Customer Reviews

Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Before my review, I need to establish some credibility. I have been making classic cocktails as a hobby for several years now. I have made all the drinks in Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails and am presently working my way through Beachbum Berry's tiki books. My liquor cabinet has about 60 different bottles of booze (not counting various syrups, bitters, and other mixers) and grows at a steady rate of 2 to 3 new ingredients per month. I routinely order products I cannot find in my state. I blog about cocktails, participate in forums and discussion panels about cocktails, and even get promotional bottles of alcohol in the mail. (Actually, I received a promotional copy of the book in question.) I regularly host cocktail parties and I frequently make my own syrups, liqueurs, etc. I certainly don't consider myself the same caliber mixologist as the book author, but think it is fair to say I am undaunted by complicated drink recipes or esoteric ingredients. I'm on the aggressive side of amateur hobbyist.

Now, about the book: all the drinks are all lovely, and they look delicious. The photography was gorgeous, and the reading was relatively interesting. Were I visiting Cyrus, I would be happy to order any of these cocktails. But with that said, I will probably never make any of the cocktails in this book. I'm simply not interested in visiting a florist for a bouquet of edible flowers, or traveling a hundred miles to track down Rangpur limes or any other extremely perishable single-use ingredient for the purpose of making one cocktail that will be consumed inside of 10 minutes. If you happen to live somewhere that Meyer lemons, dianthus and borage flowers, olallieberries, and verbana leaves are readily available, more power to you. Maybe this book is for you. For the rest of us, this is a book that will spend its life on the coffee table, or under it, but not at the bar.

Beattie's drinks take the hyper-local approach: The ones he makes at the bar at Cyrus largely come from ingredients sourced from neighbors' gardens and citrus trees. Those recipes are included in the book. But what if you don't live in California? That's when the technique tips come in handy. Beattie gives instruction on how to make spiced syrups, candied citrus peels, foams, rims, and pickled fruits and vegetables. You won't find those in other cocktail books. Not only does this book with its recipes instruct people to make the ultimate West Coast cocktails, its advice will help people around the country develop hyper-local drinks with different local produce sourced wherever they are.

This book is fun to read, and full of inspiring photographs, and I have no doubt that Cyrus's bar is wonderful; I want to go. But as someone who makes many home-infused vodkas and has half a dozen cocktail books, I don't find the book as useful as I'd expected. The takes on classics like the mint julep and the negroni don't add much. Other recipes call for blood orange-infused vodka and lemon-infused vodka, and then include blood orange juice and lemon juice. There's duplication of effort that's fine when you have all the infused vodkas handy, but there's no need for them most of the time. The organization of the book is also unhelpful, put together like something you're supposed to read like a book rather than refer to. Grouping simple syrups, foam techniques, and other basics instead of scattering them through the text would have made it more user friendly over time. All in all, there aren't that many recipes. If breadth had been added to take this beyond a reproduction of Cyrus's cocktail menu and make it an expansive playbook and playground of fanciful libations, it could have been a classic. I hope he'll revise this into that book.

I almost didn't buy this book because of the reviews here.

I'm so glad that I didn't follow that advice and bought it anyway. There are some drinks that require single-use ingredients that are difficult to source. That does not, however, mean that you have to drive 100 miles to get them. If you're looking for Shiso leaves, go to a Japanese grocer. If you're looking for essential oils, go online (I like liberty natural). It's true you can't get pineapple guavas or olallieberries at any point during the year: that's why the book is divided into seasons. You can't get fiddlehead fronds or fresh morels or fresh white truffles at anytime either. Maybe you can't find olallieberries; there are substitution instructions.

The other criticism that I must disagree with is using flavored vodkas along with juices. It's like asking why you would use chicken broth and have chicken in the same dish. The broth is an extract of the chicken, so why would you need the chicken itself? Part of the techniques in the book are about refinement to take an ordinary cocktail to an extraordinary one.

I'm not going to pretend the recipes are simple; they aren't. However, they are exceptionally rewarding. The book will give you new ideas for techniques and methods that you'll find using even when not following a recipe from the book.

Ultimately, the book is almost more like a cookbook. It will inspire you to get out to your farmer's market, learn about local produce, and try new things you may not have considered before. And help you make some of the best cocktails you've ever had, which is the point after all.

Scott Beattie has written the Holy Grail of cocktail recipe books. His drink recipes never fail to delight even the most jaded and discriminating palates at cocktail parties. I routinely serve his drink creations to our dinner guests, and everyone invariably raves about them.

A couple of cautionary notes about the recipes though. In many cases, the recipes require some advance shopping and/or advance preparation time (creating the dehydrated/candied fruits, infused spirits, specially prepared syrups, and juice foams and/or access to a variety of bitters, in-season fresh fruits, Asian spices, edible flowers, etc.). Some of these cocktails recipes also require a substantial number of individual ingredients. Personally, I have not tried several of the recipes which call for certain hard-to-find edible flowers (i.e., Black-eyed Susan petals, dianthus petals) or relatively uncommon organic leaves (i.e, verbena leaves, Amaranth spear, etc). Many of the cocktails will be substantially easier if you already have some prior cocktail-making experience and/or some aptitude for accurately measuring liquid ingredients (it may help if you're already a bartender or trained biochemist). Trust me, you won't be disappointed with the results if you're willing to put in the extra effort required. Beattie's riffs on classic drink recipes can even make some tired old cocktails (like a margarita, a sidecar, a manhattan, or a gin and tonic) taste fresh and wonderful again. Some of the more exotic cocktails that we've tried (like the "Bleeding Orange" and the "Autumn Apple") are beautiful and uniquely delicious masterpieces of modern cocktail-making. Highly Recommended.

This book is extremely approachable considering the caliber of cocktail recipes it contains. The photography is perfect, Scott Beatie's description of ingredients as well as the introduction of the farmers and spirit producers is charming. Even if you are not inclined to make some of the more esoteric of the cocktails, a reading of this books will provide you an appreciation of the alchemy of a beautifully constructed cocktail. A lovely gift for those who appreciate fine dining and all that goes with it.

Face it, every other cocktail book is pretty much a rehash of Bartender's Friend or similar. Same stock drinks, maybe with some engaging commentary or history of where, say, the Cosmo, was invented and by whom.

This is a whole different approach, by a man who is arguably the most passionate and creative bartender alive, who honed his craft working at one of the top restaurants in the United States (Cyrus). If you're looking for The Resource on how to finally get your drink quality to match that of your food, this is it. Slow Food fans rejoice, you've found the book to complete your culinary library.

I imagine I'll be picking up more than a few for Xmas for my serious foodie friends.

Scott Beattie is now working at the Spoonbar in Healdsburg. I'm lucky enough to get there at least once a week. Scott is always working the bar and the drinks look fantastic and taste even better. The classic negroni is unbelievable.

Great book to entertain guest with unique and unusual cocktails. Some of the ingredients may be challenging to find though....

If you want to read about inventive, beautiful cocktails made from fresh, local, in-season ingredients this will be a great book for you. We have an incredibly well-stocked bar, have made some of our own infused liquers from time to time, and have a large library of cocktail books but have found very few cocktails in here that we can just whip up. Most take lots of special preparations or the procurement of unusual flowers or herbs. I am hoping we'll be able to make a few this summer--I planted a few varieties of flowers with this book in mind.