Here are 100 books that Drinking the Devil's Acre fans have personally recommended if you like
Drinking the Devil's Acre.
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I have been a journalist for over a decade, most frequently writing on the subjects of spirits, cocktails, and drinking culture for such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Esquire, Playboy, and VinePair. I have written 12 booksâ6 of them on boozeâmy latest of which is Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits.
I had always believed that a great booze book didnât need to just be pages of pretty pictures and cocktail recipesâI knew there were booze stories that could make for compelling, novel-like narratives as well. Thad Voglerâs 2017 work was the first to actually prove my theories correct, however.
His journey to both visit the sourcesâCuba! Oaxaca! Cognac!âand meet the producers of such vaunted spirits as rum, mezcal, and cognac, all while philosophizing about what artisan spirits production actually means, resonated with me like no other booze before.
Voglerâs humor and bawdy tone also showed me a drinks-related book need not be a dry readâbooze is fun, after all!
Spirits expert Thad Vogler, owner of the James Beard Awardâwinning Bar Agricole, takes readers around the world, celebrating the vivid characters who produce hand-made spirits like rum, scotch, cognac, and mezcal. From the mountains of Mexico and the forbidden distilleries of Havana, to the wilds of Scotland and the pastoral corners of France and beyond, this adventure will change how you think about your drink.
Thad Vogler is one of the most important people in the beverage industry today. Heâs a man on a mission to bring âgrower spiritsââspirits with provenance, made in the traditional way by individuals rather thanâŚ
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa storiesâall reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argueâŚ
While the Bay Areaâs impact on the way we eat as a country, being at the forefront of the farm-to-table and seasonal produce movement, cocktails are being equal consideration. Why not? Distilled spirits are agricultural products, the same way wine and beer are, and so it reasons that we would worry about how they are made, their history, and the future. Can cocktails be made in a more sustainable way? Can I use beets in my cocktail? Do spirits have a sense of place? And will applying beer to a wound help it heal (note: it wonât)? Hereâs a selection of books that explore the past, present, and possible future of how you drink.
A fun read that explores the surprising history of alcohol used to treat medical maladies, from the Carthusian monks creating herbal elixirs, to the invention of tonic water to cure malaria.
English winds though the various maladies like wounds to worms to snakebites, and all the questionable, but delicious prescriptions, from gin and tonics to bourbon whiskey.
âAt last, a definitive guide to the medicinal origins of every bottle behind the bar! This is the cocktail book of the year, if not the decade.â âAmy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist and Wicked Plants
âA fascinating book that makes a brilliant historical case for what Iâve been saying all along: alcohol is good for youâŚokay maybe itâs not technically good for you, but [English] shows that through most of human history, itâs sure beat the heck out of water.â âAlton Brown, creator of Good Eats
Beer-based wound care, deworming with wine, whiskey for snakebites, and medicinal mixersâŚ
While the Bay Areaâs impact on the way we eat as a country, being at the forefront of the farm-to-table and seasonal produce movement, cocktails are being equal consideration. Why not? Distilled spirits are agricultural products, the same way wine and beer are, and so it reasons that we would worry about how they are made, their history, and the future. Can cocktails be made in a more sustainable way? Can I use beets in my cocktail? Do spirits have a sense of place? And will applying beer to a wound help it heal (note: it wonât)? Hereâs a selection of books that explore the past, present, and possible future of how you drink.
This book was published at the beginning of the cocktail revolution and was instrumental to creating the idea that cocktails could be based on peak season produce in the same way that food is.
Everything from herbs, fruits, and vegetables get featured in a drink. While the book is historically important, it still feels modern, packed with techniques to make the best of the seasonâs bounty.Â
A lush, full-color collection of 50 cocktail recipes using organic, sustainable produce, handcrafted ingredients, and local artisanal spirits, from the bar manager at the award-winning Cyrus restaurant.
