Alcoholic beverages

Various alcoholic beverages exist in the world of Artograch. Alcohol distilation was invented by the Gnomes and the Dwarves in Northern Etrand, and it spread to other countires - like Dragoc - via the trade routes around 1000 BEKE.

Wine
Wine is considered the oldest alcoholic beverage in Artograch, dating back all the way to the Ancient Lizardman Empire. Lizardmen are known for their love of fruits, and even though they don't seem to like any kind of alcoholic beverage today, back when their ancient empire existed, they had thriving viticulture. While it seems that the Ancient Lizardman traditions of wine are lost forever - other than in written records - wine was not lost: the High Elves revived viticulture when they founded the Kingdom of Froturn. Since then, the High Elves have mastered the art of winemaking, and wine has been known as a distinctively High Elven beverages, despite the fact that wine consumption has spread to other countries as well, such as Etrand and Artaburro.

Wine consumption spread into Etrand during the reign of King Corlagon, but most commoners, even most of the nobility still prefer beer. Nevertheless, hot wine is very popular in the city of Grandfolk, especially in winter nights. King Cairbre I of Etrand is often wrongly credited with the popularization of spiced hot wine in Etrand, even though it has been gaining popularity amongst the urban bourgeois ever since the 7th century AEKE.

An interesting fact is that High Elven Wine is actually made from Steppe Pearl, a fruit that, in spite of its strong resemblance to regular winegrape, is actually a species of Prunus rather than Vitis.

Beer
Beer was first made by Dwarves and Gnomes in Northern Etrand millennia ago, mostly from the wild barley that grew in warmer valleys - just like food made out of cereals, it failed to spread into the south for as long as the Ancient Lizardman Empire existed. After the Lizardman Empire collapsed, Halflings acquired the recipe for beer from the Dwarves via trade. When the Proto-Elves started colonizing Artograch, they spread cereals into Etrand, which is why beer became an important beverage for the Humans.

Dwarven/Gnomish Beer differs from Etrandish/Etrancoasti Beer in the respect that the earlier contains a lot of additives made out of mushrooms - even the hops being replaced with a mushroom that has a similiar effect on the beer - and is usually heavily spiced - usually with mulling spices, but sometimes also with more conventional spices too, like pepper -, very often consumed hot rather than cold; while the latter lacks any type of fungi, uses hops, tends to lack spicing, and is always consumed cold.

Today, beer-drinking is most associated with Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings.

Cider and other fruity liqueurs
Alcoholic beverages made from the fermented juice of any fruit other than grapes are considered distinctively Wood Elven beverages, even though their consumption dates back to Ancient Lizardman Empire - the Ancient Lizardmen did not make a distinction between alcoholic beverages based off what fruits they were made out of. The distinction arose when the Kingdoms of Froturn and Dragoc emerged - the farming High Elves of Froturn produced their alcoholic beverages exclusively out of grapes (wine), while the forest-inhabiting Wood Elves of Dragoc produced their alcoholic beverages out of the various fruits found on the trees: apples, pears, peaches, apricots, cherries: either weaker beverages and shorter-lived with lower alcohol content made out of the fermented juice of the aforementioned fruits; or stronger, "immortal" beverages made with similar methods as wine (crushing the fruit, adding a mixture of hot water and a sweetener like sugar or honey, then waiting for it to age), but distiled afterwards (similar to real-life pálinka).

Singer true cider - beverage made out of fermented fruit juice - usually lasts only for two years before going bad, magic is required to preserve them in their original state for prolonged periods of time: either keeping them in freezing chambers that naturally shouldn't exist when it's not winter, or adding additives of magical nature that help to preserve the beverage.

Mead
Mead was a uniquely Etrandish beverage, although ever since Etrand has became a prominent power, it has spread to other areas too. Its origins are unknown, but it is believed that mead was first consumed in Etrand in the 9th century BEKE, inspired by Wood Elven ciders.

After the Etrandish annexation in the late 3th century AEKE, mead has spread to dwarven lands as well, where it has developed a unique form - hot, spiced mead, spiced with mulling spices, drunk hot. Dwarven mulled mead has found its way back to Etrand later on, popularized by dwarven and gnomish bartenders, becoming mildly popular among the urban population.

Usquebaugh
Alcohol distilation was invented by the Gnomes and the Dwarves in Northern Etrand. Naturally, as Dwarves and Gnomes previously drank only beer and shunned the fruity beverages made by Lizardmen and High Elves / Wood Elves, they first experimented with distiling beer, and the result was usquebaugh. As the centuries passed, the Gnomes have experimented even more with the art of making usquebaugh, and instead of distiling beer, they began making alcoholic beverages directly out of fermented grain mash.

This new beverage may have failed to catch on in Etrand, but in Hulra, it became very popular early on, and even to this day, usquebaugh is considered a very important beverage, consumed by the nobility casually, and consumed by commoners on important ceremonies. While the drink has so far failed to penetrate from Etrancoast and Northern Etrand into the rest of Etrand previously, in the 8th century AEKE, King Bryant started to popularize usquebaugh in Etrand as well, having grown fond of the beverage during his stay in Etrancoast during the succession war. Still, a century after his rule, usquebaugh is only mildly popular in Etrand, commoners and nobility preferring beer, clergy preferring wine.

Just like with beer, there is a considerable amount of difference between Dwarven/Gnomish Usquebaugh from Etrancoasti Usquebaugh - the earlier is often flavored with various mushrooms grew in the local area, and tends to be heavily spiced - usually with mulling spices, but sometimes also with more conventional spices too, like pepper -, often consumed hot rather than cold; while the latter may or may not be flavored with hops, and is always consumed cold.

Rum
Rum has nearly always existed as a byproduct of sugar production ever since the Ancient Lizardman Empire, but it was never given a name, and never consumed in masses. Not before the Dark Elven race came into existence - the Dark Elves udner Queen Sellin Marand have found massive deposits of sugar out in the area and started mining it. They would then mix the sugar with water and add yeast to it, to start fermenting it into an alcoholic beverage - rum.

Ever since the existence of Dark Elven diaspora in Etrand and Froturn, rum has been on its way to gain popularity.