Jane Peyton

An early description of a cocktail as 'a mix of alcoholic drinks with flavouring ingredients' does nothing to convey the alchemy and speak-easy glamour of these elaborate drinks. The cocktail's humble beginnings as a medicinal tonic, through the inclusion of botanicals into distilled spirits such as gin and whiskey, accelerate with the ingenuity of bartenders who created the 'classics' -...

Have you ever wondered about the difference between a lager and an ale? Or marvelled at how, with only four basic ingredients, there are around 150 different styles of beer? In The Philosophy of Beer, Jane Peyton, the UK's first Beer Sommelier of the Year, distils practical advice from the incredible history of the nation's favourite beverage. The book spans...

The Philosophy of Cider is sunshine in a glass! Follow Jane Peyton on a glorious voyage of discovery, from the journey of the wild Malus Sieversii apple—ancestor of today's domesticated apple—which has made its way from the foothills of Central Asia's Tien Shan mountains, to the Norman invasion that introduced new apple varieties and pressing technologies to Britain, and to...

Few if any alcoholic drinks have the dramatic and multi-faceted history of gin. In this fascinating new instalment of the British Library's pocket philosophies, gin is explored through its origins in Holland, where it was popularised by William of Orange; its roots in medicine; its capacity to provide an albeit destructive escapism during the Gin Craze; its influence on language...