Cocktails: A Global History

Edible

by Joseph M. Carlin

Gimlet, negroni, manhattan, Long Island ice tea, flirtini, hurricane, screwdriver—cocktails have come a long way from their first incarnation in the seventeenth century, when rum punch was everyone’s go-to drink. Originally made of five ingredients, including a spirit, sugar, and spices, “cocktail” now refers to any drink made of liquor and a mixer. In this book, Joseph M. Carlin uncovers how many of our favorite cocktails were invented and describes how this most American of alcoholic beverages—but most international of drinks—came to influence society around the world.

 

Traveling back to the nineteenth century, Carlin explains that, though England and the American colonies were enjoying rum punch years earlier, the true cocktail was born in America in 1806. Soon after mechanically harvested ice became widely available, Americans were sipping martinis and mint juleps in bars, saloons, and taprooms, and it didn’t take long for these tasty concoctions to spill over into all corners of the globe. The result, Carlin reveals, was the birth of a number of cocktail spinoffs—cocktail parties, cocktail dresses, cocktail wieners, cocktail napkins, and the Molotov cocktail, to name just a few. Featuring many tempting recipes, A Global History is a book to peruse with a mimosa in the morning and a martini at night.

Genres: Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, History, Cocktails

135 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2012

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another book in the Reaktion Edible Series, this one is a major disappointment. Perhaps part of the problem is the celebration of a particular type of U.S. ideology. But the major concern is with regard to the structure and configuration of the argument and 'analysis.' Frequently through the chapters, cocktails are mentioned and their ingredients reviewed. This book lacks the social and cultural history and historiography that is present in the other books.

[Desiree Koh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank goodness Cocktails is only a book, because it's awfully light. Granted, The Edible Series is meant to be bite-sized nuggets covering the global history of staple food and drink, but an information hangover this is not. Carlin is a fun enough erstwhile libation historian and buff to leave you thirsting for more morsels, and the book is bar nuts-addictive from the invention of cocktails and growth in popularity and social standing to cultural relevance (if you need more specifics on the main spirits, you should consult series brethren Whiskey, Rum, Vodka and Gin).

That the book was published in 2012 indicates just how much more rabid the cocktail revival has continued to shake and stir the way we drink beyond America and Europe - my only grouse, as is often the case with this series, is the cursory treatment of trends and practices in Asia-Pacific and South America. The book jacket promises an exploration of cocktail culture inclusive of Bangkok and Singapore, where I live, but the former only shows up in a recipe for its eponymous Cooler and a couple of movie references. And the latter's cocktail scene will certainly need much more than a picture of Raffles Hotel's Long Bar and a few paragraphs on its signature Singapore Sling. Why not delve into how the tropical humidity naturally lends itself to cool concoctions? And that the world's top bartending talent is rapidly gravitating here to do what Dale DeGroff has set adrift in the US?

While the book is a Piña Colada on the grand scale of literary heft, you should pull out every jigger of knowledge served up by Carlin at your next cocktail party or to sling at fellow barflies. It took me barely more than an hour to finish it, but it was a happy one, and since I can't find the tip jar, consider my four stars a virtual tip of the hat. So, set them up Joe... make it one for my baby, and one more for the road.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a number of volumes in this series, and this is the first one I have been disappointed in. They are quick studies, but usually go beyond a cursory introduction. Not this one. If you have the slightest background in cocktails, there will be little new, or of interest, to you in this volume. He provides some background on how the word came about, but pretty much drops the history of the cocktail for most of the 19th Century! And what can you say about and author/book on cocktails that refers to Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville not once, but twice?
Pass - big disappointment. The way he throws quick mention of (at the time) current cocktail trends all together at the end makes you feel like you're reading a YA NF title on booze.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of Reaktion's Edible books. This one felt a little less focused than some of them, but overall still a fairly fun (if very, very light) read with some great pictures.