“An absolutely exceptional magical resource that you’ll enjoy reading cover to cover! From teas and kombucha, to liquors and liqueurs, and even a few delectable bites, author Amy Blackthorn’s zesty, exciting writing and impressive knowledge will inspire your kitchen witchery.” -- Julia Halina Hadas, author of WitchCraft 70 Seasonal Drinks Infused with Magic and Ritual
Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews has something for everyone. This book outlines the magical uses for many well-loved, traditional beverage ingredients found throughout time. Readers learn what potions are, what purpose they serve, and how to create their own brews, bitters, vermouth, and kombucha, as well as how to blend the perfect tea for their magical desires. •Getting to Know Your Spirits •Adding Magic to Your Daily Activities •In the Kitchen •In the Bar •Fruit Feeling Frisky (Making Sodas and Syrups) •Herbal Beers, Mead, and Cider •What to Do with Leftover Potions?
This review was originally published on The Magical Buffet's website on 11/30/2020.
If you’ve learned one thing by now, it’s that Becky likey excuses to eat and drink. Fortunately for me, 2020 has delivered ample excuses and we’ll be talking about the latest one today, “Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews: Herbal Potions, Magical Teas, and Spirited Libations” by Amy Blackthorn.
You may remember that not too long ago I reviewed “Witchcraft Cocktails: 70 Seasonal Drinks Infused with Magic & Ritual” by Julia Halina Hadas. It would be silly to not acknowledge there are many similarities between that book and “Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews”. Both provide ample information to make you a competent home bartender, and both provide enough witchy info to effectively add magic to your drinks.
Where the two books diverge in a big way is what drinks are offered. Where “Witchcraft Cocktails” is strictly cocktails, “Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews” focuses on almost anything you can drink. Obviously, there is booze involved with many of the recipes, but Blackthorn goes out of her way to provide non-alcoholic options as well. You’ll find cocktails, mocktails, teas, kombucha (which is low enough in alcoholic content that I consider it non-alcoholic), and more!
Of course, when it comes to me, I opted to make a little booze-based magic! I tried my hand at the Bishop, a recipe that goes back to the 18th century and generates success and prosperity. It calls for red wine, which I happened to have a bottle kicking around in need of using up. Along with the wine is orange juice, lemon juice, and simple syrup.
It is delicious! I’ve made it many times since my first attempt. It is sweet and smooth. I highly recommend it!
Amy Blackthorn’s “Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews” is wonderful addition to the expanding category for food and beverage-based magic. As far as I’m concerned, it is a must own.
As a child, I read Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette, thinking that somehow it would prepare me for civilized life out in the world. It didn’t, but it did prepare me to appreciate the beautiful and richly concise content in Amy Blackthorns Blackthorns Botanical Brews. Once, the “social graces” were about an awareness of the self intended to guide us in society; but Amy Blackthorn invites us to consider that once, there was a magic to hospitality. That what we imbibe and what we share can as thoughtful and magical today as those ancient exchanges of bread and salt. Vanderbilt might’ve been the Amy to consult about the social graces, but when it comes to the mystical graces? Amy Blackthorns ‘Charm’ school has the final word.
- Mortellus, Author of Do I Have To Wear Black? Rituals, Customs & Funerary Etiquette for Modern Pagans
The first time I visited my favorite local herb shop (The Herb Bar!), I saw Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews on their small shelf of books and the aesthetic 100% appealed to me. Then I flipped through the pages and knew it had to be mine.
This book is the kind of comprehensive guide to delightful things that I LOVE. Like most cocktail recipe books, it starts with a guide to the tools and common ingredients you will be using for your concoctions. And like most magical books, it starts with an introduction to making your own magic, common tools, and approaches. Now, Blackthorn has done a perfect job of combining these two things into a magical guidebook for cocktails! You get a list of tools, but they are the magical versions that you will be using for your magical cocktails.
I am thoroughly impressed by the amount of research that went into the creation of this book and the rich depth provided within. Each section (whether it’s about absinthe, apples, syrups, or sweets) provides a list of correspondences, a very descriptive guide to magical uses and meanings, as well as at least one recipe! And one of my favorite parts? Every single recipe includes the meaning/intention for the ingredients! This is so helpful for me, when I’m following a recipe to make a success cocktail or whatever, and I can be reminded about the reason I am putting each ingredient into the shaker. I feel like this is something missing from SO many recipe books and I very much appreciate it here.
Needless to say, Blackthorn’s Botanical Brews is now a mainstay on my recipe shelf. It’s a reference and guidebook I will be using for the rest of my life!
noioso, inutile, però con molte ricette da bar. Nulla a che fare con quello di cui dovrebbe parlare, scusa per insulso trauma dumping, che almeno fosse scritto bene ! invece, nemmeno quello
I was initially planning to get the English version of the book, even though prices on Book Depository have recently gotten way less friendly for my student budget. I found out, however, that a Polish translation is going to be available soon, so I ended up getting that version instead.
