Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century

by Paul Harrington, Laura Morehead

The expert mixologist on Wired magazine's "Cocktail" Internet site pours his wit and wisdom into an illustrated book of three hundred recipes for traditional and contemporary cocktails, with complementary information. 20,000 first printing.

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

242 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Pete Danko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not drink cocktails. This prohibition is not born of a disdain for cocktails. Rather, I fear them. Wine is my drink and I drink enough of it. I do not need to add tasty high-octane concoctions to the repertoire. But the other day I had a beer (a beer every once in a while is OK) and a bite with an old friend and colleague, and she mentioned Laura Moorhead, with whom we had both worked during the earlyish days of what became known as the Dotcom Revolution. This passing mention reminded me of the greatness that was HotWired's Cocktail feature, which Laura co-wrote, as she did this book, and made me want to have the book. A couple of reviewers, offering no citations, have judged the book's tone to be "wordy," "snobbish" and "arrogant." Is it passages such as the following that draw the ire? "Two parts strong, one part sweet, and one part sour: These are the golden proportions of the classic cocktail, the Pythagorean formula of bibulous bliss. If you make the strong parts brandy, the sweet part Cointreau, and the sour part fresh-squeezed lemon, shake it all vigorously over ice, and serve it up with a twist, be prepared to be transported back to the days before vodka arrived on the scene and ruined almost everything. And if you can make a brilliant Sidecar, you can make many a classic cocktail." Or perhaps this, about the Clover Club, an underwhelming drink perhaps named for an organization that might or might not have existed at the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia, a drink whose "luck ran out about 50 years ago"? "We suspect that one evening, long ago, a few affiliates of the group offhandedly asked a bartender at the Bellevue to mix something new, and 'Clover Club' seemed to be a good enough name for a simple enough drink. Or perhaps the bartender decided this perfectly prosaic drink didn't quite merit the flights of the picky or imaginative, and certainly not its creator's name." Me, I love this stuff. It's fun, it's definitive, it's opinionated - heavens, if a book about drinks can't be those things, what can? In any case, I will now do my best to avoid actually testing the recipes.

[Nelson Minar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on classic American cocktails. This was one of the first books to elevate cocktail making out of the depths of Kahlua Mudslides and Rum and Coke to a respect for the classic balanced cocktail. The book is basically an edited collection of the HotWired CocktailTime website from 1994-99. That site is offline but someone placed a full site mirror online (Feb 2013).

The book is often outrageously expensive online because it's out of print and relatively rare. It's a good book but it's not worth $50+! Sometimes you can find copies for under $30, depending on the whims of the pricing robots.

[Puhnner · Rating 5 out of 5]

If ever a book needing an updated edition, this is one.

While I do not consider this a 'Bible' - certainly the Difford's Guide for Discerning Drinkers, is THAT. This book is more of a 'condensed Bible' than the 'King James'.

The clearly written and organized sections take you step by step through Definitions, Techniques, Spirits, Bar Setup, Detailed (and amusingly Snarky) History and the Recipes of 120 odd Cocktails, another 150 or so Cocktail Recipes, a Glossary, and finally, a Bibliography.

If you want one Cocktail Book that could see you through years of Cocktail making (and riffing to discover your own new and or variations on a Cocktail) - and did not want to splurge on Difford's, 'Cocktails' should suit you just fine.

A couple of nigglings, but only due to the book's vintage and short length, many new Cocktail Classics, such as the 'Paper Plane', are missing as are some rediscovered Cocktails, such as the 'Last Word'. While the included recipe version for the 'Aviation' is correct, it misses the key ingredient, Creme de Violette (notoriously hard to come by during this book's writing) - the ingredient that makes an 'Aviation' an 'Aviation' - the muted Lavender hue. Hence, my view that this Book needs a new AND expanded edition.

Simply, a superb Book!

For a 2 Book Cocktails Bible - add Sasha Petraske's 'Regarding Cocktails' for new Classics.

[Pirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of articles written for “Wired” magazine. And excellent overview of of some of the most iconic American mixed drinks, and the stories behind them.

This book very much led me down the path to being a professional bartender.

[Howard Beal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it was nice to see some classic drinks from the past come alive. My fav drink was the lemon drop.