Customer Reviews

How to Booze: Exquisite Cocktails and Unsound Advice

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This one went with me everywhere until I finished it - in my pocketbook, to dismissal time at the elementary school, along for the ride any time my husband was driving, and most importantly, to the liquor store to buy new bottles of dark rum, gin, bitters, maraschino liqueur, and absinthe (I already had the Lillet Blanc and the elderflower liqueur).

Now we live in a heaven of Friday afternoon cocktails, interesting, complex, delicious things like the rum daisy, the Sazerac, and the Perfect Manhattan. And while we drink them, I read aloud from this extremely funny book.

The authors - a bartender and a lawyer, and if that doesn't sound like the setup for a ribald joke I do not know what does - conjure the perfect situations for drinking their favorite cocktails. Revenge adultery? The French 75 (gin, lemon juice, champagne, mmm). Threesome? The Negroni (to which I say HEY! That's MY cocktail, and I am NOT that kind of girl). Looking for a fight? Start drinking Bobby Burns cocktails after work and by seven pm you will be bloody and grinning.

Offensive, oh yes. Marvelously so. But so inspiring, to wit:

Your Neighborhood Librarian's Nightmare in Pink
2 measures Hendricks gin
1/2 measure Lillet Blanc
splash Campari
Shake vigorously over ice, strain into a cocktail glass.
Variation: The Daydream in Pink: same cocktail, half and half with grapefruit juice.

I love this book. It brings me great joy every time I pick it up and read a section or two. So much so that I am posting my first amazon review ever. My favorite part: "Stalking your ex." The first, oh, ten times I read that chapter I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face. My roommate and I read portions of this book aloud to one another, like bedtime stories, only different. I highly recommend it, also as a gift. I got one for my Mom for a late Mother's Day present (OK, I know that's ridiculous, but she liked it! She likes to drink, too, though, so, yeah, take that into consideration.) All in all, the book's an absolute steal at under $10!

I love this book. I love the bawdy anecdotes, the great classic recipes, and information on liquors, cordials, bitters, etc. Mr Kaye and Mr Altier have transformed this 32 year old lady into a dame that drinks like an 85 year old man. My husband and I read this aloud while drinking Sidecars with our new favorite bar staple, Benedictine.

With all the ridiculously specific scenarios for each cocktail (Drinking with people you despise, Realizing your kid is dumb, etc) perhaps they should start a liquor-related advice column....How about a suggestion for drinking to forget the recession, fellas?

Thanks, Mr. Kaye, for providing the ultimate gift for the irreverent boozer. This book is fabulous--hilarious and informative (you know it's good when they kick off with dark and stormies and one night stands). I'm buying out my favorite local Spokane bookstore's copies for the holidays!

This is the funniest cocktail book you'll ever find. The co-authors create a stimulating blend between Jordan Kaye's sardonic wit and mixologist Marshall Altier's informative and accessible cocktail recipes. Each recipe is accompanied by a few paragraphs of lurid prose - picture if Hemmingway, Martin Amos, and Henry Miller sat down to write a cocktail book. The book details various life situations that would drive you to drink ("Striking Up Conversations With Strangers," "Company Barbecue," "Stalking Your Ex") and the perfect drink for that occasion (Tom Collins, Brown Derby, and Tequila Sour, respectively).

Along the way, the book provides a lot of genuinely useful information; everything from the distinction between Bourbon and Whiskey to the rules for when a Martini should be shaken vs. stirred (it turns out James Bond was technically incorrect). And finally, the book represents all the new mixology trends emerging in Manhattan, and a return to the bitters and exotic flavors of the 1930's - when alcohol was consumed for flavor and pleasure and not just to get shnookered.

Though the humor is often a little scandalous, this is a fun book that will make you better at entertaining at home, and more creative and discerning when ordering at the bar.

My niece just turned 21 and I bought this book for her, but after flipping though it I think I might buy another copy for my bar library. I used to tend bar and I'm still a "certified mixologist", but I haven't practiced my craft in a long time. The authors of this book are quite accomplished in that field and the book is written with a quick wit. Entertaining by itself, even without mixing any of the drinks. Some ingredients will be hard to find, but this book is mostly full of recipes for special occasions.

My wife bought me this book for Father's Day this year and my immediate reaction was, "Oh great. Another cocktail recipe book." I have collected and read the essential cocktail histories and was wondering how I would find anything useful in such a slim tome. Boy, was I wrong.

The prose in the book is absolutely hilarious as long as you can appreciate some bawdy or crude humor. The writers do not really delve into cocktail history or explanations of liquors/liqueurs, but do make some compelling and funny cases as to what cocktails to pair with many situations. And, amazingly, I do agree with most of the proportions of their drink recipes!

This book makes a great gift for cocktail/alcohol enthusiasts or anyone who works behind a bar.

When I show this book to friends, they consistently threaten to steal it from me.

The book lists about 50 situations (first date, bringing home someone ugly, conversations with strangers, the end of the world, etc.) and the appropriate drink, including variations. Turn it into a scavenger hunt: try to enjoy each drink in the corresponding situation. Some situations will require creativity. It's like a drinking game that lasts a few decades...