The best Cocktails & Mixed Drinks books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

In case OP wants books with larger text...

Semenology - The Semen Bartender's Handbook https://www.amazon.com/Semenology-Bartenders-Paul-Fotie-Photenhauer/dp/1482605228

RIP my Amazon search history.

Can't believe no one has said <strong>The Bar Book</strong> by Jeff Morganthaler, aka /u/le_cigar_volante

From the official Amazon description: Written by renowned bartender and cocktail blogger Jeffrey Morgenthaler, The Bar Book is the only technique-driven cocktail handbook out there. This indispensable guide breaks down bartending into essential techniques, and then applies them to building the best drinks. More than 60 recipes illustrate the concepts explored in the text, ranging from juicing, garnishing, carbonating, stirring, and shaking to choosing the correct ice for proper chilling and dilution of a drink. With how-to photography to provide inspiration and guidance, this book breaks new ground for the home cocktail enthusiast.

Here's some high praise from a mutual friend: "...my favorite drinks book of the year is The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique. Mr. Morgenthaler, a well-regarded Portland, Ore.-based bartender and blogger, notes that a great cocktail requires a combination of three elements: recipe, ingredient and technique. He admits that the first two have been well-plumbed in existing books, then lasers in on the third. Just learning how to make his ingenious but simple "MacGyver Centrifuge" with cheesecloth and a salad spinner to filter fruit juices is nearly worth the cover price." - Wayne Curtis, The Wall Street Journal

If you want to learn about Whiskey, read this book! Great information and really an enjoyable read. I've read it twice

Maybe you're getting interested in mixology... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1482605228/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jHDtAb44JTTB8

This was the White Elephant gift I gave this year and it got a good reaction from my quite demented friends.

It totally depends on the type of bartending you’re trying to get into, but for my personal tastes. there’s a book I like called Cocktail Codex which breaks it down to assert that there are six basic templates and that everything else (within the classic cocktail spectrum) is essentially some variation on one of those six models.

Those six are:

Old Fashioned

Martini

Daiquiri

Sidecar

Whiskey Highball

Flip

If you can get down the templates for those, you’ll have a pretty solid foundation for a ton of cocktails.

Buy a copy of the Smuggler's Cove book and go from there.

If you really want to get into making tiki drinks, you should buy the Smuggler's Cove book to get a good grip on what you're doing. The book also has recipes for most of the common syrups in the back. It is under $20 on Amazon, so it costs about the same as a decent bottle of rum.

Brad Thomas Parsons has an awesome book that goes in depth to the process of making homemade bitters. That book will demystify the process of making bitters better than any Reddit comment can.

It’s not hard to follow a recipe, but acquiring ingredients and supplies can get expensive. So I wouldn’t recommend getting into making homemade bitters unless you’re willing to spend a bit of money to get started.

The process itself is easy enough; time does most of the work. The challenge really ramps up when you try to develop your own recipes. I recommend starting with the “BTP House Bitters” in that book and using that as your jumping off point to explore the world of homemade bitters.

As long as you stay focused and patient, you’ll be making bitters you love before you know it!

Before you go buying a bunch more rums, you need to get a copy of Martin Cate's Smuggler's Cove book. The chapter on the different types of rums alone is worth the price of the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Add a triple sec, curacao and citrus juices and you have quite a few cocktails covered. Any more will depend on what you want to make.

I highly recommend The 12 Bottle Bar. They are the masters of min/maxing. Unfortunately, it appears their websites are no longer active.

~Good luck!

Rum wise, you need something Jamaican. I would recommend Appleton. Smith and Cross can also be fun. Overproof also gets used frequently; Plantation Old Fashioned Traditional Dark (OFTD) is popular.

Personally, I would also consider my copy of Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki to be essential.

I recieved this book several years ago and have made 2 or 3 of the recipes.
Love to add a drop or 2 of bitters on an ice cube before I pour a good bourbon over it. And the recipes make a lot so I make labels and give to friends who drink for Christmas or just for the fun of it. Try it, you'll have fun.

https://smile.amazon.com/Bitters-Spirited-Cure-All-Cocktails-Formulas/dp/1580083595/ref=sr\_1\_6?dchild=1&amp;keywords=bitters&amp;qid=1627914479&amp;rnid=2941120011&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-6

You forgot about its cum-panion book, Semenology, full of a bunch of cock-tails that you can't order at most bars.

I've been party to giving both as a gift before, I recommend it. Also been tempted to leave it on bookshelves in the restaurant dining room before.

Now this is in my Amazon suggestions.

I can't lie, I might buy it.

I don't have the book with me, but I followed the recipe in the Bitters book by Parsons (Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580083595/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_JatNCbNTQRD2V). I can get the ingredients list tonight if people are interested.

I remember it used high proof bourbon as the base, with apple slices, allspice, and chicona root as the bittering agent.

Google the best bartender books. Reading is soo helpful & each different book will have alot of info on different topics & techniques. Gotta own Death & Co.

