Food has been around since the beginning of time. (That is probably pretty obvious.) We need it to survive. But did you know exactly how old your favorite foods and drinks are? Scientists who study ancient foods have found and determined how old these foods and drinks are and it is quite astonishing.
1. Chocolate
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The world’s oldest chocolate was found in Utah actually, not in Italy, Egypt, or and other place you’d expect to find the world’s oldest things. At around 1,300 years old, researchers discovered a chocolate residue on 13 ancient pots near Chaco Canyon. The bowls could prove that Native Americans in Utah were trading with the Mayans, but some believe it’s evidence of Mayan migrations.
2. Beer
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Beer isn’t that old apparently. Scientists found the world’s oldest beer comes from around 1842. It was a Belgian beer found in a shipwreck and now a Finnish brewery plans to distribute the beer with a percentage of the profits going to scientific research.
3. Honey
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The oldest-ever honey is 5,000 years old, almost 2,000 years older than King Tut’s honey back in Egypt. The ancient honey was found in Georgia, and it shows a diversity of tastes. There were berry, meadow flower, and linden flavored honeys found.
4. Butter
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The oldest butter was found in Ireland and is thought to be over 3,000 years old. The butter had become white and waxy with time, but didn’t look too bad. Unfortunately, no one gets to taste it. The National Museum of Ireland has declared the butter and the barrel to be a national treasure.
5. The Food of Ur
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Scientists found a wooden box containing ancient food from Ur on top of a cupboard at the University of Bristol. It had previously been labeled as a find from a royal tomb. Ur, once part of Mesopotamia, is now Iraq. The box was originally found in the 1920s or 30s, and is around 4,500 years old.
6. Noodles
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At 4,000 years old, the oldest noodles in the world were found in China. Sorry, Italy. Looks like China had you beat on the noodle front.
7. Soup
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Most liquids don’t last through the ages of time. This is why scientists were so shocked to discover ancient soup, still sealed so tightly in a bronze pot that it remained intact. The soup is rumored to be around 2,400 years old.
8. Wine
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In ancient Rome, wine was plentiful. But researchers were shocked to find a bottle of wine still in tact that was over 1,600 years old
9. Cheese
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Cheese has to age in order to become cheese, but 3,600 years is a little ridiculous. This cheese, reduced to lumps of yellow, was discovered in China. It was on the necks and chests of mummies that were buried in cowhide that helped preserve the cheese.
There you have it! Now the question is would you tempt eating 3,600 year old cheese or drinking 200 year old beer? That’s the real question.
H/T Allday
