Bibliophilia: The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks – Amy Stewart

​​The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks – Amy Stewart

Very enjoyable, like her other books, and very educational, like her other books.

Admittedly, I’m not much of a drinker, and I have never and likely will never drink many of the concoctions listed, but I really enjoyed learning more about the many and varied plants humanity has turned into booze. The whole way through I found myself saying “Huh! I didn’t know that.” or “Well, I’ll be.”

One of the sections was of course on rum. Like most every other liquor, it is aged in oak barrels. Since most of it is produced in the Caribbean, the heat there causes a fair bit of the alcohol to evaporate from the barrels, but the upside is that the heat causes the stuff to age more quickly. Which led me to wonder: Is there any advantage to aging scotch in a warm climate? Has anyone ever experimented with a few barrels of scotch down in Panama. Would the desired aging effect be achieved in 4 years rather than 12? What would leaving a barrel to sit for 12 years there do? Or would the ambient warmth give a whole different effect and flavour? Is the climate in a place like Scotland really required? Does that cold(er) temp contribute to the desired flavour?

I get the idea that the whole prospect is down right blasphemous, eliciting an “ahm gonna keel yoo!” response from Scottish diehards.