Drinking culture

Drinking culture is the set of traditions and social behaviours that surround the consumption of alcoholic beverages as a recreational drug and social lubricant. Although alcoholic beverages and social attitudes toward drinking vary around the world, nearly every civilization has independently discovered the processes of brewing beer, fermenting wine, and distilling spirits, among other practices.^[1] Many countries have developed their own regional cultures based on unique traditions around the fermentation and consumption of alcohol, which may also be known as a beer culture, wine culture etc. after a particularly prominent type of drink.

Alcohol, a psychoactive substance with addictive properties and other effects, has been present in numerous societies over the centuries.^[2] Drinking is documented in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles,^[3] in the Qur'an, in Greek and Roman literature as old as Homer, in Confucius’ Analects, and in various forms of artistic expression throughout history.