When I got my hands on the book I was expecting another Wicca-centric cookbook with lots of moralizing on the threefold law and whatnot. After browsing the book, however, I realized my expectations had been unfounded. Many of the explanations in the book sounded perfectly reasonable to me and were acknowledging the difference in experiences between practitioners.
I don't drink alcohol almost at all but there were still plenty of alcohol-free spells and recipes for me to use. Some of them allow a choice between using alcohol or the ingredients of alcohol, like hops or potato, instead. The choice of recipes varies from tea blends to switchels to food recipes.
What do I like about the book? -The first and last chapters which mention things to consider. The book doesn't preach focus on one type of practise which makes it more applicable and useful to different practitioners. I was also glad to find out I'm not the only one who doesn't equate "natural" to being the only good and safe thing to use.
-Warnings about side effects of herbs. Do I need to say more?
-The Polish translation has its units converted to the metric system. Plenty of translated books use the Fahrenheit scale for temperatures, making them rather unwieldy for the European reader to use mid-cooking.
-Inclusion of alcohol free recipes and spells. While the book does somewhat focus on alcoholic beverages, the author gives many options without them, from teas and switchels to food oriented recipes that use leftovers of ingredients used in other recipes in the book.
-Pictures. I hardly ever pay attention to pictures and graphics that don't serve any other purpose but to fill up space. This book doesn't have them on every other page and when it does, they show relevant and interesting ways to serve the drinks from the recipes.
-Bibliography includes non-occult literature for a more historical context of brewing of alcoholic beverages.
What I didn't like so much about the book? -I don't consider this to be a big issue, but with some recipes one has to tweak them for personal taste. For example, when following the recipe for the summertime switchel to the letter, I found the drink was too vinegary for me. Might be a matter of getting used to it though.
-I am not sure if my impression is wrong, but author seems to assume pop culture magic is the same as expecting spells to work like in Charmed. As a pop culture practitioner myself I can assure that most of us know the difference between Hollywood style effects and how magic works. I didn't take it as an insult though, just felt it needs to be clarified.
In conclusion, I enjoyed this book much more than I anticipated. It contains plenty of alcohol-based drinks but people who don't drink those can still find something useful in it. Some recipes might need tweaking if they don't match one's personal tastes. It certainly became my new food and drink magic related book to occasionally return to, replacing Michael Furie's “Supermarket Magic” which has been my go-to book on such topics for quite a few years out of sentiment.
I received Blackthorn's Botanical Brews as a gift from Weiser, and I am so grateful that they were kind enough to send this book to me! This is honestly such a delightful read that I could gush about it for hours and hours. Definitely one of my favorite books of 2020, and perhaps one of my favorite occult-oriented books now on my shelf.
Blackthorn has such a lovely and enchanting voice, with a tone that isn't intimidating or pretentious at all. It feels as though she's right there with you to discuss and walk you through her experience brewing up all kinds of potions in the kitchen. That is to say, I blew through this book. I wasn't able to read every single recipe, because wow... there are so many. She goes into so much detail, that I imagine I'll still be picking through and learning from this book years from now, and that's precisely how dense I like books like these. The recipes that I have tried turned out marvelous!
In addition, she does an excellent job of very quickly disposing certain harmful presumptions about spellwork (such as making it very clear that no one is making a potion from Charmed any time soon). She also addresses concerns surrounding ethics, hypocrisy, and spiritual bypassing in the witchcraft world (especially in regards to the way black individuals in our community are often treated and consequently dismissed). I love that she took the time to include this in her book precisely where it felt appropriate to do so, instead of ignoring those conversations. She made her points concisely, and it makes me really happy to think that a younger witch will read her swift debunking of "light vs. dark magick" and how she addresses western civilizations dumbing down culturally sensitive topics such as karma, and be inspired to do more research on these ongoing discussions.
Basically, this book is awesome. There is plenty of basics in here for beginners that I think it's a safe enough book for novices, and I also believe that the rest of the content past those first couple chapters is so rich, creative, and interesting that even advanced practitioners could benefit from having this book nearby for reference or inspiration. 10/10, highly recommend.
The title of this book is deceiving. Sure, it has some "potions", teas & libations, but many are just basic recipes. Don't misunderstand my thoughts. I believe in spirits and spirituality. But often the author gives a recipe & then tells the reader to do things that a good therapist might suggest. Thus, I don't think it's the beverage, but the latter that would help.
The book starts with a review of meditation. What it is, how to do it and the benefits it may provide. But wait, that wasn't listed in the title and isn't any form of potion, tea or libation.
The beginning was long. Somewhere around chapter 3 potions & beverages were finally mentioned.
