Lesley Jacobs Solmonson

Liqueur is a guide to the cultural history of liqueurs from a celebrated spirits journalist. The original recreational spirit, liqueurs travelled the Silk Road, awaited travellers at the Fountain of Youth, and traversed the globe from ancient times through the industrial revolution and beyond. In this thrilling exploration of liqueur's global history, Lesley Jacobs Solmonson describes how a bitter, medicinal...

The story begins with the aromatic juniper berry, originally used by the Dutch to flavour the whisky-like genever. The drink then made its way to Britain, where cheap imitations laced with turpentine and other caustic fillers made it the drink of choice for poor eighteenth-century Londoners. Eventually replaced by the sweetened Old Tom style and then by London Dry, gin...