Dryads: Spirits of the Trees

Spirits distilled from fermented tree sap are old, in some places older than whiskey or rum.  What they haven't had, until now, is a shared name, or a single book treating them as parts of one larger story.

The book is organized around palm, maple, and birch-based spirits, from arrack, distilled from coconut palm sap in Sri Lanka, to ogorogo, distilled from raffia palm sap in Nigeria, to acerum, distilled from maple sap in Quebec. A fourth section covers nascent efforts underway in Australia, where fermented, undistilled tree sap beverages were consumed by Indigenous people for centuries before European contact. Hoefling calls this emerging corner of the category spirits of the future.

Hoefling is a detail-obsessed enthusiast, and it shows. Alongside producer profiles and tasting notes, he includes an opinionated run of end notes covering everything from the origin of the word "arrack" to EU terminology regulations, about which he gets salty.

That passion and thoroughness is exactly what someone considering a spirits category they've likely never encountered will want: a guide willing to go deep rather than skim the surface. The book also includes a range of drink recipes, some traditional, others attributed to particular bartenders.