The Drunken Botanist

Plants soak up CO2 and sunlight and convert it to sugar and exhale oxygen. When sugar is combined with yeast, alcohol is born. So alcohol is very a very close cousin to the substances that make life possible. Yeast is plentiful in the air, which I didnt know, so many staple foods will turn to alcohol with time. I am not a drinker, but I am a gardener, and I am nosey. So I found this encyclodedic book to be delightful reading.

Stewart does a thorough job of describing the the various plants that form the basis of the alcoholic drinks in the world. She adds a few myth busters such as the fact that a worm in mescal actually just means a marketing tool for cheap mescal and is not remotely hallucinogenic. Good cider is made from apples so sour they are called spitters. Gin is actually flavored vodka. These are not spoilers, there are many such facts. In addition, she feeds my garden soul with the history of how these plants were found, mutated, grown, etc. And she points out which plants have very toxic relatives which look remarkably like the good cultivers so these you should not pick in the wild.

She addresses the taste of each type of drink, how they taste, and how to make a cocktail with each type. And for us clueless types, she describes the "top shelf" specimens and what makes them premium. SHe also explicates the appropriate mixers and herb additives and how these came into popular use. The drink recipes seem intriguing as well. I especially enjoyed the nuggets of social history that accompany the text, for example the extreme creation of the slave trade to harvest the sugar so vital for rum.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is more a collection of essays or entries than one narrative. As such, it makes perfect reading for those short breaks we all take. I personally got a bit weary with all the different permutations of alcohol and their precursors, but overall found the text to be full of information that I didnt know; much of it is fun to know. As a source book, I would find it excellent. Right now, different variations of familiar drinks and alcohols are particularly popular, so I would especially recommend this book to people who like to experiment with combinations. For the rest of us, we learn something new, always an excellent attribute in a book.

Oh, Amy Stewart, you've done it again!! Previously, in Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs, we learned how potentially benign gifts of nature can be our deadly undoing. That made us all much more cautious and caused all sorts of stress and worry. And, how did we cope and calm down? We had a simple and refreshing libation. Now, in The Drunken Botanist, we learn that our basic alcohol over ice with a dash of whatever and a splash of something and a sprig for a picturesque finish is not so simple after all. It's wrought with geography and history and botany and chemistry and politics and enough complexity to make one wish for simpler days of temperance and Prohibition. Well, that may be taking it too far, but it's at least enough to cause one to quickly sit down, pour oneself a drink, grab this book, and ponder what to do next!

It's always best in arenas of the unknown to start at the beginning and that is exactly what The Drunken Botanist does. To understand and appreciate the book is just like making a cocktail. Part I enumerates the plants that are used to make the basic varieties of alcohol. You quickly learn that there are almost an unlimited number of results of fermentation or distillation. What you get usually is dependent upon plant availability, geography, or tradition. What you do with your basic alcohol (aging, etc.) can then produce the next range of products.

Moving on to Part II, we now start adding various herbs and spices, flowers, trees, fruit, and nuts and seeds to our "basic" alcohol. This is how we get to that whole range of liqueurs, crèmes, fruit-this and nut-that. I'm particularly intrigued by the origins and history and varieties of gin. I've long said that there should be a museum of gin. And do you know anyone else who carries a little picture card in his wallet showing some ten botanicals in gin!

What is striking at this point is how important the varieties of alcohol and spices have been in the trade and commerce and history of the world.

Part III finishes the cocktail with the bounty of the garden used, as some would say, a garnish, but more importantly as fresh ingredients in your libation or as an integral part of a well-considered finished product.

There's a basic backbone that runs through The Drunken Botanist so that it's readable for a good knowledge and understanding of the depth and breadth of the subject, but there are also so, so many small sections and sidebars that can be read separately (and at random). There's more basic knowledge and trivial pleasure here than you could quickly skim through.

So, taking my gin martini ... on ice with dry vermouth and orange bitters ... in hand, I'm ready to read on. The only thing that I might ask for is some new liquor that might stand as tall as the redwoods of Amy Stewart's northwestern California. St. George Spirits has their Botanivore gin with 19 botanicals, Anchor Distilling (San Francisco) has their Junipero gin, and Clear Creek Distillery produces Douglas fir eau-de-vie. Maybe something along the lines of a Sequoia semprevirens liqueur. Hmmm.

