This is a great resource for seeing how cocktail variations can come from a base cocktail like an old fashioned or a martini. Once you understand the hows and whys of each root recipe you'll be able to invent entirely new cocktails. Luckily, the majority of my clientele wanted tequila shots or (plastic) glasses of cheap wine, so I never had to make anything super complex. From there, you can explore how we use these simple ideas to create new cocktails through tried and true tactics—a powerful and intuitive roadmap for anyone interested in creating their own unique drinks.

By understanding how elements like bright, tangy lemon juice balance a rich, heavy ingredient, you can then swap in other sources of acid — grapefruit juice, say, or yogurt — for infinite iterations. Some techniques go a bit too far for what I (or anyone really) would need at home (ready to get that 4000€ centrifuge? So last night I was sitting at home, as I’ve been doing all week (you know, Coronavirus), and started flipping through the book. He's also the publisher of Short Stack Editions, a series of small-format cookbooks about inspiring ingredients, which launched in 2013, and the founding publisher of Dovetail Press, a publishing company that pairs impactful books with original products. It’s become an inside joke among our bartender friends to make the most ludicrous, over garnished cobbler any time one of us requests one.The central model of base, balance, spice fits well with a lot of cocktail recipes, though it's a little bit of a stretch for some that they squeeze into the sections. The only thing really missing off the top of my head is a serious discussion of flavor affinities, adjusting to workflow, and consumer norms. In Cocktail Codex, these experts reveal for the first time their surprisingly simple approach to mastering cocktails: the "root recipes," six easily identifiable (and memorizable! although perhaps a few steps beyond my level of cocktail making I loved this book for the basics - the review of the core basics of drinks, both the traditions, the exansions and variations as well as the chemistry of them. Part of this excitement was because I just realized with our early spring here in Portland we actually had some mint growing in the garden, and that was the only ingredient I didn’t think I had.

In Cocktail Codex , these experts reveal for the first time their surprisingly simple approach to mastering cocktails: the "root recipes," six easily identifiable (and memorizable!This book breaks down drinks into their fundamental components and then offers suggestions about how to build them up again into a variety of different cocktails with different sorts of flavor profiles.

And, unlike every other book you’ll read this year, Cocktail Codex is packed with actual knowledge you can use in the real world. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. And, unlike every other book you'll read this year, Cocktail Codex is packed with actual knowledge you can use in the real world. What tips this over the edge is how NERDY this is getting into all sorts of esoteric techniques and minutiae you can either apply to your own craft or discard. Liquid Intelligence has more tech details, and plenty of books have a bigger repertoire of specific recipes, but Cocktail Codex hits the sweet spot right in the middle.By studying each of the six drinks, you’ll learn the mechanics of a particular style of cocktail and important lessons in technique and ingredients that elevate your cocktail game. Cocktail Codex's classic recipes are acceptable for most bars (though most high-end bars have at least one classic cocktail they prepare unusually), though they can be needlessly fussy. templates that encompass all the old-fashioned, martini, daiquiri, sidecar, whisky highball, and flip.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.This is stuff (aside from infusions) that you should honestly avoid until you know what you're doing, but it's all very cool and raises your horizons of what a cocktail can be. I came into this book a novice and finished it with a fairly robust understanding of cocktail composition, differences between liquors, liquers, and bitters, and balance. Sean has spent the last decade teaching people how to build small businesses, playing golf, and sneaking into high class establishments where he probably doesn't belong.