Intoxicating: Ten drinks that shaped Australia

by Max Allen

The fiery burn of rebellion rum, a thirst-quenching gulp of ice-cold beer, the medicinal tang of restorative bitters… What did the drinks that shaped Australia first taste like?

In search of answers, award-winning writer Max Allen takes us on a personal journey through Australia’s colourful and complex drinking history, glass in hand.

We taste the fermented sap of the Tasmanian cider gum, enjoyed by Indigenous people long before European invasion, sip ‘claret’ and ‘sherry’ in the cool stone cellars of the country’s oldest wineries, sample 150-year-old champagne rescued from a shipwreck and help brew an iconic 1960s Australian lager. Allen also shares recipes for historic cocktails to try at home (Blow My Skull, anyone?), introduces many of the characters from Australia’s boozy history and offers a glimpse of how our drinking culture might evolve in the future.

Whatever your pleasure, Intoxicating illuminates the undeniable place alcohol has in Australia’s history.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2020

Reviews

[Hunter Marston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun, informative, and well-written book.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun and interesting read - I really enjoyed the focus on Aboriginal history with alcohol and the potential use of Indigenous ingredients in alcohol. However, I am neither a huge fan of alcohol nor non fiction so this really wasn’t lobbing to my forehand. I still enjoyed it AND read it in one day, which means the writing must have been quite good.

[John Blackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep dive into the sociology of drinking in Australia, its history from Pre colonial times right through to what might drinks look like in Australia in the future. History, society and booze it was always going to be a winner for me

[Declan Fry]

Let us imagine, for a moment, the difficulties that Max Allen must have felt, when the time came to lay down his pen and give this – his cheerfully effervescent and amiable history of drinking in Australia – a title. Much as he has done with alcohol over the course of his career, Allen must have experimented with a few options.

The First Step Is Admitting You Have a Problem: On the difficulties of summarising a country’s drinking history in 10 tipples, perhaps? Maybe even: Intoxicating: A sobering history of our national pastime.

Thankfully for us, Allen has managed just that, acquitting himself with enviable brio in the process (vanishingly rare is the subtitle that so reliably – so transparently – concedes its author’s intent before you’ve cracked the spine). Because this is very much a history, not only of alcohol, but our country.

Read full review: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/...

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part memoir, part history of Australian drinking, this is dotted with fascinating information such as how in an age without refrigeration, ice was imported from frozen lakes in the Northern Hemisphere to chill drinks (p95) and how Governor Bligh ran a competition to make the best "Peach Cyder" where the prize was a cow (p68).

I discovered this book when researching Eucalyptus Gunnii (Cider Gum), and the chapter about how indigenous Australians made a fermented drink called "Way-a-linah" from cider gum sap was my favourite, but the whole book is well worth reading.

[Campbell Mattinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic writing, fantastic reading, fantastic book.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating material, original and freshly written.

[Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts about indigenous drinks were interesting and the other chapters were better researched and more interesting than I thought they would be.

[Rebecca Boreham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, and fascinating tales of antipodean alcohol. The last 2 chapters lacked the same enthusiasm as the first 8.