I enjoyed this podcast by Intoxicating History on Johnny Walker, the whiskey that has conquered the world! The episode starts in Lebanon, where, like many other places in the world, Johnny Walker is like a currency...

The Central Asian poet Fuzuli (died 1556) wrote “Hashish and Wine”. The poem is a face-off between Cannabis and Wine. The poem also has the earliest mentions of distilled liquor (“Araq”) in any Turkic language. Cheers 🥂

Advertising for Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky in the newspaper "Palestine" (1924). The advertisement extolls the whisky's medical benefits. It is prescribed if you have the cold, the flu, a headache etc.

Advertisement for Dewar's whisky in the Arabic newspaper "Palestine" from December 1934. For the winter holidays, what better drink than Dewar's: "the king of whiskys and the whisky of kings".

New Yorkers drinking 'araq and smoking the narghiles in 1899 ! The restaurant where this photo was taken was located on Washington Street (Manhattan). Thank you Grok for animating this image from a New York Times article (August 20, 1899).

The Florentine Filippo Argenti wrote the "Rule of Speaking Turkish" in 1533. It includes one of the earliest mentions of a distilled liquor 🥃 in Turkey: "racchi" (i.e. "raki", the modern name of Turkey's national liquor). 'araq (Arabic) --> 'araqi --> raki. Cheers 🥂

Alcohol distillation spread VERY slowly in Europe since its beginning in the 13th century. Historians seem to have over-estimated the speed of diffusion. This map is my approximation of where alcohol distillation was known by the year 1400 (100+ years later).

Alcoholic difference between "burning" and "burned": When alcohol distillation was first discovered, distilled wine was called "burning water" --> gave our modern "Aguardiente" (Spanish). Later on, the distilled beverage got called "burned-wine" --> gave our modern "brandy".

My recent non-alcoholic reading: "All That's Left to You" by Ghassan Kanafani (died 1972). This beautifully sad novella is set in Gaza and captures the disjointed lives of two Palestinian refugees from Jaffa. Two other key protagonists are the desert and a wall-mounted clock.

The first to start making "brandy" are probably the Uyghurs in China. This Uyghur document from around 1331 mentions "bor araki" (distilled grape-wine). Around the same time apothecaries in Europe were producing distilled wine in medicinal quantities, but no "brandy". Cheers 🥂