Alcoholica Esoterica: A Collection of Useful and Useless Information As It Relates to the History and Consumption of All Manner of Booze

My husband is a wine writer for our local newspaper so I purchased this book for him. He liked the book so much that he did a side-bar to his last article with the following review:More than just a book about wine this is "a collection of useful and useless information as it relates to the history and consumption of all manner of booze." There is a remarkable amount of information packed into this entertaining and offbeat book. You're likely to find yourself reading it two or three times because it is impossible to remember all the frivolous and factual trivia Lender offers up. For example, an Italian café owner created the beverage Compari in 1860 but it became wildly popular in the U.S. during Prohibition where it was considered a digestive bitter, not alcohol. It just happened to be 48 proof.

Most books in this category are well, boring. They go into history and process, and science, with the kind of zeal and skill as a second grade teacher who just had a huge paycut and has been off cigarettes for two weeks...but this book is totally different. It's progression is organized but witty. It lists the funny stuff that no one else will tell you and yet you'll still learn the science and history and process behind varying alcohol. Just like it starts out...all Alcohol is basically yeast poop. Champagne has a psi of 90 (or 3x your car tire) and was called devil wine by the monks who were injured by the exploding bottles. See now that's interesting!

Lendler has crafted a simple yet engaging book on the history and peculiarities of just about every alcohol type we know -- he peppers his succinct and interesting descriptions of the beverages' histories with a rapier wit in a conversation-like tone (e.g. he writes out the word "Natch" in place of "Naturally"). It is a fun book to read.This is a must-read for anyone with a passing interest in any particular genre of alcohol, or for anyone who just enjoys good reading.

It's an amusing read, accessibly written. The author's sense of humor comes through quite a lot, often stopping just shy of being too much. Lots of good information in this book, and it's full of amusing quotes by a variety of people.It does give some incorrect information, though. That's probably to be expected in a big compilation of boozy trivia, but I'd like to point out what it gets wrong.Discussing ale back in the Middle Ages, the book never mentions gruit by name; that's kind of a big omission. It does mention that old ales were brewed with various herb mixtures rather than hops, but describes it as sweet because it hadn't been bittered with hops. That's not true though; those herb mixtures (the gruit) were used to bitter and preserve the ale, not just flavor it.As a big fan of modern ales, I disagree that lager is "a cleaner, better-tasting beer." Cleaner, crisper, yes, but I think ale's tastier. Likewise, I wouldn't say that porter looks like mud - dark-roast coffee would be a better analogy. Worse, the book describes cock ale as a mixed drink - but in fact it was/is simply beer brewed with chicken as an adjunct.The author describes the invention of the pilsner style, saying "The revolution was immediate" and implies that ale isn't really made any more. Yet the microbreweries he mentions almost all brew ale rather than lager. America's big breweries, though, are of course all lager all the time.He repeats the urban legend that absinthe is hallucinogenic. I've had absinthe - it tastes awful but the wormwood doesn't make you see things. Also the book repeats the outdated speculation that lead poisoning caused the decline of Rome.I was disappointed that the section on sake doesn't mention that it's technically a beer (because it's made from grain) even though it looks and tastes more like wine. He also seems to think it's distilled, which it isn't - that's Shōchū.The book claims that "religion strictly forbids alcohol" in the Arab world, but that's only true in some countries. The Islamic prohibition of alcohol is really a matter of interpretation (some, for instance, feel it applies only to wine since that's the only drink the Qu'ran says bad things about, and some don't think it's important at all). And the Prohibition labels that wineries sold with their grape juice came on "wine bricks", not bottles, but that's really a quibble.A real howler, though, is that the book repeats the old myth that Washington's false teeth were made of wood. Another is the claim that the Roman vomitorium was used to purge oneself so you could drink more. Not that the Romans didn't do that sort of thing, but a vomitorium was an entrance/exit to an amphitheater that would let a lot of people out quickly; it had nothing to do with barfing.And discussing bathtub gin, he claims it consisted of rubbing alcohol cut with other chemicals to hide the taste. That's not right though - it was poorly distilled grain alcohol (ethanol), not isopropyl. There's a big difference (though various chemicals were added to mask the flavor). The book also offers the dubious advice to take an aspirin before bed to help avoid a hangover; I'd recommend water instead.Still, it's a fine book. The inaccuracies cost it a star in my judgement, but maybe they could be corrected in a later edition. Either way I'd still recommend this book for anyone interested in alcohol trivia.

Informative, entertaining, completely hilarious. I read it on Kindle, had to have a copy. I've read it several times. I'm an unashamed beer geek, and this book just doesn't get old. I will read it over and over... especially with a beer in hand.

The book is interesting but full of errors. It's as though the author used references meant for children. He has nothing good to say about drinking. Anyone who drinks in this book - even Winston Churchill - is lambasted as a fool who could not control themselves. Lendler marvels at how booze killed people. According to him, all early liquor tasted like mud and all later liquor at some point was made with turpentine. Gin might be his strongest chapter - he keeps returning to it - but instead of explaining that the English were accustomed to heavy beers that served as food, and poverty and disease wracked the countryside after the landowners started building modern enclosures instead of having common pastureland he basically continues to say that all English are natural alcoholics. He's not nearly as hard on the Russians in the Vodka chapter. All in all I suppose the errors are forgivable. They're the sort that regular people would not recognize and real history nerds would quickly forgive. Just don't use the book to write a college paper.

If you like to tip a few here and there (and who doesn't?)this is a great read with pieces of trivia that you need as someone who enjoys a drink or three. It's not a novel so you can pick it up and put it down-even if you only have a minute.Enjoy the book and dazzle your friends with your knowledge of a pastime that you are sharing.5 stars!

Hilarious book! Made me laugh. Great bar trivia and general purpose knowledge.

Top notch entertainment