Inspired by the bounty of Sonoma County's organic farms and local distilleries, Scott Beattie shakes up the cocktail world with his extreme twists on classic bar fare. In ARTISANAL COCKTAILS, Beattie reveals his intense attention to detail and technique with a collection of visually stunning and astonishingly tasty drinks made with top-shelf spirits, fresh-squeezed juices, and just-picked herbs and flowers. In creatively named recipes such as Meyer Beautiful (My, You're Beautiful), Hot IndianâŚ
A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.
The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extortsâŚ
While the Bay Areaâs impact on the way we eat as a country, being at the forefront of the farm-to-table and seasonal produce movement, cocktails are being equal consideration. Why not? Distilled spirits are agricultural products, the same way wine and beer are, and so it reasons that we would worry about how they are made, their history, and the future. Can cocktails be made in a more sustainable way? Can I use beets in my cocktail? Do spirits have a sense of place? And will applying beer to a wound help it heal (note: it wonât)? Hereâs a selection of books that explore the past, present, and possible future of how you drink.
In A Good Drink, Farrell explores what it takes to drink sustainable cocktails, from farm to glass.
In Mexico she talks to families growing agave for mezcal and how the process helps regenerate the land and wildlife, while in South Carolina she talks to distillers who are focusing their production on heritage grains. Even bars are trying to reduce their impact, focusing on a London bar that is reducing water use and waste.
Shanna Farrell loves a good drink. As a bartender, she not only poured spirits, but learned their stories-who made them and how. Living in San Francisco, surrounded by farm-to-table restaurants and high-end bars, she wondered why the eco-consciousness devoted to food didn't extend to drinks. The short answer is that we don't think of spirits as food. But whether it's rum, brandy, whiskey, or tequila, drinks are distilled from the same crops that end up on our tables. Most are grown with chemicals that cause pesticide resistance and pollute waterways, and distilling itself requires huge volumes of water. Even barsâŚ
Lesley Jacobs Solmonson has written the book Gin: A Global History and is completing Liqueur: A Global History. Her work has been seen in the Los Angeles Times, Imbibe, Sierra, and Gourmet. She is Senior Editor at Chilled magazine, as well as Cocktail/Spirits Historian at the Center of Culinary Culture in Los Angeles. With her husband David Solmonson, Lesley co-wrote The 12 Bottle Bar, a #1 best-selling cocktail book on Amazon. Named one of the â9 Best Cocktail Books" by the Independent UK, The 12 Bottle Bar is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of the American Cocktail. The Solmonsonsâ work has been featured in numerous media outlets.
William T. Boothbyâs bartending guide was published 29 years after the first cocktail recipe book written in 1862 by American barman/impresario Jerry Thomas. In my opinion, Cocktail Boothbyâs offers a more mature vision of cocktail culture in the 19th and early 20th centuryâs Golden Age, serving as a boozy time machine back to the era when many classic cocktails â the Manhattan, the Martini, the Mint Julep, to name a few â were born. Along with a thorough compendium of recipes, the book includes Boothbyâs âValuable Suggestionsâ to bartenders (âDo not serve a frosted glass to a gentleman who wears a mustacheâ) and his âTen Commandmentsâ of bartending, as well as a selection of old advertisements and various handwritten recipes. The authorâs celebration of, as he calls it, âthe art of mixologyâ, never fails to delight me.
"If one had to pick a single name to stand as dean to the whole tribe of San Francisco bartenders, it would be the Honorable William T. Boothby, head bartender at the Palace Hotel and author of one of the most useful bartender's guides of the golden age of American drinking. This exceedingly scarce little volume is a surpassingly sound effort, full of well-considered recipes with a real West Coast flavor."-David Wondrich, author of Imbibe!
"The bartending community is rejoicing! The new Anchor Distilling Edition of Cocktail Boothby's American Bar-Tender, based on theâŚ
Iâve been researching and writing with my co-author husband Jared Brown about spirits and mixed drinks for three decades. After writing more than three dozen books plus hundreds of articles about the history and origins of alcoholic beverages, you could say I am addicted to the topic in a big way. While weâve travelled and tasted drinks around the world weâve also amassed a few thousand books on the subject. Itâs served as a launch point of our secondary careers as drinks consultants and master distillers for global spirits brands. I'm currently finishing my doctoral thesis on early-modern English brewing at the University of Bristol to put a feather on the cap of my long career.
