The Essential Cocktail Book: A Complete Guide to Modern Drinks with 150 Recipes

Copyright © 2017 by Ten Speed Press

Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Kaye Blegvad

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

Hardcover ISBN 9780399579318

Ebook ISBN 9780399579325

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RECIPE LIST

INTRODUCTION

BAR ESSENTIALS

The Cocktail Family Tree

Ingredients

Techniques

Tools

Glassware

Garnishes

CLASSIC RECIPES

MODERN RECIPES

SYRUPS

INDEX

CLASSIC RECIPES

stirred

Adonis

Bamboo

Bijou

Boulevardier

Brooklyn

De La Louisiane

Gibson

Improved Whiskey Cocktail

Manhattan

Martinez

Martini

Negroni

Old Pal

Old-Fashioned

Remember the Maine

Rob Roy

Sazerac

Ti’ Punch

Tuxedo

Vesper

Vieux Carré

shaken

Absinthe Frappé

Airmail

Aviation

Bee’s Knees

Blood and Sand

Bloody Mary

Brown Derby

Clover Club

Corpse Reviver No. 2

Daiquiri

Florodora

French 75

Garibaldi

Gimlet

Gin Daisy (Old and New)

Gin Fizz

Gin Sour

Hemingway Daiquiri

Jungle Bird

Last Word

Mai Tai

Margarita

Mexican Firing Squad

Millionaire Cocktail

New York Sour

Painkiller

Paloma

Pegu Club

Pisco Sour

Planter’s Punch

Ramos Gin Fizz

Sherry Cobbler

Sherry Flip

Sidecar

Singapore Sling

Sloe Gin Fizz

Southside

Tom Collins

Whiskey Sour

Zombie

built

Americano

Aperol Spritz

Bicicletta

Black Velvet

Caipirinha

Champagne Cocktail

Dark ’n’ Stormy

Death in the Afternoon

Gin and Tonic

Gin Rickey

Michelada

Mint Julep

Mojito

Moscow Mule

Negroni Sbagliato

Pimm’s Cup

Queen’s Park Swizzle

Stone Fence

Whiskey Smash

frozen

Piña Colada

large format

Charles Dickens’s Punch

Daniel Webster’s Punch

Philadelphia Fish House Punch

Scorpion Bowl

MODERN RECIPES

stirred

Archangel

Benton’s Old-Fashioned

Boo Radley

Fitty-Fitty Martini

Flatiron Martini

Gin Blossom

Latin Trifecta

Natoma St.

Oaxaca Old-Fashioned

Old Hickory

Oxford Comma

Red Hook

Revolver

Rhythm and Soul

Sakura Martini

Tokyo Drift

Trident

White Negroni

shaken

Angostura Colada

Barber of Seville

Bitter Intentions

Bitter Mai Tai

Bitter Tom

Bramble

Chartreuse Swizzle

Cosmopolitan

Filibuster

Flannel Shirt

Heart-Shaped Box

Italian Buck

Joggling Board

Kentucky Buck

La Bomba Daiquiri

Lefty’s Fizz

Long Island Bar Gimlet

Mott and Mulberry

Mountain Man

Paper Plane

Penicillin

Pompelmo Sour

Poppa’s Pride

Rome with a View

Second Serve

Weathered Axe

White Russian

built

American Trilogy

Americano Perfecto

Campari Radler

Gin and Juice

Glasgow Mule

Go-To

Hop Over

Mexican Tricycle

Padang Swizzle

Royal Pimm’s Cup

Suppressor #1

White Negroni Sbagliato

frozen

Brancolada

Frozen Negroni

Piña Verde

Show Me State

large format

Dorothy’s Delight

Hibiscus Punch Royale

Parish Hall Punch

INTRODUCTION

Over the course of the past three hundred years of drinking history, since the first punch was made, a solid stable of classic cocktails has emerged. These tried-and-true recipes have endured for their distinctive personalities and winning flavors, but they’re also respected for having reliable templates. New York City bartender Sam Ross has said that classics are the formulas of balance, which is why many of the new drinks seen on bar menus these days have sprung from this old guard: their formulas work. And, thanks to an ever-growing contingent of devoted and creative bartenders, not to mention the outright explosion of craft spirits into the marketplace over the past fifteen years, it is now possible to get a well-made drink in just about any city in the country.

But among the plethora of wittily named drinks made with unlikely combinations of unheard-of ingredients and house-made syrups that has resulted from this renaissance, a conundrum has arisen: which of these drinks are worth keeping around? The best of these modern interpretations are thoughtful revisions of the classics that point to the creativity that can arise from knowing the standards backward and forward. The greatest bartenders will understand a cocktail’s personality, history, and intention—not to mention the ingredient ratio that informs it.

In these pages, you’ll find 150 recipes—the classics are all here, from the Gimlet to the Old-Fashioned, alongside the best examples of riffs on them, sourced from some of the greatest bartenders of our time. Though there are successful blueprints, you’ll notice through these variations that there are no hard-and-fast rules. The truth is, drinks are made to be tinkered with. At the most basic level, the classic recipes are composed of modular building blocks: spirit, perhaps citrus, a little sugar, a dash of bitters. All this means that a drink originally based in whiskey can be completely transformed when made with a core of applejack as long as the rest of the cocktail is appropriately adjusted to remain balanced.

