Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Cocktail Books: The Topic


beans

Recommended Posts

4 minutes ago, quiet1 said:

I've skimmed this thread (there is a lot of it) and it seems like a lot of books have been coming out so I figured I'd be best just asking - what is a good recipe book for a geek type new to cocktails? My friend is a bit of a foodie and now getting into cocktails also and I want to get him some supplies as a Christmas gift. I have Morganthaler's book on my list to look at in a store because it seems his style of geekery in the subject, but I thought some kind of reasonable reference recipe book would be helpful to have too. (I swear I had one bookmarked that I'd seen recommended, but now I can't find it.)

 

Bonus points if the book has enough recipes for syrups and things that can be used to experiment with making my friend's son (11 and also a bit of a foodie) fun non-alcoholic drinks too.

 

(I thought about the Canon book but that seems far too involved and I'd really just be giving it to him so I could borrow it. :D )

 

Imbibe!

 

  • Like 1

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@quiet1 I would recommend the Bartender's Choice app. It's pretty bare bones but it's super handy and has a ton of great recipes. I think it's a great starting point.

Next I would recommend the Death & Co book, which is very complete and has a large section on classics, and a ton of doable recipes. It's very beginner friendly and explains how a cocktail is structured, the different types of cocktail family, how to build a home bar with recommendations for brands/type of spirits to get, etc. It's a nice-looking book as well.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, quiet1 said:

what is a good recipe book for a geek type new to cocktails?

Dave Arnold's Liquid Intelligenceir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=039308903 has geek written all over it!

 

31 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Bonus points if the book has enough recipes for syrups and things that can be used to experiment with making my friend's son (11 and also a bit of a foodie) fun non-alcoholic drinks too.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler's The Bar Bookir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=145211384 spends quite a bit of time on juices, syrups, infusions, etc. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Dave Arnold's Liquid Intelligenceir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=039308903 has geek written all over it!

 

Jeffrey Morgenthaler's The Bar Bookir?t=egulletcom-20&l=am2&o=1&a=145211384 spends quite a bit of time on juices, syrups, infusions, etc. 

 

No, I was not the person who wrote what you quoted!

 

But for non-alcoholic drinks, Charles H. Baker Jr. has a bunch.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading Brad Thomas Parsons' Amaro at the moment.  Informative and well written.  But I must question:  is Breckenridge Bitters really made at "the highest distillery in the world", 9,600 feet?

 

At the moment I'm enjoying a generous glass of Singani, which by law must be made above 5250 feet.  Some of it much higher than that.  Inquiring minds want to know.

 

  • Like 1

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Looking ahead using Amazon's listings, I see a few books I'll be picking up in 2017:

Meehan's Bartender Manual (Meehan, October 10th)

Three-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon (Simonson, September 26th)

A Spot at the Bar: Welcome to the Everleigh: The Art of Good Drinking in Three Hundred Recipes (Madrusan and Young, March 7th)
 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Looks to me like what publishers would call a tipped-in erratum slip--added when an editing mistake (like a missing recipe) is discovered after the printing of the book's pages is complete.

Maybe the Bacardi marketing people had a little talk with the publishers before the book release...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, Craig E said:

Looks to me like what publishers would call a tipped-in erratum slip--added when an editing mistake (like a missing recipe) is discovered after the printing of the book's pages is complete.

Maybe the Bacardi marketing people had a little talk with the publishers before the book release...

Thanks. 

The cocktail underneath the bookmark,
Bacardi Special Cocktail*
1 teaspoon grenadine

1/3 Burrogh's Beefeater Gin 
2/3 Bacardi Rum
The Juice of half a lime

So Would all Savoy cocktailbooks from the 30ies be like this?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Danne said:

Thanks. 

The cocktail underneath the bookmark,
Bacardi Special Cocktail*
1 teaspoon grenadine

1/3 Burrogh's Beefeater Gin 
2/3 Bacardi Rum
The Juice of half a lime

So Would all Savoy cocktailbooks from the 30ies be like this?

 

Ah, I notice in the digitized 1930 version here that the Bacardi Cocktail is listed at the end of the book, in a section called Additional Cocktails which may have been late additions, but appear to have been printed on full pages in the edition. So now I'm thinking in your copy somebody has cut out the Bacardi cocktail and stuck it in where it belongs alphabetically. 

Does your edition have the "Additional Cocktails" on pages 282-283? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Danne said:

I was browsing thru my Savoy cocktail book and found this at the Bacardi Cocktail..
Does someone know why it looks like this?

 

20170420_192017.thumb.jpg.56d3b91ca20138cd9f2bfdf1bdba44c2.jpg

 

You realize that there is already an entire discussion about this book, right? ;)

It's a great source of info!

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Craig E said:

Ah, I notice in the digitized 1930 version here that the Bacardi Cocktail is listed at the end of the book, in a section called Additional Cocktails which may have been late additions, but appear to have been printed on full pages in the edition. So now I'm thinking in your copy somebody has cut out the Bacardi cocktail and stuck it in where it belongs alphabetically. 

