermenting champagne in the bottle. He also renounces additives and unnatural processes.

Pérignon’s real legacy to change was in skillful blending of grape varieties from different vineyards and the use of a wire or hempen cage for the cork.

Perfected in 1670, monastery champagne was a forerunner of today’s popular celebratory and holiday drink. Legend has it that upon his first sip he cried out, ‘Come quickly, I am drinking the stars.’
Dom Pérignon – monk and cellar master 

History of enzymes in beverage industry

Since prehistoric times, fermentation processes for brewing, baking and the production of alcohol have been known. Enzymes have long been used in the manufacture of cheese, beer and wine.

Chemical test of ancient pottery jars reveal that a fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit was made in China 7000 before.

Residues from wine also have been found on pottery from Egypt dating back to3150 BC. Beer was also brewed in Mesopotamia 3000 BC, but not until first century AD in Europe.

The existence and power of enzymes was first revealed in the nineteenth century with the study of fermentation.

In 1830 Augustin Pierre Dubrunfaut, French chemist noted that malt extract has the potential to change starch into sugar.

In 1850s, Louis Pasteur proposed that fermentation of sugars into alcohol by yeast is catalyzed by ferments, which were later named as enzymes. He demonstrated the role of microorganism in food and beverage and the characterization of digestive enzymes, marked a major turning point in approach to food and beverage production and storage.

In 1897, Eduard Buchner succeeded in extraction insoluble active form from yeast cells the set of enzymes that catalyses the fermentation of sugar to alcohol and gave the name ‘zymase’.

Emil Fischer, German scientist in the late nineteenth century discovered that different yeast fermented different sugars. This lead to his famous conclusion about enzyme and corresponding substrate that have to fit a lock and key to affect each other.

The chemistry of enzyme was known for the first time when James Sumner in 1926 obtained a reasonably pure crystalline form of urease from jack bean meal.

With the recent development in biotechnology, awareness of scope of enzymes, availability of cost-effective enzyme purification process and efficient enzyme made tremendous changes in the beverage industry.
History of enzymes in beverage industry

Grape Juice and Wine

Grape Juice and Wine
Ancient Egyptian inscription indicate that the grape was grown there in 2375 B.C. Murals to Egyptian tombs carry depictions of grape vines, grape harvesting, and trampling to obtain the juice.

By way of classical Greece and later Rome, the grape vine expanded into all the lands of Europe and North Africa where it will grow.

The Greeks cultivated the grape vine wherever they went; Italy, north Africa, southern France and southern Spain, including the best known wine regions of the world, Bordeaux and Burgundy. The Greeks called Italy the Land of Vines.

Romans grew different varieties and appreciated their diversity. Grapes were grown on trees and trellises, preferentially on terraced hills and banks surrounding river valleys. Romans aged wine in barrels, which they invented. Before then it had been kept in earthenware amphorae.

Grape juice changes naturally into wine when sugar fermenting yeast is present. When grapes are crushed with the skins, yeast comes in contact with the juice. It grows in the juice, using the sugar as its source of energy, and in process transforms the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Alcohol in high concentrations is toxic, and when it reaches a certain level (between 12 and 14 percent), most strains of yeasts cannot grow any more. The wine is now ready. It is young wine and tastes very much likes grape juice alcohol. When the first fermentation is completed (sometimes even before), and especially if the wine is in a warm palace and exposed to the air, special bacteria start growing on the alcohol and transforming it into acetic acid. The wine spoils and turns to vinegar.

Since remotest antiquity, the principal problem was not to make wine but to keep it from spoiling. In classical Greece wines were drunk young and most were probably vinegary. To counter the acid taste a variety of methods were employed. Greeks learned that air speeds up the spoiling process. Amphorae had narrow necks to reduce the contact of wine with air, and they were kept tightly stoppered.

Because air could penetrate earthenware surfaces, the Greeks line their amphorae with resin. This preserved wine for use in commerce. The Romans took a step forward when they invented wooden barrels. They could be stoppered better than amphorae, and the oak imparted flavor from the wine. Some Roman wines apparently kept very well. There are reports of vintages that lasted to a hundred years.
Grape Juice and Wine

History of Champagne

History of Champagne Champagne is the name of an old province in France some 90 miles north east of Paris, where wines have been produced since Roman times. 

The region is referred to as la Champagne. The name derives from the Latin ‘campus’, ‘campania’ or field. In old French this became ‘Champaign’; today, Champagne. 

Thirty million years ago, violent earthquakes caused the ocean floor to rise, bringing up chalk and mineral layers. Eleven million years later, another quake brought the floor up even higher, leaving what are known today as the Champagne Cliffs. 

Their chalk soil has high limestone content, owing to fossilized remains of marine life left behind when the sea receded. 

Soil makeup and micro-climates determine the subtle differences between each village and influence the characteristics of individual wines. The chalk subsoil extends hundreds of feet and provides ideal cellars for storing the wines of Champagne at a constant temperature and humidity. These caves are mostly located under the cities of Reims, Epernay, Ay, and Chalons-sur-Marne.

The most notable developments in the production of Champagne took place in the late seventeenth century. At this time, the onset of winter prevented the wines from completing their fermentations. 

The process restarted as temperatures rose during spring. The wines finished fermenting in the bottle and had a slight sparkle. Quite often a bottle exploded as natural gas pressure built up inside. These wines were called ‘vins du diable’, devil’s wine, as there was an incomplete undertaking of fermentation.  

The Champagne began the evolution in 1770 when Pierre Perignon (always spend his day drinking Champagne) was appointed as cellarer at the Abbey of Hautvilliers during coronation of Louis XIV. He is credited with picking early, selecting the best grapes, and inventing the concept of blending, He also reintroduced the cork to northern France and use a shallow based press to produce clear juice for black grapes, At the same time, stronger glass bottles became available. 

History of Champagne