The New Cocktail Hour: The Essential Guide to Hand-Crafted Drinks

New addition to my review... This book makes a great gift. I have a few extra copies on hand as a quick grab hostess gift. It's the same price as a bottle of wine but the beautiful pictures, fun snippets of history and great recipes make it far more memorable. It can easily be upsized with a bottle or two of booze or bar supplies.Now my original review... The New Cocktail Hour is life-changing! There are so many great things about this book, where do I start… Let’s start with the reason I bought this book, the booze! My husband’s idea of a cocktail was pour two finger widths of vodka in a glass. Add Diet Sprite. Toss in some ice. Stir with finger. My go to beverage lived in black box in my fridge. This book is FULL of interesting and delicious cocktails. We are now far more sophisticated when ordering drinks, and hosting guests. We are well on our way to becoming cocktail snobs. I have pulled it out at several dinner parties when a guest has asked about a beverage I am serving. It is an intriguing centerpiece to conversation.This book is easy to follow, even for a novice. I was a bit intimidated when I first picked it up, because several of the ingredients were unfamiliar. The book has great descriptions and explanations for the less experienced bartender, like, what exactly are bitters.I also love that food pairings are offered for the drinks. All these years of pairing my boxed wine with food… I am so ashamed of myself.The most endearing parts of this book are the gorgeous pictures and snippets of history given with each drink and drink era/category. They are very well written, informative, interesting, and often humorous. The Monkey Gland on page 88 is a must read, must try cocktail.I could list dozens and dozens of other MUST TRY drinks (Sky Juice) and fantastic recipes for more common drinks (the Martini is to die for), but I recommend you buy the book and try them all.

Great cocktail book. I own around 30 books on spirits and cocktails and this is one of my top cocktail books because:- It has a flavor profile so you can tell ahead of time if the cocktail is something you might like before taking the time to make it (or buy the ingredients)- Recipes have all turned out quite tasty- Does not rely on hard to find ingredientsThis is not one of those 1,000 recipe cocktail books, but instead a the solid guide to the cocktails for the home bar with nicely done pictures and good recipes.

I knew i was going to love this book when i read the first line of the introduction: "We're not bartenders ... we're lushes". These are people who simply love their cocktails. Most cocktail books are pretty much a collection of recipes. great to have, but there is so much more that goes into it. a couple of things that makes this book a standout for me:they give you really good info on specific brands of alcohol - differences between various vermouths, etc, and gives you guidance as to which drinks each style would be good in.they offer food pairing for each drink -- i LOVE this. i don't think i've ever seen that in a cocktail book.the cocktails are researched as to origin, how they got their name, etc. is this necessary to make a cocktail? No, but i really enjoy that type of trivia. i debated whether to get this in kindle version or hard copy. i opted to get the hard copy - i'm really enjoying going through the book.

Nice photos but totally disorganized. It's hard to try to buy books online sight unseen. If I'd been able to look at it in advance, I'd known it wasn't what I was looking for. What I WAS looking for, and somewhat was expecting, was a book organized by the primary ingredients, you know a section for whiskey drinks, a section for rum, one for vodka, and tequila etc. Instead it's just a jumble of cocktails, which so far I have not been to discern any kind of organization, just random cocktails. Also definitely not something that requires a microscope to read. I really was expecting a standard format, 8x11 type thing. Instead it's just slightly larger than a paperback, with a perhaps a 4-8 point font. Still thumbing through it, but this is not what was expected. Really doesn't match the description. Returning it.

I really like this cocktail book as far as recipes goes, but the way they organized the material drives me nuts. I have to keep going to the index and even the index itself is organized in an odd way. I would have liked if the organized the drinks based on the main ingredient, or alphabetically and include some kind of a tab system to expedite the process. I now choose the drinks I want to make ahead of time, and use post-it notes to tab them.

We are really enjoying trying out the cocktails in this book. The history of cocktails is fascinating and the recommendations on brands best in each drink are spot on. Their input made my home concocted Manhattan to a whole new level! The only addition I would add in the future is a way to cross reference ingredients on hand with the recipes it the book. Thanks to this book, my husband and I are enjoying a cocktail renaissance which is a fun new hobby for us.

Ive had the pleasure of a variety of books about cocktails but this one is among the very best. I say that because not only is it well written and beautiful to look at, but also ... it's the MOST USEFUL! Yeah, so many became a coffee table book, or another slot filled on a bookshelf. This one I use constantly and it's been the source of many great cocktail experiences! I buy this as my go-to gift for many of my friends.

I've been having so much fun with this book! I got it for my partner for Christmas, and we've been learning a lot as we make drinks together. Not only does it have a ton of recipes (so many of which I'm dying to try!) but it has great background information on different alcohols, the history of some of the drinks, and tips on how to mix. I especially loved the essentials shopping list at the beginning- that's basically exactly what we needed to know! Plus the book is beautiful. I'd definitely definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn how to mix drinks!

Great book, full of interesting cocktails and matching with food and occasions

Recetas muy buenas y simples, vienen los cocktails tipicos y también unos exóticos. Cada receta aconseja comida para acompañar. Tan bien vienen ilustradas y casa receta cuenta con un poco de historia.

Not much helpful to me as the ingredients/requirements are not locally available.

Love this book. I’ve made cocktails for several parties now and people have really enjoyed them. I liked how they provide some history not just recipes.

I’ve only started reading it, but so far I love it!! I love learning about the different alcohols, not just what to mix them with.