2025/01/24 by Gabriella M. Petrick · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Chemistry · Psychology · #Alcohol #American and British Literature Analysis #Biochemistry #Chemistry #Disposition #Environmental science #Literature: history, themes, analysis #Psychology #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.3828/whpeh.63861480327342
openalex publication_date 2025/01/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
At a time before there were large quantities of sugar, salt or meat available to most Europeans, tastes such as sourness and bitterness predominated. Although Galenic medicine and its focus on bitterness in food and tinctures still dictated medical ideologies and practices, by the fourteenth century sourness came to define the European palate. The onset of the Little Ice Age helps explain the prevalence of sour tastes and flavours particularly in wine, as the grapes simply would not ripen. Sourness and drunkenness went hand-in-hand and shaped ideas of gender and propriety as Europe began to shift out of feudalism and toward mercantilism and as people moved from the country into more urban spaces. Sourness also predominated at a time when individuals were beginning to question their civic and religious leaders and the role of the individual in society via the Reformation and Renaissance.