Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits

Jason Wilson

Ten Speed Press, Sep 21, 2010 - Cooking - 240 pages

While some may wonder, “Does the world really need another flavored vodka?” no one answers this question quite so memorably as spirits writer and raconteur Jason Wilson does in Boozehound. (By the way, the short answer is no.) A unique blend of travelogue, spirits history, and recipe collection, Boozehound explores the origins of what we drink and the often surprising reasons behind our choices.
 
In lieu of odorless, colorless, tasteless spirits, Wilson champions Old World liquors with hard-to-define flavors—a bitter and complex Italian amari, or the ancient, aromatic herbs of Chartreuse, as well as distinctive New World offerings like lively Peruvian pisco. With an eye for adventure, Wilson seeks out visceral experiences at the source of production—visiting fields of spiky agave in Jalisco, entering the heavily and reverently-guarded Jägermeister herb room in Wolfenbüttel, and journeying to the French Alps to determine if mustachioed men in berets really handpick blossoms to make elderflower liqueur.
 
In addition, Boozehound offers more than fifty drink recipes, from three riffs on the Manhattan to cocktail-geek favorites like the Aviation and the Last Word. These recipes are presented alongside a host of opinionated essays that cherish the rare, uncover the obscure, dethrone the overrated, and unravel the mysteries of taste, trends, and terroir. Through his far-flung, intrepid traveling and tasting, Wilson shows us that perhaps nothing else as entwined with the history of human culture is quite as much fun as booze.


From the Hardcover edition.

What people are saying

Review: Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits

User Review  - Evan - Goodreads

Wilson's Boozehound is a great introduction to the joy that can be had by drinking well. It takes the form of a sort of travel memoir focused on spirits (and interspersed with recipes), and Wilson's ...

Review: Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits

User Review  - Laura - Goodreads

This was really an enjoyable read, far more so that I expected. I was afraid the author was going to be snobby and pretentious or only try and sell the reader on what he liked or what was ...

About the author

JASON WILSON writes the spirits column for the Washington Post. His column has twice won an award for Best Newspaper Food Column from the Association of Food Journalists. Wilson is also the series editor of the annual anthology The Best American Travel Writing and is the editor of TheSmartSet.com. Wilson's work has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including National Geographic Traveler, Travel + Leisure, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post's Sunday magazine. He previously served as the restaurant critic at Philadelphia Magazine. He teaches writing at Drexel University. Visit www.jasonwilson.com.


From the Hardcover edition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits
• Author: Jason Wilson
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press, 2010
• ISBN: 158008611X, 9781580086110
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Cooking / Beverages / Wine & Spirits; Cooking / Essays & Narratives