Artisan Spirit: Spring 2013

Page 41

The Golden Age of Spirits

By David S. Mayne

Introduction

Near extinction

Golden Age of Spirits we need to take

Less than a hundred years ago

a trip in the way back machine and

including all future generations would

got involved with alcohol in the first

and some history.

again. They created a constitutional

we were hunter-gatherers. I have

at Wildwood in Portland, Oregon.

alcoholic beverages would be forever

tribes found some type of fermenting

Csanky does a special thing with gin

my drink and glanced across the bar

properties. There are many cases in

a drink of his choice. He returned

cocktails. How historically ironic, I

We live in the greatest time in the

history of the world — the golden age

America

explain why as I offer an anecdote

never be able to enjoy a legal drink

of distilled spirits and cocktails. I’ll

Recently, I enjoyed Happy Hour

Bartender

par

excellence

Ryan

decided

that

everyone

amendment to insure that drinking banned. I thought of this as I sipped

see the big picture of how humans

place. For most of human history

no doubt that at some point various

fruit and discovered its mind altering

at a group of women enjoying their

nature of animals doing just that.

with a Gin & Tonic. Ah the Gin &

thought, considering in large degree

years ago when humans made a

Empire during the first ugly phase

Prohibition in the first place.

permanent agricultural settlements

contraire Ryan’s Gin & Tonic was

the asteroid that wiped out the

took off.

on Earth 65 million years ago. Only

evolutionary significant — surplus

cocktails so I asked him to make me

Tonic, the drink that helped save an

it was women who helped bring about

But it wasn’t until about 11,000

dramatic shift into a new lifestyle —

like

that our booze drinking history really

one of the best cocktails I’ve ever

dinosaurs and nearly killed off all life

With agriculture you get something

made my taste buds swim in ecstasy.

a small handful of distillers survived

of globalization. Boring you say, au

had with a rich flavor spectrum that It tasted so good it wasn’t fair.

Perhaps it was because Ryan

Csanky distills the Aria Gin himself. He also makes the tonic water. This

was no bathtub gin and tonic. It

made me appreciate the phenomenal

level of artisanship now available to

the spirits drinker and it all almost

didn’t happen.

Prohibition

was

kind

of

Prohibition and it set the craft back for decades.

food

and

that

leads

to

other

important things — a division of

labor to perpetuate that surplus, a

government to manage that labor,

The beginning of booze

plus professional armies to protect

that surplus from outsiders who

want to steal it. Best of all, surplus

But I am getting ahead of myself

food created leisure time. Time to be

understand why we are living in The

that surplus fruit and grain into beer

historically

speaking.

To

truly

creative and figure out how to turn

and wine.

www.ArtisanSpiritmag.com 41


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