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I have always been fascinated by certain famous authors who attributed many of their most celebrated works of imagination to alcoholic drinks. Most famous of these is absinthe, the "green fairy", credited by Oscar Wilde, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ernest Hemingway and many others for its ability to spur creativity (and at 150 proof, the inability to do much else other than sit there and imagine things). Absinthe is not, as I previously assumed, derived from the absinthe plant; such is my ignorance of botanical knowledge, there is no such plant. Absinthe is, in reality, a mixture of flowers, leaves and herbs. In a way, I really needed this book: imagine my embarrassment, sometime in the future, speaking about the "absinthe plant" had I not read about its true origins in this book.

However, that's what the book is, mostly: an encyclopedic reference on plants and the alcoholic drinks derived from them. This is not a book to sit there and read cover to cover, with a cohesive narrative throughout; it's a very 'dry' read, a reference book. A very odd, disjointed layout design doesn't help either. Interesting in parts, good as a drinks guide (it includes 50 cocktail recipes) and with sections on growing plants and fermentation. If you're buying it as a reference book, you'll like it: it does have interesting facts. Buying it for an engaging and interesting read not so much.

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This is truly a book with a difference. Looking at various popular drinks and the numerous herbs, flowers, trees, fruits and fungi that are used to make them. A liquid botanical garden. What is more there are dozens of recipes to make yourself!

But... you will not find this book an easy read. It is a lot more than just a collection of recipes. It is a distillation, if you pardon the alcoholic pun, of a tremendous amount of reference material into a reasonably easy-to-read (if you concentrate) format with the recipes acting as a contrast. At times it feels like an information overload and you might need a drink or two to relax after reading it. Maybe that is the idea? Self-produced medication.

The book's design attempts to be friendly and "different" but unfortunately it still feels a little disjointed, psychedelic and unfocused as if someone has just discovered a desktop publishing program on their computer and they are trying out all the features. It just didn't work, for this reviewer at least, and it seemed to get in the way of the excellent content. An unnecessary distraction. An attempt to be twee and cute and failing. If you can isolate yourself away from the design, perhaps with the aid of a snorter or two, then there is no doubting the quality and depth of the underlying information. It translates into a fascinating, thought provoking read. A lot of "light bulb" moments might occur whilst reading the book when seemingly obvious things are highlighted about everyday botanical elements.

A book of this kind needs a great index. Unfortunately this review copy did not have an index to evaluate, so that might be something you should check out prior to purchase. Certainly, for this reviewer, thanks to his dislike of the design and its perceived user-unfriendliness, a great index would be a possible deal breaker. At least with a good index you can dip in and out and perhaps find your way around the book with less trauma.

In conclusion? A potentially great book let down by a somewhat strange design choice. The attempts to "jazz it up" managed to take away the reader's focus from a great concept and engaging content. A shame to see a possibly five YUM (star) book fall on such a basic thing.

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Amy Stewart is, hands down, the coolest plant biology nerd ever. In the centuries-long human quest to brew or distill a stiff drink from whatever ingredients our ancestors could get their hands on, she's authoritative on such topics as why sorghum turns up in more alcoholic beverages than grapes, despite its terrible taste; on the tradition of serving warmed sake, a practical measure to mask the taste of rotgut rice wine; on the impending ecological disasters facing English gin and Mexican tequila makers; why Russian distillers look down their noses at Polish potato vodka; and why you might want to start slicing up organic lemons, limes, and oranges for your cocktail garnishes, unless you like wax in your drink.

The first part of Stewart's book covers the classic eleven alcohol-friendly plants (agave, apples, barley, corn, grapes, potatoes, rice, rye, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat): the history of their cultivation, explanations of the distilling processes, science nerd anecdotes, cocktail recipes, and the occasional somber reminder about the long term effects that agribusiness is having on our favorite drinks.

Part two, the longest of the three, covers the botanicals in our bottles: herbs, spices, flowers, trees (including the mind-boggling story of the three-decade legal battle over the "Angostura" trademark), fruits, nuts, and seeds. Part three covers mixers and garnishes, most of which can be grown in your home garden, if you've got the space and the right climate: more herbs, flowers, trees, berries, vines, fruits, and vegetables.

Here's your chance to bone up on the history and science behind that martini. Come to think of it, this book is the perfect gift for people who like to throw cocktail parties.

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