Wild Drinks and Cocktails: Handcrafted Squashes, Shrubs, Switchels, Tonics, and Infusions to Mix at Home

by Emily Han

Create your own handcrafted drinks and cocktails using local, fresh, or foraged ingredients. Tired of boring, artificial, too-sweet drinks? Go wild! It's time to embrace drinks featuring local, fresh, or foraged ingredients. It's easy with Wild Drinks & Cocktails .
Using ingredients you can find in your own backyard, farm, or local market, you can create artisan drinks that will leave you feeling refreshed and even revitalized. Learn useful fermentation techniques to make your own water kefir and homemade soda. Brew your own teas, mix your own squashes, shrubs, switchels, tonics, and infusions. You can even use the recipes to create powerful and healthful craft cocktails.
Craft drink expert Emily Han creates unique flavors in the 100 drink recipes, each with powerful health benefits, along with a sentimental nod to drinks of another era. Wild Drinks & Cocktails teaches you the techniques you need to know to handcraft your own infused waters, syrups, vinegar drinks, spirits, wines, and sodas.
Join the drink renaissance with Wild Drinks & Cocktails. "Emily Han's carefully crafted book, Wild Drinks & Cocktails dispels the common wisdom of great drinks are only to be built by professionals. These simple cocktails are not short of brilliant- from locally-gathered ingredients constructed with our own, very capable hands, no pros needed!" - Warren Bobrow, author of Apothecary Cocktails, Whiskey Cocktails, and Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Plants

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2015

About the author

Emily Han is a naturalist, herbalist, and educator helping people cultivate their attention and connection with the earth. Based in Altadena, CA, Tongva/Kizh land, her work focuses on intersections of ecology, culture, food, and plant medicine. She is the author of Wild Drinks and Cocktails, Wild Remedies, and the forthcoming Mushroom Hunting.

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book from the library and liked it enough to order a copy of my own. There are some drawbacks to it -- mainly from a foraging standpoint -- but enough helpful recipes that I want a copy for my kitchen counter.

This book is kind of the opposite of Pascal Baudar's wild booze book. His uses almost exclusively foraged ingredients and is very experimental (try doing this and that and here's the basic idea). This one has many ingredients you'll need to buy and is rather fiddly. There tend to be more ingredients and they're definitely more high end. And it is not at all a foraging book, really. You can find some of the ingredients in the wild, but it won't tell you how to. The recipes are varied and delightful, though, with lots of basic recipes that you'll want to have on hand to make your own creations with all kinds of wild and home grown (and bought, if you must) ingredients.

There are basic instructions on how to make teas, infusions, syrups and liqueurs, plus lots of recipes for various drinks of all kinds. The wine section was worthless to me -- she uses store bought wine and then mixes and infuses things. I like to make my own country wines. Baudar's book or Wild Wine Making are good choices if you want more of that type.

I have a great deal of experience making wild wine and booze, and I wouldn't call this a great book for that. I actually suggest it more if you're interested in non-alcoholic drinks and it really shines more there. She even teaches you how to make rose water, where you're basically making a little still in a cooking pot.

There are lots of color photos, though there are not photos for every recipe. The author is rather chatty, which I like, but not so chatty that your eyes glaze over. She gives you the history of drinks, explains how various things are helpful, and generally shares her knowledge in a friendly, talkative manner. The price is also more than fair, which was the final deciding factor in my buying a copy of my own.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, informative book of interesting and doable recipes for potions to drink on their own, brighten up cocktails or treat what ails you. Each recipe includes a short description with historical facts and uses for the handcrafted beverage. The recipes include possible variation and wildcrafting tips if necessary.

Recipes I'm planning to try include Rose water, Pine Syrup, Elderflower Cordial, Sage Oxemel, Fire Cider (sounds intriguing, doesn't it,) crème de Mûre, Eau de Mélisse des Carmen and Lemon Verbena Liqueur.

[William Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't wait to try this

I love homemade things, and I can't wait to try making my own liqueurs. Easy to follow instructions, good background d info

[Aja Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

some really fun and interesting recipes-- especially the liqueurs and other infusions. lots to try!

[Corinnagoodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a very good read, interesting how many things you can keep on hand

[ASMR Cortercat · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great many ideas many non alcoholic

[Tina Sams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great ideas. I never follow recipes exactly, so I love a book that leads my imagination all over and into new turf.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful variety of drinks and techniques -- but little guidance as to where to get difficult-to-obtain ingredients or suggestions for how to use these unusual drinks.

[Carol Tietsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, I made notes for a time when the world isn't covered in snow, as it is now.