TITLE: The Craft of the Cocktail
SUBTITLE: Everything You Need to Know To Be A Master Bartender, With 500 Recipes
AUTHOR: Dale Degroff
PUBLISHER: Clarkson Potter (Random House), 230 Pages
TYPE: Drinks Recipes (and extensive instructions)
COST: $23.10
REVIEWED BY: Chris Carlsson, SpiritsReview.com

Nicely done in both material and layout. Definitions/explanations of various spirits, short but interesting history/intros on the different types of drinks and 500 well considered recipes with ingredients, directions, etc. Also there is a lot of good tips,techniques and advice on how to make and present the drinks listed in the book.

Larger format (quarto or about 10 1/2″ tall and 8″ wide) with a rarely seen (in drinks books past or present) decent binding so it stays open nicely with tasteful graphics, easy-to-read type fonts.

A fair amount of planning and thought organization and editing must have gone into not only the contents of the books but also the practical aspects of it. Works well on a counter, or better yet behind one of those clear plastic book holders to be safe. It lies flat and is easy-to-consult, easy-to -wipe pages and easy-to-find recipes.

An excellent book to buy and read (and then practice) before you read Dale’s other soon to be classic book :The Essential Cocktail ,The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks a precis on how to do the included cocktails properly and artfully.

Slightly larger squareish format makes it an easy it easy to prop open for consultation while mixing – Hell of a lot better than those tiny Mr. Boston books. Only improvement I would suggest is if they did a spiral binding edition so it would lay flat – much in the style of the old Time Life Cook Book series where they did a hard cover for your library and a spiral bound version for the kitchen. Excellent value for the money – the skills you learn in this book would cost a lot more anywhere else.

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