Fruit Brandies (and other things)

[LindyCat]

Hi there. Another Chicago dweller for the forum!

My husband and I are fairly new to the world of cocktails, very pleased to have discovered the world beyond wine, and experimenting a lot with new cocktails. We have a few questions:

For recipes calling for fruit brandies, like apricot brandy or cherry brandy, are they asking for a cordial-like flavored brandy (how we've been making them) or an eau-de-vie?

We are currently making all our cocktails out of the Bartender's Bible, and a lovely coffee table book called Cocktails that someone gave us. There are so many other books out there...can someone recommend a few stand-outs?

Finally, as we start to experiment with making up our own drinks, are there any general guidelines or properties that help make sure our concoctions are not undrinkable wastes of fine gin?

Thanks!

[JAZ]

Generally speaking, when drinks call for fruit brandies, they're designed for the sweet kind. A recipe will usually call for an eau de vie if that's what's meant.

Books: I'm sure other will chime in here, but my first serious cocktail book was Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century by Paul Harrington, and it remains one of my favorites. It is, unfortunately, out of print, but you might be able to find a copy on Amazon. For classic drinks, you could try Dr. Cocktail (Ted Haigh)'s relatively new book, Vintage Spirits and Forgotton Cocktails (click here for an earlier thread on the book). I love Dave Wondrich's book, Esquire Drinks, because it makes me laugh out loud whenever I read it. Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology is a good one if you want to experiment: the entire middle section consists of charts of drinks by "family" so it's easy to see what substitutions are possible or desirable.

Or, you can always check out CocktailDB, a fabulous online resource from Dr. Cocktail and Martin Doudoroff.

[Splificator]

I love Dave Wondrich's book, Esquire Drinks, because it makes me laugh out loud whenever I read it.

Not at the drinks, I hope! Thanks, Jaz!

--DW

[LindyCat]

Thanks for the help! There seems to be a whole thread devoted to books now, so I'll just glom onto that.