At the end of a tough week, a pleasant surprise over the weekend did a pretty good job of raising my spirits (heh heh). My friend Mike had just returned from a great holiday in New York City and he brought me a most gracious gift…
At the Strand bookstore in NYC (which, their website claims, is home to 18 miles worth of books), Mike had found this little gem. Fully aware of my penchant for the tipsier things in life and my closet nerd tendencies, his choice to return with a tome full of information on my favourite subject was most thoughtful. Thanks!
Like its name suggests, The Drunken Botanist is a collection of facts on the trees, herbs, shrubs, grasses, grains and fruits that make up our drinks. Amy Stewart, its author, is an avid gardener and her passion for plants of all sorts grew on me (ha ha). Ordinarily, the hows and whys of the raw materials wouldn’t seem particularly interesting, but when it comes to food and drink, the base ingredients are everything. You can’t put lipstick on a pig, and you can’t disguise one taste with another; it will always register oddly up on a discerning palate.
Organised by use (base, suffusion, mixers and garnishing), then by plant (Agave to Oak to Wheat and Wormwood), it contains dozens of chapters on the most delicious of vegetation. Stewart has the gift of wit and brevity, and none of the mini-chapters feel long or laboured.
It’s not just purely botanical information that’s in this tome of treasures, however. There’s plenty of history and culture for all to enjoy, and many facts that are quite arcane to even seasoned scholars of alcohol production and creation. For instance, did you know that:
– there was possible grape residue in pottery fragments in 7000 B.C?
– that those pottery fragments were found in China?
– that Jackfruit is used to make wine in India by soaking pulp in water and allowing it to ferment?
– that beer bottles are dark to protect the precious liquid inside from being broken down into awful tasting free radicals because of light exposure?
My favourite bit of the book so far is right below:
On top of all that, there are some simple cocktail recipes for interested readers to try out. There’s nothing too complex here; most of the cocktails are familiar, even popular.
Having only started this weekend, I’m not quite all the way through yet, but I’m quite sure I’ll enjoy the rest of it. I’d heartily recommend The Drunken Botanist to anyone who enjoys reading about history, plants, or drinks in general. It makes for a nice, digestible book to go with a light, afternoon beer. A little bit at a time, or all at once, it makes for a fantastic read.
