People at Jiahu Produce a Mixed Fermented Beverage from Rice, Honey, and Fruit

By approximately 7000–6600 BCE, people at Jiahu in China’s Henan province were producing a fermented beverage containing rice, honey, and hawthorn fruit and/or grapes. Chemical analysis of residues absorbed into pottery jars identified this mixture; it was not simply a barley beer and is better described as a mixed fermented beverage. The finding extends the timeline’s account of early fermentation beyond Southwest Asia. It demonstrates deliberate cereal fermentation in Neolithic China while preserving the important distinction between this mixed drink and later grain beers.