Nonfiction pieces exploring perfume, flavor, botanicals, distillation, and much more, from a wide array of perspectives.
Category: Essays
Cooking and Cocktailing with Hydrosol: Rose Geranium Martini, Bay Laurel Marinade, Clary Sage Punch
When we were nineteen, my best friend and I backpacked through Europe from Germany to Greece, ending our epic adventure in Athens. In the final days before returning to the US, we found a bottle of rose–not rosé–wine and took it to the rooftop hostel where we drank with bats swooping over our heads. The dark floral richness, like theatrical curtains opening on my tongue, stuck in my imagination as a pallet-expanding experience that busted through the confinement of the …
The Thistles and Fairies of The Botanist Gin
I’ll admit upfront that I loved The Botanist before I ever tasted it. When my boyfriend Alabaster told me about a gin, which , in addition to nine traditional botanicals, features 22 others that grow wild on the Scottish island of Islay, I was immediately smitten. I asked him to nab the last bottle in the shop where he works and hide it till payday. Meanwhile, I would look into these botanicals… The Botanist Gin’s website is a rabbit hole …