Cocktails for Drinkers: Affordable, Even Remotely Artisanal Cocktails
The craft cocktail movement has gotten a bit intense, and while I’m not complaining, many believe the whole thing has become a little precious thanks to infusions, fancy syrups and locally sourced herbal infusions. In Cocktails for Drinkers, author Jennifer McCartney gives you the guidelines you need to make a “good strong cocktail on the kitchen counter” without the mess.
Designed as a “book of anti-hipster drinks,” “perfect for hipsters and their haters,” McCartney expresses the artisan cocktail movement with a healthy dose of sarcasm and lots of booze.
Who is this book for?
This book is for people who need a drink to get to the heart of the matter. These cocktails are strong, easy to prepare, and often quite large. With the recipes overflowing, this is a cocktail book for the person who isn’t afraid to actually taste a little ethanol.
If you’ve used the word “artisanal” without irony in the past month, this book is probably not for you. If you roll your eyes every time I write a post about ultra-pure ice cubes , you will surely enjoy it. This is not to say that the homemade liqueur and smoked ice lover won’t like this book on drinks, but it will take a self-deprecating sense of humor.
Each drink has three or fewer ingredients, not counting the side dishes, and the instructions are as straightforward as possible. The purpose of this book is not so much to make the perfect martini as to get yourself drunk with delicious, easily mixable drinks. It is also a great gift for your friend who needs some drinking fun.
What do you get
Drinking cocktails are categorized as spirits and include cocktails containing:
- Vodka
- Gin
- Rum
- Whiskey, bourbon and rye (all in one chapter)
- Tequila
- brandy
- Champagne and Prosecco
- Wine
- Beer
- Assorted liqueurs and liqueurs.
But before you even get to the recipes, McCartney shares his laid-back drinking philosophy in an extremely entertaining introduction.
McCartney not only avoids the shiny bar spoon, but advocates dimension by sight . I mean, her reasoning is pretty strong:
You don’t even need a glass to measure. What could be worse? Oops, my cocktail has too much booze! Nothing of the sort happens. Take a look at your eyes and pour a bottle of booze into a glass filled with ice. Add the second and third ingredients. Stir it up. Drink this.
McCartney’s views on bitters and side dishes are also weak. While she offers to buy a few pre-made bottles of grenadine and simple syrup, they are not seen as essentials, and she presents the side dishes as something that exists primarily for “optics.”
Each section has a beautiful, historical, or anecdote anecdote about the spirit at hand, many of which made me giggle. At the beginning of the tequila chapter, McCartney describes a college tequila party that led to a friend’s hospitalization, the lesson of which was, “Don’t let your kids go to college.” The rest is just recipe after simple recipe. You may notice that some favorites are missing; there is no French 75 or Sazerac because they violate the “rule of three ingredients”. However, there are many recipes that fall under this rule that are well thought out (and economical) without being whimsical.
One trick you won’t succeed
This book is one big attitude change, and the trick is getting the reader to relax. The main message here is “chill, it’s just alcohol,” which is as refreshing as the Snoop Cocktail (4 strawberries + 2 ounces of gin + 2 ounces of sweet vermouth) found in the binding of this irreverent tome.
The best thing about Drinking Cocktails is that they give you tons of cocktail ideas that taste great without having to go to the liquor store. While there are many liqueur + soda recipes, there are also a fair amount of cool cocktails like Americano (2 ounces Campari + 2 ounces sweet vermouth + some soda) and Gimlet (4 ounces). ounces of gin + 2 ounces of lime cordial + lime wedge).
Our opinion
Cocktails for Drinkers is a fun and amusing book with many perfect cocktail recipes to amaze you. This is a great book for anyone looking to get started making cocktails at home but are worried about messing up the proportions. It’s also just fun reading. As I started to take it all too seriously, I stumbled upon McCartney’s “recipe” for “white wine,” which is just a bottle of white wine that you better not breathe out of.
In terms of taste, drinks range from super sweet to super dry. I’m not a big fan of sugary cocktails and have found that drinks sweetened with syrup or honey (such as Bee’s Knees, consisting of 3 ounces of gin + 1 ½ ounce of lemon juice + 1 ½ ounce of honey) are just a little. The ethanol-only drinks were strong and real, and the serving sizes were not for the faint of heart.
While this is contrary to the spirit of the book, I have a few quibbles. One of the most important things you can learn about making cocktails is when to shake and when to stir . Contrary to what the Bond films may have taught you, a shocked martini is a glass of lies. Shake should be used when your drink contains syrups, juices, or other ingredients with a viscosity and density that are very different from your alcohol. In such cases, additional mixing is required to completely mix the ingredients into one homogeneous drink. This is not needed in a fully alcoholic cocktail, as it will dilute your drink. While McCartney recommends stirring and straining the gin martini, the vodka martini instructions recommend using a “very cold drink” shaker. Conversely, Bee’s Knees (which contains a fair amount of honey) are much better shaken than simply “pooled” and served over ice.
I appreciate that McCartney avoids tying up his readers with unnecessary bar equipment like $ 60 stirring glasses, but that doesn’t change the fact that some cocktails just taste better when they’re stirred. While it’s easy to go overboard with the “rules” when it comes to drinking, some recipes in Drinking Cocktails overcompensate in the other direction. You may not need a fancy wooden traveler to make a bloodhound, but the recipe calls for “strawberry puree.” You can of course achieve this with a fork, but this is still mostly confusion and we were promised there would be no “confusion” in the introduction.
These are small things, and they may not worry you. You could easily argue that this criticism is simply demonstrating that I am one of those scoundrels for whom this book was not written. After all, who do I think I am? I drink campari with soda from a coffee mug.
You can buy cocktails for drinkers: even remote-artisanal, cocktails of three ingredients or less that get to the point on Amazon for $ 12.26.