Description
At last a definitive guide to the medicinal origins of every bottle behind the bar This is the cocktail book of the year if not the decadeAmy Stewart author of The Drunken Botanist and Wicked Plants
A fascinating book that makes a brilliant historical case for what Ive been saying all along alcohol is good for youokay maybe its not technically good for you but English shows that through most of human history its sure beat the heck out of waterAlton Brown creator of Good Eats
Beerbased wound care deworming with wine whiskey for snakebites and medicinal mixers to defeat malaria scurvy and plague how todays tipples were the tonics of old
Alcohol and Medicine have an inextricably intertwined history with innovations in each altering the path of the other The story stretches back to ancient times when beer and wine were used to provide nutrition and hydration and were employed as solvents for healing botanicals Over time alchemists distilled elixirs designed to cure all diseases monastic apothecaries developed mystical botanical liqueurs traveling physicians concocted dubious intoxicating nostrums and the drinks were familiar with today began to take form In turn scientists studied fermentation and formed the germ theory of disease and developed an understanding of elemental gases and anesthetics Modern cocktails like the OldFashioned Gimlet and Gin and Tonic were born as delicious remedies for diseases and discomforts In Doctors and Distillers cocktails and spirits expert Camper English reveals how and why the contents of our medicine and liquor cabinets were until surprisingly recently one and the same
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