Last but certainly not least, Amanda Schusterâs recipe collection spends more time weaving a fantastic fabric of anecdotes and origin stories about a range of famous and infamous mixed drinks made in Manhattan. From familiar concoctions such as the Cosmopolitanâs New York origin stories and the eponymous Manhattan to more contemporary classics such as the Penicillin and the Purple Rain, readers will find inspiration in mixing and conversing about the drinks and the people who mixed them in the city that never sleeps.
"Covers drinking in New York from every angle...New York Cocktails by Amanda Schuster is a story of the cocktail told through the city."-Florence Fabricant, The New York Times
Far more than just a recipe book, New York Cocktails features signature creations (along with new variations of the classic Manhattan and Negroni), tips, and techniques by the best mixologists in the Big Apple, along with their personal profiles.
From the classic Martini, to the Hanky Panky of the 1920s, to the Penicillin, you will be mesmerized by the characters and history of the New York City cocktail. New York CocktailsâŚ
Big Ideas... For Small Businesses
by
John Lamerton,
Big Ideas⌠for Small Businesses is a straight-talking, no-nonsense guide to growing a small business without sacrificing your lifestyle. Written by a former civil servant turned entrepreneur, the book challenges hustle culture and instead champions the idea of an "ambitious lifestyle business" - one that provides freedom and financial stability,âŚ
Jackie Kai Ellis is a designer, bestselling author, pastry chef, entrepreneur, lifestyle writer, and other bits nâ bobs. Jackie left design to pursue her passion for pastry in Paris. After finishing her studies, she founded the award-winning pâtisserie, Beaucoup Bakery & CafĂŠ in Vancouver â featured in countless publications and media including Bon AppĂŠtit Magazine. Jackie turned her passion for authentic storytelling and launched her bestselling memoir, The Measure of My Powers: A memoir of food, misery, and Paris,.
Another beautiful book with beautiful photography by a dear friend in Paris, Rebekah Peppler. This James Beard nominated recipe book takes you through how to create a classic apĂŠro through the seasons, and then inventive riffs. Iâve personally tried so many of these recipes and they have you dreaming and yearning for that moment with friends, setting suns, chilled glasses and the sound of crystal in celebration of another day.
JAMES BEARD AWARD FINALIST ⢠NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FOOD NETWORK
Grab a light drink and a bite, and enjoy cocktail hour, the French way.
For the French, the fleeting interlude between a long workday and the evening meal to come is not meant to be hectic or crazed. Instead, that time is a much needed chance to pause, take a breath, and reset with light drinks and snacks. Whether it's a quick affair before dashing out the door to your favorite Parisian bistro or a lead-up to a more lavish party, ApĂŠritif isâŚ
Nightclubs and country clubs figured in my fatherâs business distributing snack foods in post-WWII âSteel City,â Pittsburgh, where I was served âShirley Templeâ cocktails in martini glasses alongside my parentsâ Manhattans. (To my five- and six-year-old eye, the trophy was the maraschino cherry.) Decades later, teaching American literature in the university, my interest deepened in Jack Londonâs writing, and my book on him demanded close attention to the history of US cocktails and other drinks. Londonâs memoir, John Barleycorn, frankly details his drinking and eventual capture by alcohol. As a scholar-researcher, I was âcapturedâ by the backstory of US cocktail culture.
Order a Martini (straight up, or with ice chiming against the glass), then settle with this charming book and the âquintessential cocktailâ that merits its own chapter in the imbiberâs US history tour. Grimes wears learning lightly while pointing out the cultural vagaries over four centuries of pleasurable distillation, brewing, and fermentation. Who knew the American Revolution was first fomented in 1700s village taverns? Or that the familiar Gilded Age âBronxâ (named by the Waldorf-Astoriaâs master mixologist) was the very first cocktail to use fruit juice?
