Did you know in some parts of the world, the legal drinking age starts at 25? That’s one of the many facts I learned after accepting an offer to review The Cocktail Companion: A Guide to Cocktail History, Culture, Trivia and Favorite Drinks (Mango Publishing, $24.99).
If you’re new to the world of cocktails, or even if you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll find this book informative and entertaining. Besides the trivia–here’s another one: the first known Cosmopolitan seen a TV show was in 1998 … on “ER,” not “Sex and the City”–author Cheryl Charming goes over the history of cocktails (e.g. prohibition, whiskey vs. whisky, etc.), bar tools, bar terminology and cocktails in pop culture. She even squeezes in a few recipes of classics.
To be clear, this is not a recipe book. You’re going to put this book on your coffee table rather than near your bar. Still, Charming includes recipes for must-know classic and popular cocktails like the Americano and the mai tai. While perusing the book, though, I did make the Bacardi cocktail (Bacardi, lime juice and grenadine) and the jasmine (gin, lemon guide, Campari, Cointreau).
Charming, a bartender by trade, includes some tips and tricks (including from other bartenders) throughout the book. In the chapter on ice, she digresses to talk about her “glass is half-full” technique. Here, she half-fills an Old Fashioned glass with water, freezes it and then pours the cocktail on top of the ice.
One other section I want to mention is the list of what celebrities drink. Jon Bon Jovi likes Chartreuse on the rocks, which is surprising since I only use Chartreuse as a complementing spirit in a cocktail. Meanwhile, George Lucas likes Old Fashioneds, Bob Saget likes margaritas and Martha Stewart likes mimosas with blood orange juice.
Charming has 15 published bar and cocktail-related books, including The Everything Bartender’s Book. Currently, she lives in the French Quarter and is the bar director at Bourbon O Bar. She was named “Mixologist of the Year” in 2014 by New Orleans Magazine.
Photo from Mango Publishing
Tags: cocktails
