Michael Dietsch
Michael Dietsch is a barfly, boozehound, book hoarder, jazz fiend, and technographer. He lives with his wife, kids, and cats in the D.C. suburbs. When he's not out on the town, he's usually at home doing laundry and writing. He writes about cocktails for Serious Eats.
Savory and Sweet Shrubs: Tart Mixers for Delicious Cocktails and Mocktails
September, 2025
Michael Dietsch took the mixology community by storm with Shrubs, the definitive guide to making and using the vinegar-based, Colonial-era drink mixer. In this companion collection, he expands on the concoction's versatility by embracing the fresh flavors of herbs and spices. From mint, sage, nutmeg, and peppercorn to rose hip, vanilla, and green and black teas, readers will love experimenting with unique infusions like Cilantro Lime Jalape o, Passion Fruit Basil, and Guava Vanilla Honey. Dietsch provides recipes for 50 shrubs as well as dozens of cocktails, mocktails, and craft sodas that feature them. Readers will fall in love with refreshments like Gin Cocktail with Pomegranate, Grapefruit, and Ginger and Strawberry Habanero Spring Cocktail. Complete with full-color photography, Savory and Sweet Shrubs is a must-have addition to every bar cart and bookshelf.
Shrubs: An Old Fashioned Drink for Modern Times
A simple shrub is made from fruit, sugar, and . . . vinegar?
Raise your glass to a surprising new taste sensation for cocktails and sophisticated sodas: Shrubs. Not the kind that grow in the ground but a vintage drink mixer that will knock your socks off. “Mixologists across the country are reaching back through the centuries to reclaim vinegar’s more palatable past . . . embracing it as ‘the other acid,’ an alternative to the same-old-same-old lemons and limes,” said the New York Times. The history of shrubs, as revealed here, is as fascinating as the drinks are refreshing. These sharp and tangy infusions are simple to make and use, as you’ll discover with these recipes. Mix up some Red Currant Shrub for a Vermouth Cassis, or Apple Cinnamon Shrub to mix with seltzer, or develop your own with Michael Dietsch’s directions and step-by-step photographs.
“Imagine a fizzy, soda-like drink that is drier and so much more sophisticated than soda, what with the sugar and botanical ingredients. Shrubs! Amazing! Wonderful!!” ―Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist
Whiskey: A Spirited Story with 75 Classic and Original Cocktails
After decades of being seen as an old man's drink, whiskey is booming in popularity. Craft distilleries are popping up all over the United States, making whiskeys not just from corn, rye, and malted barley but also from grains such as quinoa, blue corn, and triticale. Cocktail lovers, moving away from sweet and fruity flavor profiles, have embraced the earthy, bitter, savory notes that come from the "brown" spirits. In this collection, Shrubs author Michael Dietsch reaches out to those cocktail drinkers with recipes both classic and original, in historical order.
He begins with colonial-era drinks such as Cherry Bounce and the Stone Fence, moving to early whiskey drinks like the Toddy and Julep, and then into the cocktail explosion of the Jerry Thomas era circa 1880s. This leads to the drinks of pre-Prohibition, Prohibition, and post-Repeal, and then to a section on the cocktail renaissance of the last 15 years.