Customer Reviews

Classic Cocktails

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

 

 

A must have for any cocktail or pop culture fan. See what this great American pleasure is all about. This gorgeous little book delivers recipes for, as the title reads, truely CLASSIC cocktails--ones you've heard of or had before, with old advertisements, posters, pictures, etc. from the earlier half of the twentieth century to along (and photos of drinks). The book's presentation is excellent and would make a great gift for someone new to cocktail culture (or already appreciative of it), or for yourself. Even if you never get around to making the drinks, you would be satisfied just looking through the book. Small size, hard cover, quality paper, good reproductions of pictures--nice for the coffee table where guests can take a peek at it.

This book is classy. Gives the history with really posh photographs of both ads and cocktails. Recipes are listed in simple English. Colorful. Fun.

Salvatore Calabrese has complied a stylish and helpful cocktail book. The drink facts are fascinating and the pictures are top quality. Of course you get drink recipes and instructions on how to make them, but it is presented in a way that even if you never prepare one drink from the book, it is worth a look.

Let's be real here, this book is about $7 brand new which is a steal if you consider the content. It's well written and printed beautifully in full color. Perfect for introducing someone inexperienced to the world of classic cocktails. The reviewer who wrote that the recipes are only in metric is wrong, they are converted to standard ounces throughout the book, although instead of using standard cocktail measurements (1oz, 2oz, 1.5oz, .75oz, etc.) they use irregular fractions of an ounce (2/3, 1/3, etc.). Not a problem for anyone used to mixing cocktails, the exact amounts are always subject to a bit of finesse.

The real problem with this hardcover version is the quality of the binding. It's really of very low quality and cracks and pops as you open the book and turn the pages. I'm constantly afraid that it's gonna fall apart in my hands. The cloth cover is also not properly glued down and keeps peeling away. I've only had the book for a day and I'm afraid to open it all the way or attempt to force it to lay open, making it useless if you're trying to use it in the bar. In fact, holding it in my hands as I write this review I notice that the entire cover is only attached to the pages via 2 thin slips of paper. It's very, very, very, fragile and poorly assembled.

Classic cocktails provides not only the history of many drinks, but some of the most refined ways of making them. His martini recipie alone is worth buying the book.

I liked it so much that I bought copies for all of my relatives at Christmas.

The opinion of this 12 year veteran bartender is that this book is not only attractive but is also interesting