Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Gin, government and health in 18th-century London (thesis)

Christopher Andrews, "Putting the Genie back into the Bottle : Gin, Government & Health in Eighteenth Century London" (B.Sc. thesis, Wellcome Trust, Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London, University of London, 2003).

Ohio buys record amount of hard liquor in 2009

In 2009 residents of the state of Ohio purchased nearly 735 million dollars worth of hard liquor, a record amount of money spent on distilled spirits,  For more, see here.

 The top ten selling brands in Ohio for 2009:

1.                    Kamchatka Vodka – 400,787 gallons

2.            Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey – 345,757 gallons

3.            Bacardi Superior Light Rum – 311,763 gallons

4.            Captain Morgan Spiced Rum – 286,343 gallons

5.            Smirnoff Vodka – 278,951 gallons

6.            Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey – 273,648 gallons

7.            Jagermeister – 270,787 gallons

8.            Absolut Vodka – 262,882 gallons

9.            Black Velvet Canadian Whiskey – 244,127 gallons

10.     Korski Vodka – 236,942 gallons

Dutch gin in West Africa (book review)

Insa Nolte, book review of Dmitri van den Bersselaar, The King of Drinks: Schapps Gin from Modernity to Tradition, in Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 23/2 (Spring 2009): 201-203.

Gin in West Africa (book)

Dmitri van den Bersselaar, The King of Drinks: Schnapps Gin from Modernity to Tradition (Brill, 2007). Colonial and independent West Africa.

TOC

Chapter 1. Introduction: foreign imports, local meanings
Chapter 2. The Rise of Gin
Chapter 3. Becoming the King of Drinks
Chapter 4. ‘Bird gin’ and ‘money gin’: brands and marketing
Chapter 5. Poison or medicine? Changing perceptions of Dutch gin
Chapter 6. ‘Your very good health!’ Gin for an independent West Africa
Chapter 7. Schnapps gin from modernity to tradition
Chapter 8. Bibliography
Index

Imbibe! (book review)

Adam Rathe reviews in the Brooklyn Paper, December 1, 2007, a book by David Wondrich, Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to ‘Professor’ Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar (Perigee, 2007). For more, see here. Wondrich is now writing a book about alcoholic punch.

Microdistilleries flourish in the USA

Obscured by the larger microbrewery boom, microdistilleries have begun to flourish in the USA. There are already a hundred, with ten or twenty more started annually. They produce whiskey, gin, and especially vodka. A New York Times story begins with an unsuccessful Kansas cattle rancher who is becoming wealthy from making vodka. He jokes that he is the seventh generation distiller in his family, simply the first to make liquor legally. For more, see here.

Jerry Thomas (1830?-1885), America's most innovative bartender (book review)

William Grimes reviews in the New York Times, 31 October 2007, David Wondrich's Imbibe! (Perigee Books, 2007), a biography of the flamboyant and creative bartender Jerry Thomas (1830?-1885) and an annotated recipe book. For more, see here. Thomas and his fellow bartenders revolutionized the drinking of spirits in nineteenth-century America. A fuller title of Wondrich's book is Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar.

Arthur Schlesinger and his beloved martini (excerpt)

Arthur Schlesinger recording his response to a meal in 1987: "I could not help noting the generational differences in diet. I had a martini and grilled double lamb chops. They had Perrier and chef's salad. I suppose that their diet is better for them. But mine is more fun. I understand the disappearance of cigarettes these days; they are poison. But why has hard liquor, the staff of life, yielded to white wine and, heaven help us, Perrier?" from Arthur Schlesinger, Journals, 1952-2007 (Penguin, 2007), as quoted in Jon Meacham's Washington Post review, October 7, 2007. (This was before the era of the flavored martini, a development probably not beloved by Professor Schlesinger.)

Drugs and empire (book)

James H. Mills and Patricia Barton, eds., Drugs and Empires:
Essays in Modern Imperialism and Intoxication 1500-1930
(Palgrave, forthcoming 2007). Mosly about opium and to large extent about China.

Introduction; J.H.Mills & P. Barton
PART 1: CONSUMPTION
China, British imperialism and the myth of the 'Opium Plague'; F. Dikötter, L. Laamann & X. Zhou
Developing Habits: Opium and Tobacco in the Indonesian Archipelago, c. 1619-c. 1794; G.B.Souza
Early British encounters with the Indian opium eater; R.Newman
'Cannot we induce the people of England to eat opium?' The moral economy of opium in colonial India; J.F.Richards
PART 2: CONTROL
Opium and the Trading World of Western India in the Early Nineteenth Century; A.Farooqui
Dangerous Drinks and the Colonial State: 'Illicit' Gin Prohibition and Control in Colonial Nigeria; C.J.Korieh
Empire and Excise: Drugs and drink revenue and the fate of states in south Asia; M.J.Gilbert
Powders, Potions and Tablets: The 'quinine fraud' in British India, 1890 to 1939; P.Barton
PART 3: 'HIGH' POLITICS
Colonial Africa and the international politics of cannabis: Egypt, South Africa and the origins of global control; J.H.Mills
'A grave danger to the peace of the East': Opium and Imperial Rivalry in China, 1895-1920; W.O.Walker III
'Wolf by the Ears': The Dilemmas of Imperial Opium Policymaking in the 20th Century; W.B.McAllister
The Trade-Off: Chinese Opium Traders and Antebellum Reform in the United States, 1815-1860; K.Gray

Ohio school defends serving gin to students at elementary graduation

An Ohio charter school that emphasizes African history and culture served gin to elementary school students as part of what they said was a Ghanian right of passage, and state education officials said they plan to investigate.

The CBC reports.