Top Shelf in April: The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
Reviewed by: Joe T.
Amy Stewart is a national treasure. She writes the kind of books that your inner 10-year old loves to read. Whether it’s detailing the stories of deadly nightshade, fatal fungus, or toxic blue-green algae in her book Wicked Plants or exploring the world of creepy crawly oriental rat fleas, the Brazilian wandering spider, the Formosan subterranean termite, and other Wicked Bugs, she’s always there with a nasty tidbit or a chilling aside. Now, in her newest books, she does us all one better and taps into our inner 21-year old with her botanical encyclopedia of alcoholic flora, The Drunken Botanist.
Divided into three distinct but overlapping sections, part one deals with the plants used to create all of our dearest spirits, wines, and beers. From the history of agave to the distinct charms of rye to the ubiquity of wheat, Stewart leaves no stone unturned as she provides us with the love and lore of the things that get us drunk.
The second part covers all the things that are added to spirits to give them their unique flavors and aromas. Here she gives us gin’s juniper berries and absinthe’s wormwood. Heck, it even turns out the French make a liqueur from tobacco!
She concludes with a section on the last bit of love, things we use as mixers; the story of spearmints and pomegranates, of lavender and olives.
Interspersed with all the fun facts and historical anecdotes and all sorts of “did you know….?” moments, she gives us all kinds of recipes for cocktails and even instructions on how to grow the plants listed herein, including even how to grow some of the trees!
This is a great book for drinkers of every stripe, for everyone who’s ever sat on a porch on a hot summer day and wondered what exactly makes the mint julep a mint julep, for everyone who’s decided that a city garden is better for making booze than salads, and, well, for anyone who just likes a darn good book. Salud!
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For word on the book straight from the Drunken Botanist herself, check out our Q&A with Amy Stewart.
For a rip-roaring good time, join us on Tuesday, April 16 at 7pm when Stewart is here at BookPeople to speak about and sign her book. She and the folks at Liber & Co. (a local independently-owned company that makes phenomenal small-batch cocktail ingredients) have created an original recipe for The BookPeople Botanical, a delightful cocktail featuring Liber & Co’s fine wares mixed with Tito’s Handmade Vodka. What’s more: the good folks at Austin’s The Great Outdoors Nursery will be giving away a gift basket full of green-thumb goodies. It’s going to be a great night! Join us!
BookPeople 
interesting review.