The Drunken Botanist the Plants That Create the World’S Great Drinks

THE DRUNKEN BOTANIST THE PLANTS THAT CREATE THE WORLD’S GREAT DRINKS ho knew that horticulture was such an intoxicating subject? In this follow-up to the New York Times bestsellers WWicked Bugs and Wicked Plants, Amy Stewart explores the odd, unusual, and surprisingly common plants that have produced the world’s greatest spirits. The Drunken Botanist uncovers the enlightening botanical history and the fascinating science and chemistry of over 150 plants, flowers, trees, fruits, and even a few fungi. • With a delightful two-color vintage-style interior, over fifty drink recipes, growing tips for gardeners, and advice that carries Stewart’s trademark wit, this is the perfect gift for gardeners and cocktail acionados alike . • WHAT PLANTS ARE YOU DRINKING TONIGHT? margarita AGAVE—Agave tequilana—A relative BITTER ORANGE—Citrus of asparagus, hostas, and hyacinths, this aurantium—Triple sec and other orange Mexican native is transformed into tequila liqueurs get their flavor from the rinds of by chopping away the tough, spiny leaves oranges so bitter that only their peels can and slowly roasting the heart. By law, tequila be used. can only be made from A. tequilana ‘Weber SUGAR BEET—Beta vulgaris—The Blue’, a cultivar named after a French military base alcohol in many orange liqueurs is physician and part-time botanist who was sent distilled from sugar beets. The reason dates to Mexico under Napoeleon III. He was the first back to the Napoleonic wars, when blockades to describe the plant in botanical literature. against the British made sugarcane scarce KEY LIME—Citrus aurantifolia— throughout Europe. Native to India and Southeast Asia, limes contain half the sugar of lemons and more rich, floral flavor molecules. A ripe lime is actually yellowish in color; they have to be picked slightly unripe to appear green in the grocery store. mojito SUGARCANE—Saccharum SPEARMINT—Mentha spicata— officinarum—An enormous grass Thanks to the heroic efforts of with origins in New Guinea, India, tourists returning from Cuba with and China, sugarcane arrived in the sprigs of mint plucked from their Caribbean in the 1500s with European mojitos, mail order nurseries now explorers. Although most rum today offer ‘Mojito Mint’, which they claim is made from cultivars with decidedly is distinctly different from most unromantic names like CP 70-1133, spearmints. “In a perhaps typically heirloom varieties sport vivid colors, Cuban understated way its warm wild stripes, and far more interesting embrace lingers until you realize you names, like ‘Louisiana Purple’ and want more,” reads the catalog copy ‘Yellow Caladonia’. for this herb. martini JUNIPER—Juniperus communis— lowland gorillas. Zookeepers discovered that Perhaps the most widely imbibed conifer on the without this vital food source, captive gorillas planet, this ancient plant dates to the Triassic developed heart disease. period. Juniper berries are actually tiny cones WORMWOOD—Artemisia absinthium— with fleshy scales that take two to three years This silvery Mediterranean herb is best known to ripen. A single shrub can hold berries in all as a flavoring in absinthe, but it is also used to stages of ripeness, so they are harvested by add a note of bitterness to most vermouths. In spreading a tarp underneath and beating the fact, the word “vermouth” is derived from early plant with a stick to make the ripe cones fall forms of “wormwood”—and that name came off. By law, a spirit must contain some juniper from the belief that the plant could kill intestinal to be called gin. worms. GRAINS OF PARADISE—Afra– OLIVE—Olea europaea—A relative of momum melegueta—A common gin ingredient, jasmine, lilac, and garden sage, olives have this West African ginger relative produces tiny, been cultivated in the Mediterranean for seven spicy seeds. It has flavored spirits and beers for thousand years, and individual trees live to be centuries, but it’s also a staple food of western hundreds of years old. manhattan BARLEY—Hordeum vulgare— MARASCA CHERRY—Prunus Whether you drink your Manhattan cerasus var. marasca—In the distant, with bourbon or rye, this grass is a key boozy past, a maraschino cherry was ingredient. The grain has been fermented not an artificially dyed and overly since at least 3000 BC, for good reason: it sweetened atrocity. It was a dense, dark, is rich in enzymes that help break starch sour cherry called the marasca that grew into fermentable sugar. To kick-start particularly well in Croatia, around the this process, the grains are dampened town of Zadar. Fortunately, fine marasca to force germination. As the embryo cherries soaked in their own liqueur can sprouts, those enzymes are activated to still be found in specialty shops. provide sugar for the seedling—or for the YELLOW GENTIAN—Gentiana fermentation tank. lutea—Without this tall yellow flower OAK—Quercus alba—As oak trees that grows wild in French alpine mature, the older vessels become plugged meadows, any number of classic with crystalline structures called tyloses. cocktails would not exist. Many bitters, As a result, the center of the tree—the including Angostura, contain gentian. heartwood—doesn’t conduct water Scientists have confirmed the plant’s at all, making it well-suited for use as appetite-stimulating powers and a watertight barrel. Whiskey gets an are investigating many species for astonishing array of flavors from the antimalarial properties. barrel. American white oak produces the same flavor molecules found in vanilla, coconut, peach, apricot, and cloves. AMY STEWART Amy Stewart is the award-winning author of six books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including three New York Times bestsellers: Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants, and Flower Confidential. She is the cofounder of the popular blog Garden Rant and a contributing editor at Fine Gardening magazine. She and her husband, Scott Brown, live in Eureka, California, where they own an antiquarian bookstore called Eureka Books. AMYSTEWART.COM • DRUNKENBOTANIST.COM ABOUT THE BOOK PUBLICITY CONTACT: ISBN 978-1-61620-046-6 Kelly Bowen, Publicity Director $19.95 Hardcover 919.913.3865 | [email protected] DESIGN: RJ-STUDIO.COM 400 Pages Publication Date: March 19, 2013 WWW.ALGONQUIN.COM .

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