The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart
Authors: Amy Stewart
Tags: Non-Fiction
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and sugar. Bottled at 14.5 to 22 percent ABV. These two will make a vermouth drinker of you:
⢠Dolin Blanc Vermouth de Chambéry: Halfway between a dry and sweet vermouth, the Dolin Blanc is a fine, balanced blend of fruit, floral, and pleasantly bitter notes. Drink it over ice with a twist of lemon.
⢠Punt e Mes: A wonderfully rich, sophisticated red aromatized wine with dried fruit and sherry flavors that is also good enough to drink on its own. Consider it a more complex and grown-up substitute for sweet vermouth.
PISCO SOUR
This is Peruâs national cocktail.
1½ ounces pisco
¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice
¾ ounce simple syrup
1 egg white
Angostura bitters
Shake all the ingredients except the bitters in a cocktail shaker without ice for at least 10 seconds. The âdry shakeâ makes the drink foamy. Then add ice and shake for at least 45 seconds more. Pour into a cocktail glass and sprinkle a few drops of bitters on top.
GRAPE-BASED SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD
Brandy is the generic term for a wine (or other fruit) spirit, usually distilled to 80 percent alcohol or less, then bottled at 35 to 40 percent alcohol. Types of grape brandy include:
Aguardiente: Portuguese brandy. This term also describes neutral grape spirits.
Armagnac: Made in the nearby Armagnac region. Unlike Cognac, which is made in pot stills, Armagnac is made in a continuous still called an alembic, at a lower proof. Both are made from specific varieties of grapes, then aged in oak.
Arzente: Italian brandy.
Brandy de Jerez: This and other spirits simply labeled âbrandyâ come from Spain.
Cognac: Made in Franceâs Cognac region.
Metaxa: Greek brandy.
Eau-de-vie is a higher-proof clear spirit made from fruit; when it is made from the pomace (skins, stems, seeds and other remnants of wine fermentation), it is called pomace brandy, or:
Bagaceira in Portugal; Grappa in Italy; Marc in France; Orujo in Spain; Trester in Germany; Tsikoudia in Greece
Grape-based gin is any grape vodka infused with juniper and other botanicals. GâVine is a French gin made from the same grapes used in Cognac, plus an extract of just-opened grapevine blossoms and other herbs and spices.
Grape vodka is a high-proof, unaged spirit like an eau-de-vie, intended to be of a neutral character. A fine example is St. George Spiritâs Hangar One Vodka, made from a blend of Viognier grapes and wheat; the grapes give it the lightest possible essence of fruit. Ciroc, made from French grapes, is another popular brand.
Pisco is named after the port city of Pisco, Peru, where eighteenth-century voyagers stopped to stock up on the local spirit. It matures in glass or stainless steel, not oak. In Peru, it is bottled at full strength, ranging from 38 to 48 percent alcohol. Chileans make a version using different grape varieties and some wood maturation.
Acholado comes from a blend of grape varieties.
Musto verde is distilled from partially fermented grape stems, seeds, and skins.
Pisco puro is made from a single variety of grape.
POTATO
Solanum tuberosum
solanaceae (nightshade family)
O n June 3, 1946, a headline in the New York Times read, âPotato May Avert Drinkersâ Drought.â Wartime grain shortages had been hard on beer and whiskey drinkers. The Agriculture Department had diverted grain to more important uses: food, livestock feed, and the production of industrial alcohol for rubber manufacturing. Restrictions continued after the war as troops wound down their operations and relief shipments to devastated postwar Europe got under way.
Because of the shortages, distilleries were allotted a single ten-day mashing period per month, with limits on the amount of rye or other grains that could go into the mash. With so little raw material to work with, the distillers got creative. They asked for a share of the nationâs heavily rationed potato supply, explaining that they could put the lower-grade,
⢠Dolin Blanc Vermouth de Chambéry: Halfway between a dry and sweet vermouth, the Dolin Blanc is a fine, balanced blend of fruit, floral, and pleasantly bitter notes. Drink it over ice with a twist of lemon.
⢠Punt e Mes: A wonderfully rich, sophisticated red aromatized wine with dried fruit and sherry flavors that is also good enough to drink on its own. Consider it a more complex and grown-up substitute for sweet vermouth.
PISCO SOUR
This is Peruâs national cocktail.
1½ ounces pisco
¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice
¾ ounce simple syrup
1 egg white
Angostura bitters
Shake all the ingredients except the bitters in a cocktail shaker without ice for at least 10 seconds. The âdry shakeâ makes the drink foamy. Then add ice and shake for at least 45 seconds more. Pour into a cocktail glass and sprinkle a few drops of bitters on top.
GRAPE-BASED SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD
Brandy is the generic term for a wine (or other fruit) spirit, usually distilled to 80 percent alcohol or less, then bottled at 35 to 40 percent alcohol. Types of grape brandy include:
Aguardiente: Portuguese brandy. This term also describes neutral grape spirits.
Armagnac: Made in the nearby Armagnac region. Unlike Cognac, which is made in pot stills, Armagnac is made in a continuous still called an alembic, at a lower proof. Both are made from specific varieties of grapes, then aged in oak.
Arzente: Italian brandy.
Brandy de Jerez: This and other spirits simply labeled âbrandyâ come from Spain.
Cognac: Made in Franceâs Cognac region.
Metaxa: Greek brandy.
Eau-de-vie is a higher-proof clear spirit made from fruit; when it is made from the pomace (skins, stems, seeds and other remnants of wine fermentation), it is called pomace brandy, or:
Bagaceira in Portugal; Grappa in Italy; Marc in France; Orujo in Spain; Trester in Germany; Tsikoudia in Greece
Grape-based gin is any grape vodka infused with juniper and other botanicals. GâVine is a French gin made from the same grapes used in Cognac, plus an extract of just-opened grapevine blossoms and other herbs and spices.
Grape vodka is a high-proof, unaged spirit like an eau-de-vie, intended to be of a neutral character. A fine example is St. George Spiritâs Hangar One Vodka, made from a blend of Viognier grapes and wheat; the grapes give it the lightest possible essence of fruit. Ciroc, made from French grapes, is another popular brand.
Pisco is named after the port city of Pisco, Peru, where eighteenth-century voyagers stopped to stock up on the local spirit. It matures in glass or stainless steel, not oak. In Peru, it is bottled at full strength, ranging from 38 to 48 percent alcohol. Chileans make a version using different grape varieties and some wood maturation.
Acholado comes from a blend of grape varieties.
Musto verde is distilled from partially fermented grape stems, seeds, and skins.
Pisco puro is made from a single variety of grape.
POTATO
Solanum tuberosum
solanaceae (nightshade family)
O n June 3, 1946, a headline in the New York Times read, âPotato May Avert Drinkersâ Drought.â Wartime grain shortages had been hard on beer and whiskey drinkers. The Agriculture Department had diverted grain to more important uses: food, livestock feed, and the production of industrial alcohol for rubber manufacturing. Restrictions continued after the war as troops wound down their operations and relief shipments to devastated postwar Europe got under way.
Because of the shortages, distilleries were allotted a single ten-day mashing period per month, with limits on the amount of rye or other grains that could go into the mash. With so little raw material to work with, the distillers got creative. They asked for a share of the nationâs heavily rationed potato supply, explaining that they could put the lower-grade,
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