200-Year-Old Booze Found On Shipwreck Originally Thought To Be Mineral Water, Still Good

Aged alcohol is usually a good thing, though a particular bottle found in a shipwreck in June wasn’t originally thought to be booze. The markings on the bottle led the discoverers to believe it was mineral water.

The markings on the bottle were believed to indicate it came from a supplier called Selters, which sold high-quality carbonated water, according to the National Maritime Museum in Gdansk, Poland. Water from that supplier was known to be among the healthiest, and possibly inspired what we call seltzer water today.

Around 200 years ago, the water ran dry for the supplier and other sources were made necessary.

The aged alcohol found in this particular bottle may have been diluted with that water, much like what was common practice with rum.

It’s generally an accepted practice to keep alcohol bottled as long as possible to enrich the flavor, and it doesn’t get much older than the booze in a 200-year-old stoneware bottle found in a shipwreck off the coast of Poland.

Tomasz Bednarz, an underwater archaeologist, states:

“The bottle dates back to the period of 1806-1830 and has been recovered during the works on the F-53-31 shipwreck, or the so-called Glazik.”

Further investigation determined that the liquid in the bottle was actually a kind of vodka or gin. With an apparent 14 percent alcohol content, the liquid was determined to be drinkable, though the odor might deter you. What makes this truly remarkable is that archaeological digs usually don’t uncover bottles intact with the liquid still in them. For this aged alcohol to be a drinkable is even more remarkable.

200-Year-Old Bottle Found In Shipwreck Contains ‘Drinkable’ Booze – i call that well aged! http://t.co/bBvUEAfQ27

— Robert Stiles (@SixtyfiveGT) August 18, 2014

If you have plans to find and attempt to enjoy the contents of this particular bottle, you should probably cancel them. Instead, wait for scientists to replicate the contents like they have done previously with Mayan ale, Ancient Egyptian beer and other rediscovered drinks and be willing to part with a good sum of money.

This is not the first buried bottle of booze discovered in archaeological digs, with many others having been discovered dating back to the 1800s. It’s older bottles that prove to be more rare, with the oldest being a glass bottle of wine from the fourth century A.D..

That particular bottle of aged alcohol was quite the surprise when it turned out to be drinkable.

[image via Mashable]