Soma is NOT a drink. Soma is EATEN by devā. That Soma is NOT a drink is emphatically stated in Chandogya Upanishad: esha somo raja devānām annam tam devā bhakshayanti:"That soma is king; this is the devas' food. The devas eat it." [Chandogya.Upanishad (Ch.Up.]
One thinks, when they have brayed the plant, that he hath drunk the Somas' juice; Of him whom Brahmans truly know as Soma no one ever tastes." (RV 10.85.3) Trans 2: He who has drunk thinks that the herb which men crush is the Soma; (but) that which the Bra_hman.as know to be Soma,, of that no one partakes. {i.e., no one partakes of it unless he has sacrificed; if the Soma be taken as the moon, 'no one' will mean 'no one but the gods'].
Soma is a sacred metaphor.