Author Grimes chides the 1960s Yuppies (a.k.a. young urban professionals) for purist insistence on âimported beerâ and âthe rarest of single-malt Scotches,â but concludes the country and the cocktail survived and are all the better for it. He gets no argument from me!
The cocktail is as old as the nation that invented it, yet until this entertaining and authoritative account, its story had never been fully told. William Grimes traces the evolution of American drink from the anything-goes concoctions of the Colonial era to the frozen margarita, spiking his meticulously researched narrative with arresting details, odd facts, and colorful figures.
The book includes about one hundred recipes--half of them new for this edition--for both classics and innovations.
As a commercial sociologist who studies drinking cultures by day and a cocktail lover who partakes in those same cultures by night, I have always been fascinated with the rituals and traditions of hospitality. As a child, my parents disliked taking me to restaurants because my attention would always be focused on the other diners rather than whatever was on my plate. Academically, I am fascinated by the social construction of fact and how the documentation of what we understand to be true in science or history can be heavily influenced by such factors as class, gender, and race. Itâs putting these two interests together that led me to research and ultimately write a book on how women have been systematically excluded from the historical record of the cocktail.
From the dawn of cocktails, the opportunities for women to write bartending guides have historically been few and far between. Fortunately, this is now changing with the rise over the last few decades of female bartending talent. Authors Ivy Mix and Lynnette Marrero are up there with the best of them today.
A Quick Drink is a compendium of the recipes contributed by the all-female contestants of their global bartending competition, Speed Rack. It is both a lively read and a rare glimpse into the creative process behind the art of modern mixology.
I particularly love the way the recipes are positioned not only by the obvious category of drink but also by the time, place, ingredient, or mood that originally inspired them and consequently turned them into winners.
More than 100 cocktail recipes from badass women bartenders
Award-winning mixologists Ivy Mix and Lynnette Marrero co-founded Speed Rack, a global all-women bartending competition where competitors show off their talents making both classic and original drinks as quickly as their arms can shake and stir-all in the name of raising money for breast cancer charities. With recipes from Ivy, Lynnette, and more than 80 Speed Rack participants, this book is a manual for making winning cocktails confidently and efficiently at home, based on both what is on your bar cart as well as the occasion, be it a long dayâŚ
The problem is not with the actions young women take but with the toxic, sexist conditions they are responding to.
Tanenbaum found, based on six years of interviews with young people ages 14-30, that young women are navigating a culture littered with gendered dress codes, revenge porn, and sexually explicitâŚ
I have been researching and writing about cocktails for over two decades. My first book, The New Cocktail Hour, appeared in 2016 and I have since written seven more books pairing mixed drinks with topics such as classic movies, vinyl music, the DC Comics universe, Westerns, and travel. Cocktails are truly global concoctions, invented by using tea from the Far East, sugar from the Caribbean, liquor from Europe, and citrus from the tropics. The best books about mixed drinks transport us to a worldly state of mind wherever we are.
Longtime New York City bartender Brian Bartels makes for an erudite and humorous guide to American cocktails as he surveys the country state by state. Chock full of quotes and quips, plus offering a stunning array of obscure drinking facts along with local lore, the book is not just an amble but a true tour de force. The United States of Cocktails makes for the perfect drinking companion to simply pop open and browse for a drink to make tonight, or to read cover to cover. Educational and transportive, Bartelsâ charm keeps readers returning to this impressively researched tome. Â
An exploration of the beloved cocktails, spirits, and bars that define each state in America
The United States of Cocktails is a celebration of the cocktail history of every state in America. After traveling around this great nation and sampling many of the drinks on offer, cocktail authority Brian Bartels serves up a book that is equal parts recipe collection, travelogue, historical miscellany, bartender's manual, and guide to bar culture today-with bar and drink recommendations that are sure to come in handy whether or not you are crossing state lines. Delving into the colorful stories behind the creation ofâŚ
