Customer Reviews

Diffordsguide Cocktails 8

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

 

 

I bought this book for my son who is a Culinary Institute of America Bachelors student. He has aquired quite a collection of books and his words were 'This is the Most awesome cocktail book I have yet". So I am very pleased with this purchase.

It's a great book. Tons of recipes. Sometimes the commentary is long (hundreds of words); more often it's short ('A classic mojito with a hint of berry fruit'). The ingredients are often obscure, *but* that can't really be a complaint: with 2500+ drinks, of course there's going to be hard-to-find ingredients, and a good 20-30% of them can be made with a basic bar of 14 items (marked in the text with a handy 'key' symbol). I'm no cocktail snob, but even finding a few great drinks from the book pays for the price quickly. I find many to be on the sour side and heavy on the lemon/lime, but that's just taste.

There's a section in the front with basic bar technique, and the back has useful narratives about hundreds of different drink ingredients. A lot of typos though -- pay the copy editor better next time!

Do be aware of the author's website (google for "diffords guide"), where many (but not all) of the recipes are available for free, and can be easily searched by ingredient, mixer, ranking, etc. The book is great, though the website is often more flexible.

a truly outstanding book, more than 2600 cocktails designed for the professional bartenders and the home enthusiast. beautiful presented and great photography.

This is an amazing book. The pictures are amazing, the recipes are clear and the notes are interesting.

It has sections on bar tools, techniques, and at the back a glossary with lots of great detail on all things mentioned in the recipes.

It has key ingredients listed, from which you can make 500 of the drinks in the book.

However, the only index is by these same key alcohols... you can find out what drinks use one of them, but other than that the only way to find things is by name. This is somewhat ameliorated because the website allows you to search all recipes by ingredient and the search is quite powerful. However, it would have been nice to have that in the book.

My only other complaint is that while the ratings go from 1-5 (in 1/2 point increments) almost all are 3 or above. There are three 2 star ratings and one 1.5 star rating (found only by using the website's search).

Those minor complaints aside, this is a fantastic reference. If someone comes and asks for an obscure drink, you are likely to find it here.

By the way, the #8 is the edition. Difford keeps updating and refining the guide which is impressive.