Alcoholic Beverages
From ElanVital
Contents |
Drinking
Titania, like any other human culture, has its own set of liver-poisons available for public consumption. Interestingly, the Titanian take on alcohol is as innately practical as the rest of a culture built on the principles of survival. It highlights personal responsibility, moderate behavior - and a certain focus on not endangering those around you with your own stupidity.
As a general rule, the consumption of alcohol in moderation is considered acceptable--and in some cases (such as parties and certain political or business conferences), even expected. Drunkenness to any extent at all is severely frowned upon (though, when in a secure non-public location, there's not many to do the frowning, are there?), and getting drunk enough to cause trouble in a public place is a punishable crime referred to simply as Public Drunkenness. Alcohol is also never a mitigating factor for criminal behavior: just because you were drunk does not mean you get any leniency whatsoever in any action you may take, due to drunkenness having been your choice in the first place.
Showing up for work smelling like your favorite beverage is more than sufficient grounds for being run out on a rail (as it were), and 'driving drunk' is such an alien concept that it's simply unthinkable to most residents of the great City. Calling in with a hangover does happen on occasion, but it doesn't do your future any great service, that's for certain.
If one chooses to drink to drunkenness, drinking alone is discouraged. Certainly, while indulging in a group isn't responsible, prevailing philosophy states that if you are going to get drunk, getting drunk with your friends at least ensures somebody else is there to curb the worst impulses involved in lowered inhibitions. It seems to work: Titanians do tend to look out for each other, after all, and the society's focus on survival makes absolutely certain that going too far afield isn't acceptable.
Nevertheless, recreational beverages are as old as the human race, and continue to have their place as both social lubricant and occasionally abused liver scourge.
The Bartender's Friend
This isn't earth prime, and while several drinks made the transition (yes, Petakovan hops are prized for beer!) many alcohols have been 'recreated' or discovered anew on Voltumnus as the colony has expanded. It makes for a different 'barscape', certainly, and an entire new library of cocktails has been invented to cater to the Titanian taste and the availability of drink.
Wine and Beer
Both red and white wines are available, with Petakovan organic wines preferred by the connoisseur over Stocklin's more industrial vintages (though they're certainly cheaper). In either case, wine is arguably the pinnacle of haute' drunkards across the City: grapes are expensive, the art is fiddly and requires a great deal of time, and most wine is produced in small batches of no more than a few hundred bottles, each hand-made when time and resources permit. Even modern, two-year vintages out of these small wineries fetch rather hefty sums.
The gift of a bottle of actual wine is considered to be a significant gesture.
Stocklin has its wineries, and at least one enterprising businessman has discovered a formula for synthetic wine made from trace flavorings, artificial juice, and synthesized alcohol. Their full wineries are held in great respect, though are simply not considered as well as Petakovan wines (think Californian vintages vs. French or Italian, to use a real-world comparison) - but synthwine is considered by the conniseur an abomination, and by the working-man 'good enough'. (Boxed wine!) Its price is certainly far, far more reasonable, even if its taste is not. (okay - boxed Mad Dog.)
Intriguingly, no one has yet made a successful sparkling wine or Champaigne on Voltumnus - not even artificially. They simply do not exist, here.
Beer is a Stocklin specialty, and is generally served in all ranges of temperatures, weights, flavors, and 'vintages'. Its shorter fermenting time and easy working makes it common - in fact, most bars brew their own, and their beers are often use to differentiate their services. The brewing of beer is regulated to a point, certainly, but the variety and scope can be a bit overwhelming to those first dipping their toe in to the possibilities.
The important thing to note is that beer inspires strong loyalty to the neighborhood pub, as it were - and you can try a dozen different tastes simply by visiting a dozen different bars. There are no standards for beer, beyond the simple idea that is is Beer.
In Stocklin, especially, unveiling a new beer recipe at the local is often a source of a great deal of armchair criticism and at least a night or two of celebration. Most bars make it an Event.
Distilled Liquors
If wine is tremendously expensive - certain Liquors may as well be distilled gold. The list may seem a bit odd, at first - but actual, high-grade distilling requires relatively tremendous amounts of time, resources that are exceedingly rare (industrially speaking) on Voltumnus, and ingredients that are better used as foodstuffs. Certain liquors that require Earth-native trees (Oak, Birch, and Pine) to deepen their flavor are so astronomically expensive as to be nearly legend (as drink goes).
It is rumored, in fact, that a few bottles of scotch actually still exist from the Starfall - priceless heirlooms that would still be drinkable if sealed, and simply worth millions to those that would hope to possess something whose art of manufacture is.. simply now impossible.
Even so, among the drinking establishments throughout Titania, Liquor has its place, and is consumed in quantity.
Expensive
The most expensive distilled liquors are those that take time to mature, or that are made from more limited (or earth-native) foodstuffs. In order from most expensive to least:
Reasonable
Other
Other Liquors certainly exist - from raspberry to orange. Brandies, dessert liqueur and more - but none are so common as to see widespread distribution. Juices, bitters, and other additives are used by preference to shape and change a cocktail, which usually consists of only one or two types of actual liquor.
Uniquely, black licorice-flavored alcohols are unheard of on Titania - Anise was not on the Starfall, and has never been grown on Titania.
Cocktails
To come!
