Customer Reviews
Been a fan of Steve's on YouTube for years and watch all his videos with my wife. She bought me his cocktail book for Christmas and it's been great to have all the knowledge and information in one place.
Highly recommend for any fan of the channel, cocktail beginners or gurus who want to have a handy guide on their bar.
I love this book! I have made a variety of recipes and they have all turned out great!! I have had fun trying new drinks
Perfect bar book
Worth buying
I have a lot of cocktail books, purchased or gifted, and I'm pretty skeptical of the genre. I bought this one because I like Steve's youtube videos, figured it was a good way to throw the guy a buck, expected it to sit on my bookshelf.Lo and behold, it's quickly become a favorite! My main gripe with writing about cocktails is that mixing a drink is one of those things where you can get fancy with it for fun, but it's really not rocket science, yet most books or blogs or anything else on the topic will involve an endless rambling on about garnish, trivial variation in technique, presentation, etc etc etc. This book collects cocktail recipes the way people who like a good drink but don't spend their evening creating $25 a pop cocktails at a high end bar mix their drinks: straight forward, maybe with a little flare here or there, but without the assumption that you're being paid to make your own organic free-trade simple syrup lovingly crafted from arabian free range sugar cane for an hour every night before opening.The recipe for a negroni? Gin, campari, vermouth. There's a cute apocryphal history at the top of the page, suggestion for garnish at the variation at the bottom, but the recipe itself describes something I'd actually care to do in my own home. Mint julep? It's simple and mint muddled, add bourbon and ice. I love it.There's a great mix of true classics, modern classics, and specialty cocktails here. When I try something new, I know I'm not going to have to try it three times with different mixes to find a balance I can actually drink, it's a sane starting point I can tweak if I want but no one's going to be offended by. I enjoy reading the recipes for cocktails I already know how to make too, the little added history or variation suggestions are fun.If you've been a professional bartender for a decade maybe it's not for you, if you really get off on elaborate flambéed candied garnish there's plenty of other books you'd probably enjoy more. If you want a reliable, excellent tasting, unpretentious recipe for a nice array of cocktails (you know, like 99% of enthusiasts, and most professionals to boot) then this is the book for you.