"a drink that spoke more unfathomably to the deeps of the British soul than to that of other races"

Quite fathomable, we're a bunch of alcoholics (only partly joking).

#6 in this list of 33 countries (2015)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_c...

#25 in this list of 191 (2010 figures)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_c...

Nothing against booze (certainly not allergic to a G&T either) but we can go a bit OTT with it.