Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions [A Cocktail Recipe Book]

Product Information

All the experts we spoke with agree nothing will develop your palate—and your ability to determine which ingredients complement each other—like tasting. It’s easier for most people to distinguish flavors like fruit, spices, and herbs than spirits and liqueurs, so take your time to taste your alcohols and compare and contrast them (this is the hard part).

For this alcoholic beverage, you’ll need a spirit, a sweetener, something sour and something sparkling, like club soda or champagne. For example, you can take a gin gimlet, swap the lime juice for lemon and add club soda. Now you have a Tom Collins. The original Aviary in Chicago is the bar portion of 3 Michelin-star restaurant, Alinea, which is known for its molecular gastronomy techniques, and total over-the-top presentation. Masahiro is an amazing mixologist, and Michael, who I've met on countless occasions, is a wealth of knowledge and an overall great guy. I've always been curious about the "Eastern style" of mixology and this book really opens up the door into it.It’s a graphic novel of their last 6 menus. And to make things even cooler many of the characters are based off of real world bartenders from some of the best bars around the world. It was our last stop after a long day of bar hopping, and we loved the vibe of the bar. Unpretentious and casual, but with fantastic drinks.

While the bar Smugglers Cove isn’t my personal favorite tiki bar in the world (that distinction goes to Hale Pele in Portland), there’s no denying that it is fantastic. The book is also a nice size/weight, great for a coffee table or tofu press, with excellent crisp design and pretty high-contrast photographs. Aviary does that in bar form. Take this drink from the now defunct Aviary NYC called “Boom Goes the Dynamite” for example: “Boon Goes the Dynamite”– Ironically this one isn’t even in the book. I also liked the content around the matrix of how they helped patrons find the perfect drink, even without a menu. While the newer Dead Rabbit book I mentioned above is probably a better fit for most home bartenders (there are more recipes, and many of them are a bit easier to make), I’d be remiss if I left out their original book: The Dead Rabbit Drinks Menu.Neither of these drinks are easy or inexpensive to make, and both require preparing some home made syrups.

This isn’t the book I’d recommend to a total newbie, but if there’s someone in your life who is ready to up their drink game a bit? This is a wonderful addition to the library.What I love about this book is that there’s a little bit of everything, but it’s all generally very accessible.