Some people could make classic cocktails over and over at home and never get bored. But if you’re looking to expand your repertoire and learn more about drink ingredients and pro-level technique, you’re going to need to do some reading. You may want to start with a few historical cocktail books and essential modern guides. Or you may be curious what’s new in the world of drinks. Below you’ll find seven of this year’s new and soon-to-be-released cocktail books; we’re excited to start paging through and shaking up some drinks.
This gifty book features hot buttered rum, sure, but also a marshmallow-topped mix of dark beer, crème de cacao, and bourbon, plus a wide range of non-ski-related classics and newer drinks.
Jim Meehan, the author of the award-winning PDT Cocktail Book and Meehan’s Bartender Manual teams up with designer Bart Sasso, a partner at Atlanta’s Ticonderoga Club, and author Emma Janzen for this guide to the culinary side of cocktails, focusing on the drink ingredients that aren’t your bottles of gin or whiskey. “Pantry ingredients are ushering mixology into the twenty-first century,” he begins. In addition to Meehan’s own recipes, you’ll also find drinks from experts far and wide, like London’s Monica Berg, Copenhagen’s Rosio Sánchez, Mexico’s Osvaldo Vázquez, and Sydney’s Martin Hudák.
At London’s award-winning Connaught Bar, the martinis are prepared tableside, with guests offered a sniff of five different bitters before they make their selection. The vermouth is a house blend. The lemons are from Amalfi. If you choose an olive, they’ll pierce it to let just a touch of its juices into the glass. All this to say, this is a place that pays attention to detail, and so the drink recipes that fill this book’s pages aren’t really for beginners or those with a limited liquor stash. But if you’re curious about how high-end cocktails come together at this sort of bar, it’s a fascinating read, even if you don’t feel like making your own sous vide oat liqueur. The nonalcoholic drinks sprinkled throughout the pages are particularly appealing.
Dr. Nicola Nice, sociologist and founder of Pomp & Whimsy, which produces gin and gin liqueur, digs into women’s influence on cocktail history, combing through old recipe and housekeeping books for punches, cordials, juleps, and cobblers. While it’s not primarily a recipe book, you may find drinks here that you haven’t tried, especially from the earlier decades the book covers.
This guide to mostly low-ABV drinks isn’t meant to be casual. Giroud urges you to paint and dust the side of your glass for dramatic presentation. He tells you to infuse tonic water with the skins of coffee cherries, then use a soda siphon to re-carbonate it. He calls for an extensive collection of hydrolates, which he notes can be sourced from herbalists or a particular distillery in France. But the flavor combinations are striking and memorable: Giroud infuses peach liqueur with buckwheat, and lets mango sit in some Aperol. He pours red vermouth, Lambrusco, and limoncello together in one glass, and also flavors pomegranate kombucha with peppermint and orange. Note this book isn’t for folks seeking strictly booze-free options.
Marrero and Mix, cocktail pros and founders of the Speed Rack bartending competition, share some of their own signature drinks and cocktails from dozens of bartenders inspired by the “dealer’s choice” round of the competition, plus modern classics—all created by women. There’s a low-ABV michelada that skips tomatoes in favor of carrot and papaya; a sparkling sake spritz with aquavit, apple, and fennel syrup; and a lightly salted tequila sour shaken with arugula. It’s a celebration of women behind the bar that’ll inspire you to make fancier cocktails at home.
Spritzes and French 75s aren’t the only bubbly cocktails around, and Ramirez offers proof in this beautifully photographed volume, which comes out in May. Try mixing your fizz with gin, lemon juice, orgeat, and the water that burrata comes packaged in, the way they’ve served it at New York’s Dante. Or combine rum, lemon juice, Peychaud’s bitters, and raspberry syrup with sparkling rosé. We’re excited to try the amaretto drink with bitter Cynar, ginger beer, and Prosecco. Just be warned that you’ll likely need to add some spirits and liqueurs to your home bar to make some of these fizzy cocktails.
Wondering what other cookbooks are coming out this spring? Check out this list of the books we’re most excited about.
