| Title | : | Alcoholica Esoterica: A Collection of Useful and Useless Information as it Relates to the History and Consumption of All Manner of Booze |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 264 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2005 |
that the word bar is short for barrier? Yes, that's right--to keep the customers from getting at all the booze.
that Winston Churchill's mother supposedly invented the Manhattan?
that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because the sailors on the Mayflower were running low on beer and were tired of sharing?
that you have a higher chance of being killed by a flying Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider?
that the Code of Hammurabi mandated that brewers of low-quality beer be drowned in it?
that beer was so popular with medieval priests and monks that in the thirteenth century they stopped baptizing babies with holy water and started using beer?
Alcoholica Esoterica: A Collection of Useful and Useless Information as it Relates to the History and Consumption of All Manner of Booze Reviews
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Preparing for a new employment opportunity in the next few months.....
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This book is awesome. Being a homebrewer, I already knew most of the history of beer. But I knew nothing about how wine, sake, and all the other spirits came to exist. This book does a really good job of giving a thorough, but still concise, history of all types of booze, as well as funny anecdotes, quotes, etc.
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I think a book on interesting alcohol trivia should be a little more... interesting. This could have been done better. Most of it was 1) things everyone already knows (hey did you know rum is made from molasses and was successful only because of the slave trade?) or 2) simply boring (Did you know Campari was invented by a cafe owner named Gaspare Campari in 1860? No, I didn't, but I also don't give a fuck). Still, I did get a few interesting talking points for my next trip to the bar (...two hours from now):
-You’re more likely to be killed by a flying champagne cork than a poisonous spider.
-In Hammurabi’s Code, bartenders who served mugs of beer not filled to the top were sentenced to death by drowning.
-The empty space between the cork and the wine is called the “ullage.” Became a term of abuse in the British Navy to describe a crewmember as useless.
-Stomping grapes with bare feet releases carbon dioxide, and some people have died doing it.
-The gas inside a bottle of champagne exerts about 3x as much pressure as the air in a car’s tire.
-The Smirnoff family was the official vodka maker to the Russian czar. As a result, Lenin (who was a teetotaler) had the whole family killed except for one son, who brought the vodka recipe with him to the States.
-Sake actually originates in China, not Japan.
-During prohibition, wine makers would bottle grape juice from their vineyards, and on the label post “warnings” that it could ferment and turn into wine- and gave step by step instructions on how this would happen “and how to prevent it.”
-Strong drinks actually hit you slower- stomach valve closes in shock when it detects high-proof booze. So things like wine and beer get absorbed faster.
There you go! Now you don't have to read it. Cheers! -
Perfect addition to everyone's home bar and I feel extra prepared for my next pub trivia night.
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An entertaining little book with a lot of trivia and little historical tidbits on alcoholic spirits and related topics. Book's arrangement starts with chapters on major alcoholic spirits: rum, vodka, gin, so on. Then it goes on with other pieces of trivia arranged by topic, such as religion and alcohol, the British Navy, and even a bit on temperance and AA. The latter part of the book did not seems as engaging as the earlier parts, maybe because by then some of the stuff seemed like filler. For me, the timing may also be an issue. I had just finished And a Bottle of Rum>/i>, which is a very good history of rum, so a lot of what this book presented I either knew or had read in better detail already. Having said that, it is a nice book to keep around to read in small doses. You will learn a thing or two, and even if you think you know a lot, you may find some curious or neat piece of trivia.
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I don't often read non-fiction stuff, but I heard about this one via an author interview, possibly on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart or could've been NPR. Not only was this book amazingly informative, but astoundingly entertaining and well written. It feels like a really long, interesting conversation with one of those witty people you could listen to for hours. It's also one of the few books I've recommended to several real people. Even if you don't enjoy alcohol at all, you will enjoy this book!
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This book is awesome. A short history on every major variety of alcohol (beer, wine, whisky, bourbon, cordials, vodka etc) and some of their sub genre's (lager, pilsner, champagne, sherry etc). The author has a very funny style, inserting his own opinions and bad jokes into the fascinating historical facts. Easy read, go section by section or just pick your favorite drinks.
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This is a great entertaining little book. I really enjoyed it
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My review on
LibraryThing -
Did you know that when gin hit London, it caused the equivalent of the American crack epidemic? True story.
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So many fun facts and stories in this book. In a nutshell: booze is the backbone of every society around the world.
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BS to add to my repertoire of nonsense that I spill out when drunk.
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This is the most useful book I've ever read. Also, it's funny, so that's a plus.
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Great refference and funny facts. What everyone should know about spirits.
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The butler began as the "bottler," the most important servant in the house.
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Great trivia about alcohol that you can put up, put down and read at your leisure.
