Rating: 
Summary: This must be your first cocktail book
Review: This is it, folks - the only cocktail mixing book you need, unless you're a not-quite-grownup that just wants fruity, sweet drinks that obscure the taste of alcohol, and doesn't want to hear about Maraschino Liquer, Pernod, or daquiris and margaritas that haven't been blended (Hemingway, like all true connoisseurs, drank them straight).What I appreciate most about this book is that not only does Harrington give us many recipes, he gives us the history alongside beautiful color photographs of the drinks. This is a book of classic cocktails, lovingly offered by a man who is passionate about his art, and about maintaining the purity of his craft and the sacred act of relaxing and/or sharing cocktails with your good friends. For Harrington, a cocktail is not for getting drunk, but is a special treat to be savored for the complexity of the ingredients working together on one's tongue, and warming one's soul. I also appreciate very much the lengthy introduction with cocktail history, and his cocktail philosophy, and descriptions of all the various alcohols (gin, vodka, whiskey, etc.) out there, many of which I had never heard of (like Pernod, Pisco, and Lillet), and how they can work together to form amazingly complex (and exciting!) taste sensations, like the Floridita (a drink in which the beginning of the sip is slightly sweet, moves into a full bodied flavor, and ends with just a hint of chocolate in the finish). Few cocktail books will mention this drink, and only Harrington will tell you where it comes from, what to be careful about when mixing, and what to taste for when you drink it - directions he gives for all the drinks. He even gives variations of drinks, and explorers historically why some drinks are known by different names and/or different ingredients in different parts of the country. You will find no drinks with names that you wouldn't say to your mother; certainly nothing that a refined gentleman or lady would say in public. You'll find (almost) nothing that is simply a fruity concoction designed to mask the taste of liquor so you can get drunk faster - the mai tai is in there, but mostly for historical reasons, I believe; it *is* a Trader Vic drink, after all. These are real bona fide cocktails, historically researched, and written about by a master of cocktail lore who has an absolute love for his art. It's been said before, but this absolutely must be your first cocktail book. I would suggest that as your kids go off to college, you give them a copy - it'll keep them away from rum & cokes and other damaging drinks, and teach them to respect alcohol and enhance their enjoyment of it. And while you're at it, pick them up a decent cocktail shaker and a couple of martini glasses, too. A million stars for Harrington.
Rating:
Summary: A Drinks Book That Will Outlive The Cocktail Fad
Review: When my husband and I first met, he had one drink he used to make for parties: a scary blue slurpee he called a Tidybowl Margarita. Lots folks we hang with still clamber for the Tidybowl, but our best, most-loved friends prize refreshments made from this book alone. It is classy, lavishly illustrated, and the drinks are potent and delicious. How good it is to sip an Aviation, the drink that got us to reconsider gin! It's a beautiful, translucent white drink, tart and juniper-scented--and it's aptly named; it makes moods soar like a 747. Harrington and Moorhead provide all the history, all the advice--everything but the bottles, the shaker, and the ice There's also the Jasmine, a newly-invented cocktail with a good shot of Campari in it. It's subtle, grapefruit-like, although it contains no grapefruit juice at all. 'Tis just the thing on a hot night. We like to entertain, and we've used other bar books. We've experimented with their versions of antique, usually too-sweet-in-the-long-run drinks. They just don't compare. If Nick and Nora had used a cocktail guide this would have been it. You need it. Now.
| 
