The Drunken Botanist- The Plants That Create The World's Great Drinks

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This book goes into meticulous detail in listing all the plants, trees, herbs, nuts, flowers, spices and pretty much anything else that has ever been fermented and distilled to make alcohol. Stewart tells how agaves are harvested, what that flavor in Amaretto di Saronno is (nope, not almonds), what kind of bugs find their way into what liquour and gives comparison charts for the multiples of say, violet liqueurs. This isn't just a gathering of dry facts though; when something is badly made Stewart tells you. This book turned out to be an excellent reference on plants and their many uses by humans. The author discussed many plant uses beside fermenting plant starches into sugars by the addition of yeasts. One could tell the author loved discussing plants with the occasional witty remark and her extensive knowledge of each of the various species. If one could find a fault with the book, it might be the inclusion of many species of which all but those engaged in botanical research would be familiar. But that aside the book was a fun and informative read. The author chose to list all the various plants by their common names rather than list them by their Latin nomenclature, as is more typical in many botanical references, and this point was greatly appreciated. I had never heard of chartreuse, but must tell you, this post has enriched my life and that of my friends. Our first batch was made collectively in early June, about gallon-size and containing 32 herbs. Before the month was out, a few of us gathered to make another bigger batch, so there would be some left after sharing. We benefited from one of our group, an excellent herb gardener, and did a little foraging and came up with about 62 herbs and spices that round! Absent the drought, I know we could have done better, but 130 seems out of reach! I have both books, I will read them by myself and wish I had someone with whom I could discuss the contents. The reading of the audiobook version I have was also done very well. When the author talks about a drink, the reader hears a clinking sound. LOL.

In summary, this is a great book to add to your book collection. It's not what I consider to be a must read but it will serve you well as a an excellent reference piece. The book is well researched and well arranged for easy access of topics. The one thing clear I got out of this book is never underestimate human's ingenuity in producing great drinks from practically every plant on this one globe we live on. If you are a biologist, gardener or a bartender, this is a must read, for everyone else this is a must have. I recommend it! But you can also make your own herbal liqueur. Recipes for homemade versions were widely published in the nineteenth century; I’ll give you a list of the herbs and spices mentioned most often and you can experiment from there. Whether you keep your own recipe a secret or not is up to you.There was also a nice and lengthy section on herbs made from the green or fleshy part of plants and spices made from the bark, root, stem, or seed of plants. Horticulture in bottles. Booze and botany. The elixir of life—the aqua vitae—that the plant world has given us. Despite being effectively a herbal with recipes thrown in, it's very soothing to listen to and didn't feel "list-y." Histories and anecdotes flowed naturally, and the recipes were separated from the text with an audible clink of a glass. Effectively perfect for casual listening in the car where your attention can dip in and out.

Stewart does a wonderful job of clarifying misunderstandings and debunking popular myths throughout the book. " Mezcal is sometimes confused with mescaline, the psychoactive component of the peyote cactus Lophophora williamsii. In fact, the two are entirely unrelated, although peyote was sold in the nineteenth century as “muscale buttons,” leading to a linguistic misunderstanding that persists today." The directions from Lyon to the Chartreuse distillery go something like this: Exit the parking garage while trying to fire up your GPS. As it searches listlessly for a satellite (shouting “Look up!” or pointing it at the sky does not help), drive across the river with the vague feeling that the freeway might be in that direction. Eventually, a crisp Scottish voice will come to life and guide you to Quai Bellevue and from there you will find the ramp to Marseille/Genève/Grenoble/Porta de Croix Luizet/Périphérique Est, the pronounciation of which your Scottish guide will mangle in that endearing way characteristic of all British robots. We also learn that that the agave plant used to make Tequila is not a cactus but a member of the asparagus family, and that each plant yields enough sap to make about 250 gallons of maguay beer, which was drunk some 2K years ago. How do we know that; well it is because some scientist analyzed some 2k year old coprofites. :-0 One of the best attributes about this book is that it covers all the main spirits and you can easily jump to your favorite sections.Stewart has written a book that, while small, is encyclopedic in style. First she takes us through the plants- grains, potatoes, cacti, grasses - that are fermented and distilled to make hard liquors; then she goes through categories like fruit, sap (sugar maple), and roots that are fermented and the herbs, seeds, nuts, and barks that are used to flavor the brews. For each plant she tells us how and where it was/is used, what it adds to the brew, which brands of the brew are best, and for many, how to grow the plant. This is where the book ties into gardening: while the average gardener won’t be growing grain and setting up a still, most gardeners are able to grow some mint for mojitos, jalapenos for some special margaritas, cherry tomatoes for a Blushing Mary, or a fruit tree. Face it; nearly everything in an alcoholic drink comes from plants except for bacon vodka and Irish cream. And a lot of those things are easy to grow. The author includes over 50 drink recipes for the home mixologist. I've grown up in the northern parts of South Africa and we witnessed these animals constantly. Not only eating the fruit, but stumbling away in a drunken stupor. In fact, when the word was out that elephants were at the trees, we all went en masse to witness it. When the elephants shook the trees, the monkeys within had to cling for dear life until the tree-quake was over. It lasted only a few minutes at a time. We experimented further, and can recommend using honey and other natural sweeteners or post-infusion steeping with chile pequin or even habanero. Taste as you go. Our second batch was initially quite green, but soon faded to amber. A well-balanced book..some history, some horticulture, and recipes too. The book is structured around the journey from the desired plant to still, to bottle, to glass. An assortment of dried or fresh herbs, such as: Lemon verbena, lemon balm, spearmint, fennel, thyme, angelica stems, sage, scented geranium, lemongrass, chamomile, bay, etc.