Elixir's Tonics and Teas
Hollywood's trendy Elixir tonic bar expands their franchise on herbal refreshment withElixir's Tonics and Teas, a lustrous, full-color compendium of original recipes and Asian philosophy. Penned by Elixir's owners--Edgar Veytia and former Beverly Hills clothier Jeff Stein--and featuring stunning photographs by Andrew Song, this volume offers up dozens of restorative, calming, and healing tisanes, sodas, and cocktails (as well as soups, stocks, and a porridge), its pages liberally laced with quotations from Lao Tsu to Tennyson; Shakespeare'sOthelloto MGM'sThe Wizard of Oz.Indeed, the Tinseltown connection is often pretty blatant inElixir's, with respectful retellings of Eastern legends sharing space with "the best post-award-show-party antidote in town." But to dismissElixir's Tonics and Teasas anI Chingby way of Trader Vic's would be to ignore its instructional aspects. Appendices brim with advice on choosing and using herbs (the alphabetical glossary, including contraindications for each entry, is particularly valuable), and a list of online and mail-order herbalists and merchants provides a solid resource.Novices may want to first try a couple of recipes with fewer ingredients; herbal tinctures can be costly, and some entries call for four or five different ones (in addition to freshly juiced vegetables). The Chocolate Mint Relaxer contains chocolate milk, peppermint extract, and a dropper of kava kava; in their Sweet Memory Tea you'll find green tea, Stevia sweetener, and a dropper of gingko biloba. There's even a section on "Sex Tonics," featuring, appropriately enough, a concoction containingAvena sativa(wild oats). Handsome, informative, and glossy as a starlet's eight-by-ten headshot,Elixir's Tonics and Teas, like the subtitle says, comes packed with "invigorating tonics for the mind, body, and spirit."--Tony Mason