The Pain Killer, the Penicillin, the Doctor—some cocktail menus lean heavily on the idea of “self-medication.” But for millennia, alcohol was medicine. Weak beer was safer to drink than water, and eau de vie was distilled from any number of fruits to treat colic or a cold. Though the ancient Greeks wrote at length about the medical applications of wine, even earlier uses for fermented beers and beverages appear on Sumerian tablets, Egyptian papyri, and Vedic texts. Cocktail connoisseur Camper English, who has been covering the drinks industry for more than 15 years, turns his attention to this long and storied history in Doctors and Distillers, which traces modern mixology back to its therapeutic roots. Go beyond the episode:Camper English’s Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and CocktailsRead English’s series on four bitter botanicals: cinchona bark, rhubarb root, wormwood, and gentianEnglish’s blog Alcademics has a wealth of cocktail-related articles, including how to make your simple syrup last for more than six months and how to dehydrate liqueurs (aka his Solid Liquids Project)Ever had a drink with crystal-clear ice in it? Raise a glass to English, who discovered directional freezing in 2009 Camper English’s Preferred Gin & Tonic:Keep your gin and tonic in the refrigerator for the crispest medicinal cocktail: Start with a lime wheel at the bottom of a double Old-Fashioned glass and press down to express the citrus oil and a little juiceFill the glass with ice, then add 3 ounces of ginTop with 2 ounces of tonic water and gently stirResist the urge to add more garnishes! And for the less gin-inclined, the Chrysanthemum:Fill a mixing glass with iceAdd 2 ounces dry vermouth, 1 ounce Bénédictine, and 3 dashes of absinthe; stir until well-chilledStrain into a coupe glass and garnish with an orange twist Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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