I liked a couple things, and if you want to learn more about absinthe, this might be a good book for you. But some things made me laugh out loud. For instance, would you believe you can have prosperity & abundance? Just use a jar or ceramic bowl with lid & "anoint" it with bourbon. Then put money in it every day & at the end of the the year, you'll have money! Wow, just by pouring some bourbon in a jar? No, by saving money. Just skip the bourbon & you'll have the same thing. Another laugh out loud came when the author suggest making a gingerbread person out of paper & write the name & birthday (or other specific detail) about a person you want to banish out of your life. Then rub a piece of citrus on the paper? Or was it the one about putting the gingerbread person in a jar and pour honey on it? Don't forget to put court documents in the jar (in case it's a divorced spouse you want to banish). LOL I just can't......
My choice - any day! - pour a glass of anything I want that day (beer, wine, etc.) and think positive thoughts and just don't hang out with people you don't like. It's not always easy, but a specific beverage isn't what you need, just the courage and boldness. Don't forget to call on your spirit guides to assist.
*I didn't even get halfway, but couldn't handle any more. I don't recommend. There are other books with much better information about spiritual potions, and beverages.
If you are a cocktail enthusiast and knowledgeable about herbalism, you will "get" this book. It's a really interesting compendium of cocktails, and their uses in the "hedge witch" tradition. The ingredients are broken down in the various spirits and flavors, and explored in terms of their uses both recreationally, and within the scope of herbal healing.
Ms. Blackthorn includes recipes for making everything from homemade bitters to kombucha, and everything in between.
The sections on using potions are fun to read, but again, unless you are already familiar with these practices, much of it will cause a bald spot from scratching your head.
Overall, it's an engaging look at cocktails from a far different perspective than that of a bartender, or cocktail guru. I'd definitely recommend it to my witchy friends!
Blackthorn deftly blends recipes, magic, and practical know-how into each chapter. The tone is thoughtful and personable. She offers variety brews of cocktails, teas, tonics, shrubs, oh and a couple deserts. If you enjoy the kitchen but don't infuse your practice into it, this definitely can help bridge that gap. If you fancy yourself a little kitchen witch of sorts, it will offer her perspective and new things to work into your rotation.
I tried quite a few recipes. I found the shrub to be the most surprising bevvy so far. I ended up expanding it to include guava from me tree. And it turned out well! So I can attest that not only does she give you a recipe but the tools to go beyond her suggestions.
Experience the wonder of creating your own magic potions with items you likely have around your house plus a little intention. This witchy book explores ingredients, discusses how to use various botanicals and spirits in spells of nearly every sort, and offers a collection of recipes to make cocktails and mixers.
I don't think this book is meant to be read straight through from cover to cover, but the text is dense enough that it's hard to find what you're looking for unless you've already read the whole thing. Now that I have read it, I can easily go back for reference. This book has both beginner-friendly recipes and more tricky spells. I was hoping for a few more simple beverage mixes rather than all these ways of putting alcohol on the floor, but I'll take it.
If you want a book that's is written in such a personable voice it's like you're seeking advice from an old friend, then look no further. Amy really breaks everything down for beginning and advanced practioners alike. The section on Rooibos tea was of particular interest to me as I've been leafing through my other herbal books for the potential uses of this tea and had come up empty handed until now. If I am to be honest the whole section on Absinthe was really cool as well as I've always had a fascination with it. She even broke down some concepts that others that have been practicing longer than me seemed to be confused on. Overall I can't wait to use some of these recipes and will keep it on my kitchen bookshelf to keep it close at hand!
This book was well written and researched, you could tell that the author really knew what she was talking about. They recipes were fun, inspiring and easy to follow. I have put this book in my kitchen because it's my intention to use it continually because of the quality of information it contained. The only thing that could improve on it would be pictures of the drinks presented in the book. I'm looking forward to being able to gather with my friends again (after covid) and treat them to some of these magical drinks.
Thank you @weiserbooks for the giveaway win! I entered thinking that BLACKTHORN’S BOTANICAL BREWS was a book about herbal teas and remedies. And it is a bit, along with alcoholic drinks, but it’s steeped in magic, potions and intentions which isn’t my cup of tea (so to speak). I may still use this to grab a drink recipe occasionally! Swipe to see the full synopsis.
I really love this resource! Blackthorn breaks down ingredients, their magical properties, and has a lot of really cool ideas on how to incorporate them into your life. Definitely one I'd love to have a physical copy of.
This one focuses on alcoholic drinks, but there are some sober substitutions.
This was a charming book with plenty of interesting brew ideas! This book is more of a cookbook than an herbalism book which is why I love it so much. It gives great research tips into how to pick herbs for your goals, how to treat magic, and avoids appropriated language! If you are interested in potion work check this book out!
Great resource and perfect for more than just beverages. Amy has a lovely section on absinthe and another on teas that were a special favorite. There are so many recipes! This book is a great reminder that as magical people, we should not be dividing our magickal life from a mundane one.
I would highly reccomend this to everyone, witch or not. The recipes are amazing. Full of useful information I haven't read in other books of similar nature.
Very niche read and my type of book. As a former bartender this is a perfect way to incorporate my craft. There sections that I didn't quite care for but overall the book was great!