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607745259/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_J6H1BRQ2HFJ45K32RW20

In Jeffrey Morgenthaler's book, "The Bar Book", he cites a fairly controlled study he conducted with 60 lemons. The lemons were divided into 4 groups and then tested for juice yield - Group 1) refrigerated & not rolled; Group 2) refrigerated & rolled; Group 3) non-refrigerated & not rolled and Group 4) non-refrigerated & rolled. In the end there wasn't much difference among the four groups in terms of juice extraction but Group 1) (refrigerated & not rolled) yielded the most juice per weight, 43.9% versus the lowest 41.4%(Group 4). With all that said, keep your fruit in the fridge. The book is also a pretty good read with some great recipes - https://www.amazon.com/Bar-Book-Elements-Cocktail-Technique/dp/145211384X

My all times favorite “learn to make drinks” book is Cocktail Codex. It is an intro to basic classic cocktails and tons of variations ranging from basic to complex. Great for beginners and experts alike. Bonus it is a beautifully made book and is a great coffee table book as well

My wife bought me a copy of <em>Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki</em> when coronavirus started. We’ve really enjoyed making tiki drinks. If you have visited r/tiki yet I recommend it!

Thanks! I used the method described in Cocktail Codex.

The short version is: 1) Juice some limes 2) Add 25% of the weight of the lime juice of water in a pan. 3) Add 0.2% of the weight of the lime juice + water of agar to the pan. 4) Cook water and agar over medium heat until dissolved. 5) In ice bath, add lime juice to water & agar mixture. 6) After about 10 minutes, strain the mixture through several layers of cheesecloth. Gently squeeze the cheesecloth. I had to filter it a couple of times to get all of the particles out.

Just a little math and it's pretty simple to make.

You can buy it on Amazon

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki is pretty much our bible. https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Also get the Total Tiki app, which will give you tons of recipes and show you what you can make with what you have on hand. https://beachbumberry.com/publications.html

With those two you'll pretty much have everything you need.

Could it be Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails With a Literary Twist? Has a blue cover and a bird on it, as well as a punny title. Not sure if it has different writers, but it might.

I'll actually say that you might want to spend a little on picking up a good book about tiki, like Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. It's worth it for the recipes alone, but the chapter on rums is pure gold. You'll learn that "light" and "dark" don't really mean anything.

Other's here have recommended Cocktail Wonk's blog, and that's a good place to learn, as well.

I find the Cocktail Codex the best mix of direct recipies with nice pictures, plus detailed and comprehensible explanations of why a drink works, or what drinks are related. Seeing how they categorize cocktails really helped understand how to make little changes myself and have them turn out good (instead of random).

https://smile.amazon.com/Cocktail-Codex-Fundamentals-Formulas-Evolutions/dp/160774970X/

Death and Co. memorize this book from top to bottom and you’ll have more cocktail knowledge than most bartenders you’ll ever meet.

cocktail codex a quick primer that’ll have you knowledgeable enough for most patrons.

Learn your restaurant’s liquors by just googling what bottles you have. Don’t know the difference between Jim, Jack and Johnny? Google away! Same with your beers and wine.

You're actually on the right track. Too many people jump into tiki and buy hundreds of dollars worth of ingredients that end up gathering dust. Go slow, and add as you need, and as you find a new drink you want to try making.

I'll echo that a good book like "Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki", $16 on Amazon, will give you recipes, rum tips, and some cool fun history. But if you can get to a tiki bar to taste a few basic drinks (I agree with Mai Tai, Painkiller, Daiquiri), that will help you know what it's supposed to taste like. Let us know where you are and we can recommend the best nearby tiki bar.

When syrups go bad, they usually grow mold. It won't make you sick, but it'll taste yucky. You'll be able to tell because the syrup will get cloudy or have things floating in it or smell like vinegar. If you keep your syrups in the fridge, you can definitely keep them more than 2-3 months. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I have a bottle of Liber & Co. orgeat that I opened Sept. 26th. Still good because I take it out, use it, and immediately put it back in. (Pro tip: write the date you open it on the bottle.) If you're making your own, sanitizing the container will make the biggest difference. (Boil for 5 minutes.) Your Monin syrup is likely still good, but it may be getting "tired" and losing flavor. I too recommend Liber & Co. for syrups. (https://www.liberandcompany.com/) Join their "Cocktail Club" and sign up for their newsletter and you'll get coupons and discounts. You can also find a lot of syrups on Amazon, but I find they tend to be cheaper direct from the companies.

Welcome to the fun! Enjoy!

Shit, son, what kind of a dried up husk of a major do you think I am? Already have that book on the shelf. Pardon me very much for trying to teach these youngins a simple recipe that'll change their goddamned lives if they let it. 😂

(By the way, lieutenants, 12 Bottle Bar is a great book to have. You'll be the classiest bitch or bastard in your battalion with that one. So, u/NimanderTheYounger, have a medal for your commendable efforts to enculturate these porcine heathens.)

Not OP but Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold is one of my absolute favorite books. He really pushes the boundaries in this one. Here is him making a Daquiri, and he explains the importance of water management in frozen cocktails.

The 12 Bottle Bar is what you're looking for. The authors min-max everything to the nth degree. They break things down so you can go with 3 or maybe 6 bottles. There's also an old website they published long before they published the book. 12 Bottle Bar