The cherry, prunus cerasus — specifically, the variety marasca — is the only plant that appears in the Manhattan cocktail in an easily recognizable form. But as author Amy Stewart explains, the maraschino garnish is far from the only horticultural element of the cocktail. See below for the rest of the ingredients in a Manhattan.
The Plants That Created the World's Great Drinks
The next time you're sipping on a glass of something boozy, consider the plants behind your beverage. Some of them might spring immediately to mind: grapes in your wineglass, rye in your whiskey bottle, juniper in your gin and tonic. But what about sorghum and coriander? Cinchona and bitter orange?
An incredible diversity of grains, herbs and fruits goes into the world's alcoholic drinks, which means that for the botanically minded, a trip to the liquor store is a little different than it is for the rest of us. Amy Stewart explains what it's like in her new book, The Drunken Botanist. She once stopped by a liquor store with some fellow gardeners and got a little distracted, she writes:
"There wasn't a bottle in the store that we couldn't assign a genus and species to. Bourbon? Zea mays, an overgrown grass. Absinthe? Artemisia absinthium, a much-misunderstood Mediterranean herb. Polish vodka? Solanum tuberosum ... Suddenly we weren't in a liquor store anymore. We were in a fantastical greenhouse, the world's most exotic botanical garden, the sort of strange and overgrown conservatory we only encounter in our dreams."
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