Drinking Distilled: A User's Manual by Jeffrey Morgenthaler

You may have heard that last weekend, almost a foot of snow fell in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. I'm not suspecting that it made your local news, but the howls from the residents were loud enough that they were probably heard at least a couple states away. Now all my neighbors decided, even though the plows were staying home, that they needed to try to keep their driveway cleared of snow.  

I, on the other hand, had the good sense to realize that since the snow wasn't going anywhere, and the plows weren't going anywhere, then neither was I. Plus with the blizzard conditions outside, there was the off chance that if I put off getting the snowblower out that some of that nasty white stuff might just end up in the neighbor's yard. So instead of burning gasoline in a futile attempt to beat nature, I decided to curl up with a good book. Luckily, a good book had arrived earlier in the week. 

Drinking Distilled by Jeffrey Morgenthaler is a short, though highly entertaining look at drinking distilled spirits. The book is structured as to give advice to the drinker and is divided into four sections. "General Information," which covers topics from toasting to glassware to barfing is the first section. Following that is "What You're Drinking" which gives a little background various spirits and cocktails. It's entertaining, even if it does spread the misinformation that bourbon needs to be over two years old. The third and fourth sections are "When You're Drinking" and "Where You're Drinking" which combine to give advice, cocktails, and proper edicate for various times and places you might be having a drink.

All in all this is a fun book. It is a quick read (I did it in the course of one afternoon while ignoring the snowstorm outside) and extremely entertaining. Heck, you might even learn something...just not how long bourbon needs to age (for the record there is no minimum age for bourbon, though I really wish we'd follow along with the rest of the world and their three year minimum).


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