The Bartenders Black Book, Updated 9th Edition [Plastic Comb]

Stephen Kittredge Cunningham (Author), Robert M. Parker (Author), Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2008

The newest and ninth edition to the Bartenders Black Book franchise adds 143 brand-new recipes that were created by bartenders, professional and laymen, around the world in the last two years. That brings the total beverage count to 3,000, more than double that of any other drink guide. All the sections have been expanded and updated, including Robert M. Parker, Jr. s Vintage Guide and Mr. Cunningham s already vast Martini section. Of course this book still has all its classic features: an index by ingredients, in-depth mixing instructions, metric conversion tables, a list of every possible garnish, sections on hot drinks, frozen drinks, beers, ales, lagers, and malternatives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No one will ever have the creative cocktail knowledge of Stephen Kittredge Cunningham." --Robert M. Parker, Jr. The Wine Advocate, October 2000

Product Details

• Plastic Comb: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wine Appreciation Guild; 9 edition (November 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934259179
• ISBN-13: 978-1934259177
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Bartending

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

158 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended from Behind the Bar, March 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bartender's Black Book: The Drink Recipe Collection for the 21st Century, Sixth Edition (Plastic Comb)

I'm a bartender and there is always one customer who comes along and orders a drink you dont know how to make. Behind the bar we keep several drink books, but this is the only one that actually gets used. Easy to read recipies, non-coded names for liquors, short, sweet, and to the point. Spiral binded so the book will not close while you are mixing. Contains the most variety of drinks I've seen from Vodka Collins for beginners (which most books don't have) through Long Islands all the way to a Mongolian Mother for the more adverse. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to shake, stir, or blend.

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this Book, April 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bartender's Black Book: The Drink Recipe Collection for the 21st Century, Sixth Edition (Plastic Comb)

I had to write a review after reading the prior one of a man in search of a picture book. There are a plethora of [bad] picture drink books on the market. It is funny, he was looking for a common thing (a [bad] picture drink book) and he got the finest drink recipe book ever written. The author painstakingly alphabetized and reworked thousands of drinks. He threw out all the [bad stuff] and made a No [fooling] essential tool, that restaurants, bars, and liquor stores must carry (they all seem to). The book is unbiased (no liquor companies pushing their product) It lays flat so I can work and read at the same time. I own a 4th, 5th and a 6th edition and I await new editions. I have learned from them all....THE BARTENDER'S BLACK BOOK IS A 5 STAR BOOK.

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Newest Edition Has Recipes, Convenience--and a Wine Guide, December 20, 2004

By 

Bill Marsano (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bartender's Black Book, 7th Edition: 2,700 New and Classic Recipes (Plastic Comb)

Tons of Lore and Just as Much Convenience


By Bill Marsano. There are more than enough bar guides around to satisfy even the thirstiest soul, so the question becomes which one is the most helpful, the easiest to use. Well, this one has a pretty fair claim to the title.

At about 4.5 inches by 9, it is of convenient, under-bar size (no bartender wants the customer to know he has to look anything up). It has some 2,700 recipes, and it takes them all with a straight face, from the utterly genteel to the impossibly vulgar (in my view, anyone who orders a German Leg-Spreader or a Duck Fart is a lout who should be flung into the street at the earliest opportunity, but that's the bouncer's job). There's an enlarged section on the martini, that greatest of cocktails, that Fred Astaire of drinks; and sections on flavored vodkas, shooters, floaters and wines. The wine section is especially worthy of note. Bartenders used to take the approach of Tim Costello's old Manhattan saloon, which had its wine list painted on the wall. It said: "Red, $2.50. White, $2.50. No substitutions." But times are changing and with any number of places offering wine by the glass, the able bartender has to know more than how to use a corkscrew. In this book, the wine advice comes from that demigod, Robert Parker Jr. himself. Nuff said.

But the best thing about this book is that it has a comb binding--something like a spiral-wire binding, but made of plastic. It means this book, unlike all the others I've see lately, lies FLAT. No more bending the book open, flexing it until the binding cracks, and then weighting it with a beer bottle to keep the thing from flapping closed. Sometimes strokes of genius are as easy as they are rare.--Bill Marsano is an award-winning writer and editor.'