For the Alcademics Book Club, we're reading Sweetness and Power, about sugar. Every time I read about the history of sugar, particularly the heyday of slavery-powered production in the 1700s in the Caribbean, I'm always like, "What happened to Portugal-controlled Brazilian sugar?" The Portuguese were early leaders in sugarcane production... Read more →
I wrote this story, which first appeared here on AlcoholProfessor.com. Reconsidering the Smashing Legacy of Carry Nation in Three Books by Camper English Carry Nation, the anti-alcohol crusader, was a nutjob who heard voices that told her to smash up saloons. She was also a towering hulk of over six... Read more →
The other month I came across a citation of something I wrote in a book that I'd not previously known about. This lead me to do a Google Books search to see if there were any more, and there were - a lot! So this post is more or less... Read more →
For the past bunch of years, I've done a round-up of all the drink books (mostly cocktails and spirits) that have come out during the year, in consideration for gifting. I'm not doing that this year, as there are too many cocktail books, and if you want to see them... Read more →
Below is the last batch of drink books (mostly spirits/cocktails) coming out this year. As usual, I'll post a list of all the drink books that came out this year in a few weeks, but to give these their fair share of attention they are below. I usually put links... Read more →
In my latest story for AlcoholProfessor, I wrote about a big batch of Halloween-adjacent cocktail books coming out this year. If you just want to click over to Amazon for the books, they are below. To read my reviews, scroll down past the image. Spirits of the Otherworld: A Grimoire... Read more →
I have done a good deal of research into the history of plant-based medicines that eventually made their way into spirits and cocktails, like cinchona bark in tonic water, wormwood in absinthe, gentian in bitter amaro, and more. So I had great interest in the forthcoming The Plant Hunter by... Read more →
On AlcoholProfessor.com, I reviewed A Good Drink: In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits by Shanna Farrell. You can buy it on Amazon or support local bookstores by purchasing on Bookshop. Purchasing via these links may earn me a small affiliate commission, and I could use the money. Read the review below.... Read more →