What becomes apparent when looking at these originals and their descendants together are distinct branches of the cocktail family tree that give bartenders a solid jumping-off point for adding their own leaves. As you shake and stir your way through this book, getting the classics down and investigating this selection of outstanding modern updates, hopefully you’ll feel moved to improvise based on whatever is in your liquor cabinet. These pages will provide you with the tools—and the permission—to ruminate on the pleasures found in using pineapple rum instead of the usual white to make a daiquiri, tossing a few fresh raspberries into a bramble in the peak of summer, using expensive Japanese whisky in an old-fashioned, or even adding dry cider to your gin and tonic.

NO MATTER HOW FAR OUTSIDE the box bartenders go, most drinks are informed by one of the classic templates that makes up each distinct branch of the cocktail family tree. Here’s a guide to basic drink categories to springboard from:

PUNCH

The predecessor to most drinks that we know today, large-format drinks were popularized in the eighteenth century, way before their single-serve counterparts. Classic punches rely on a base of five key ingredients: spirit, sugar, water, spice, and citrus.

SOUR

A direct descendant of punch, the classic sour is born from a base spirit (bartender’s choice), citrus, sugar, and water, shaken and served in a small glass without ice. Some classic sours include the infamous Whiskey Sour (this page), the Daiquiri (this page), and the frothy, egg white–fortified Pisco Sour (this page).

FIZZ

Essentially a sour (spirit, citrus, sugar) that’s shaken and topped off with seltzer or soda water, a fizz is served in a tall glass without ice. Gin is the traditional fizz base, but any spirit will work in this formula. Some of the most well-known fizzes, like the Ramos Gin Fizz (this page), are made with an egg white, which gives the drink an ethereal, foamy head.

COLLINS

A collins is a longer (that is, bigger) fizz that’s built (meaning that it’s made in the glass it’s served in) over ice, and topped off with soda water. The most well-known drink in this family is the Tom Collins (this page), but other classics, like the Florodora (this page) deserve memorizing, too.

COCKTAIL

When the word cocktail first came into use (most likely in the early 1800s), it referred to a drink made with spirit, sugar, bitters, and water. Though over time the word has been assigned to every sort of mixed drink, the original definition refers to a family of drinks that includes the Manhattan (this page), Old-Fashioned (this page), Martini (this page), etc.

FLIP

This is one of the oldest families of cocktails. The term appears to have been used as long ago as the late 1600s, describing a combo of beer, rum, and sugar cooked over high heat. By the nineteenth century, the flip had lightened up a bit, made with a spirit or fortified wine and shaken with sugar and an egg, then topped with grated nutmeg. The Sherry Flip (this page) is a longstanding and excellent example of this family.

SPARKLING

The sparkling category of cocktails has several branches. First, there’s the Champagne Cocktail (this page) and its variations, followed quickly by a class of royales, which simply refer to drinks that are topped with, rather than based on, Champagne or sparkling wine. With origins as an aperitivo, or pre-dinner drink, in northern Italy in the early 1900s, a spritz calls for a bitter liqueur, sparkling wine, and sparkling water all served over ice. This easily transformed template has seen hundreds of iterations, but the best known is the Aperol Spritz (this page).

JULEP

Even though the julep is notoriously associated with the Kentucky Derby, the old-school Southern recipe of spirit, sugar, and mint served over crushed ice actually predates the race by nearly a hundred years. The exact origins and recipe have no doubt inspired countless dissertations, but, in short, the julep most likely originated in Virginia in the late 1700s, when it was considered an aristocratic drink. Bourbon became the preferred spirit only after the Civil War, when the South was impoverished and, thanks to phylloxera, brandy had all but disappeared.

COBBLER

Dating to the late 1800s, the cobbler is another punch descendent. Its template calls for a combination of a spirit, sugar, crushed ice, and fruit, served with a straw. The most famous member of this family is the Sherry Cobbler (this page), which has seen a real renaissance with the recently revived interest in sherry. The cobbler is easy to riff on and adaptable to the seasonal fruit at hand. High summer might call for raspberries muddled with lemon, while fall is for cranberries and orange.

TIKI

Originated in 1930s LA by bar owner Donn Beach (a.k.a Don the Beachcomber), tiki cocktails are characterized by their booziness, plethora of ingredients, and over-the-top garnishes. Though they typically include multiple rums in addition to other spirits, and flavors like warm spice, coconut, and tropical fruit, modern renditions also make use of other base sprits and even Amari.

BEER

While shandies, radlers, and micheladas are probably the best-known subsets of the beer cocktail sphere, bartenders have been using beer in drinks, in myriad ways, since the mid-1800s. What probably began as a way to make beer taste better has evolved into a way to make flavorful, lower-alcohol drinks, interesting flavor combinations, and fizzy morning refreshers.

EVERY BARTENDER, WHETHER A WORKING pro or a home mixer, needs a well—a stash of spirits that can be used as the base for almost any drink—plus a small arsenal of essential tools and glassware.