Doctors and Distillers

The intertwined histories of booze and medicine, from internationally-renowned cocktail expert Camper English.

For much of history, alcohol and medicine were interchangable, a fact you can see with a glance at your liquor cabinet. In Drink Your Medicine, cocktail expert Camper English explores the surprising origins and medicinal properties behind most of the drinks we now use for less clinical purposes. Gin is flavored with juniper berry, which was originally thought to ward off the bubonic plague. The word "vermouth" comes from the German word for wormwood, so named for its ability to rid the body of intestinal parasites. Campari, whose origins date to 1860, contains gentian (proven effective against dyspepsia), rhubarb root (used in traditional Chinese medicine as a laxative), and until recently was colored with cochineal insects once thought to cure depression.



Camper English is an award-winning cocktail expert, writer, and educator famous for, among other things, developing the freezing technique that produces perfectly clear ice. Now, he takes us on a journey through the inseparable histories of spirits and medicines, of doctors and bartenders, and of cocktails and cures.