Does your edition have the "Additional Cocktails" on pages 282-283? 

The recipe is stuck in the book, it's in the hard cover. I've tried to pull it out from the book but it's stuck alright. Don't want to use to much force with this old book.

Pages 282-286 is just blank, lined pages.
20170421_1122082.jpg

 

4 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

You realize that there is already an entire discussion about this book, right? ;)

It's a great source of info!

Thanks! :)

Edited by Danne (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
7 hours ago, Frederic said:

A little self-promotion, but I just put out the follow up to the 2012 Drink & Tell: A Boston Cocktail Book with Boston Cocktails: Drunk & Told! 850+ recipes, over a dozen essays on hospitality and drink trends, and bartender tributes.


Definitely gonna grab this one. I know it'll be a great book and it also allows me to give back a little in thanks for the wealth of drink recipes and information I've harvested from your blog.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, if you have the first one and complained that there was no index by ingredient, fear not: this one has _both_ books indexed by ingredient followed by bar/restaurant.

 

Plus, a philosophical treatise on the Daiquiri Time Out via an interview with the DTO founder, Andrew Deitz!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Looking to Amazon's 2018 publication list, I see a few books I'll probably pick up:

And A Bottle of Rum (Revised) - Wayne Curtis

Finding Mexcal - Ron Cooper and Chantal Martineau

Drink Like Ladies - Misty Kalkofen et al.

I'm Just Here for the Drinks - Sother Teague

Mixology & Mayhem - Muldoon and McGarry


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Booze and Vinyl by André Darlington and Tenaya Darlington is not strictly a cocktail book but a fun guide to pairing music and cocktails or as the book says, "how to host a boozy listening party." 

There are 70 albums, divided by mood with an A-side and B-side cocktail for each album, along with "liner notes" about the artist and album and party ideas.   There are classic cocktails like the Manhattan and Tuxedo that are paired with Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours while others are a bit different like the ouzo/Campari/grapefruit Santorini Sunset paired Blue by Joni Mitchell. 

The index is good - you can look up an artist, album title, cocktail name or individual cocktail ingredient and the photographs are very well done - lots of turntables and retro record players!

I like music and cocktails so expect I'll enjoy playing around with it and I think it would make a fun gift.  The back of the book has some brief sections on cocktail basics that provide should provide enough guidance that a cocktail novice could enjoy the book.

Edited by blue_dolphin
Edited to add comment on index (log)
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

A few more for on my list:

A Drinkable Feast (Philip Greene)

Cocktail Codex (Alex Day, Nick Fauchald, David Kaplan)

Drinking Distilled:  A User Manual (Jeffrey Morgenthaler)

Wild Mixology (Wood-ing, Valeria Margherita Mosca)

The Joy of Mixology, Revised and Updated Edition (Garry Regan)


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Looking forward through to 2021 (barring any pandemic delays):

 

Spirits of Latin America (Ivy Mix); May 25, 2020

Drink What You Want (John deBary); June 2, 2020

Unvarnished (Eric Alperin, Deborah Stoll); June 23, 2020

The New Craft of the Cocktail (Dale DeGroff); September 22, 2020

Drinks With Friends (Sother Teague, Dale DeGroff); April 13, 2021

The Japanese Art of the Cocktail (Masahiro Urushido, Michael Anstendig); June 1, 2021

Edited by J_Ozzy
author name correction (log)
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...

My current slate of 2021-2022 anticipated pickups:

 

Mezcal And Tequila Cocktails (Robert Simonson); April 2021

Cocktail Dive Bar: New Orlean's Twelve Mile Limit (T. Cole Newton); May 2021

The Cocktail Seminars (Brian Hoefling); May 2021

The New Kindred Spirits (Paul Pacult); May 2021

The Japanese Art of the Cocktail (Masahiro Urushido, Michael Anstendig); June 2021

The Big Book of Amaro (Matteo Zed); August 2021

The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Noah Rothbaum, Dave Wondrich); October 2021

Death & Co Welcome Home (Alex Day, Nick Fauchald et al.); November 2021

Paddy Drinks: The World of Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails (Jillian Vose, Muldoon & McGarry); February 2022

Drinks With Friends (Sother Teague, Dale DeGroff); August, 2022

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Recent and upcoming 2022 releases on my radar:

 

 

The Way of the Cocktail: Japanese Traditions, Techniques, and Recipes (Julia Momosé, Emma Janzen) released November 2021

The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Noah Rothbaum, Dave Wondrich); released November 2021

Death & Co Welcome Home (Alex Day, Nick Fauchald et al.); released November 2021

 

The Regency Book Of Drinks (Amy Finley, Niege Borges); December 2021

Paddy Drinks: The World of Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails (Jillian Vose, Muldoon & McGarry); February 2022

Drink Lightly (Natasha David); April 2022

Claridge’s – The Cocktail Book; April 2022

The Bartender's Manifesto (Toby Maloney, Emma Janzen)  May 2022

Doctors and Distillers (Camper English) May 2022

Drinks With Friends (Sother Teague, Dale DeGroff);  August 2022

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...