Step One: Where to find the organic liquors: If you wanna go green and your liquor store does not want you to: As some reviews note that they aren't familiar with a few of the organic brands listed, it should be noted that all brand names and even suggestions of where to track 'em down are in the foreward for the book under the section: "Everything you need to know to build a green bar." But, as the author notes, these are suggestions. If you want to use what you have on hand and go organic part of the time, the recipes are solid enough in taste and preparation that you'll still enjoy the recipes until your order for, say, Vodka 14 arrives from its organic distillary...BUT, that said, ask your local liquor store first. We found our liquor store was happy to order us some organic Vodka as well as tequila, and that another one slightly further from us already stocked them both. So even if you are in an area with little access to organic liquors, with the internet or a friendly request, you may have the same luck as us trying out some great recipes. Where to find any other organic ingredients listed? Read the notes on every recipe and the author will tell you...such as with one recipe that suggests tamarind concentrate (for a very exotic drink) tells us to find it at an Indian food specialty store, an all-natural grocery store, or on the internet. But there are plenty of recipes with nothing exotic so don't let the unique ones scare you off--they just add interest to the book and help you create one-of-a-kind mixers you'd never see otherwise on days you feel like dabbling in a new taste.
Why It Matters: While taste, in my opinion, is greater with organic liquors, the cost follows suit. But anyone going organic knows that this is the norm. Reason being that without synthetic insecticides, and artificial ingredients to maintain freshness longer than is natural, farmers and manufacturers are going to lose more of their crop/ingredients used in distributing their organic product-- whether food or alcohol. Giving new meaning to the phrase "drinking responsibly", an organic cocktail drinker may choose to do so do avoid insecticides and harmful sprays shown to be detrimental to their bodies and the environment, to support sustainable farming and/or to encourage enviromentally repsponsible packaging. But, in the end, taste is what one remembers in the first sip so regardless of your motive...that is key. And in my opinion, the author pulls through...
Choose Your Mood: Feeling Fresh & Zesty? Lush & Fruity? Clean & Classic? Wanna Play in the Garden or Invite Friends Over for Punch in a Pitcher? There is a section for each. You choose and pick a recipe to suit your taste.
Fresh & Zesty was my favorite section. Formerly a lover of mimosas, I enjoyed the author's suggestion to utilize grapefruit juice instead so as not to smother the taste of the champagne--and to utilize the grapefruit juice's acidity and more refined sweetness in combination with tequila and elderflower liquor to create a phenomenal new brunch sensation.
"Coming in Hot" is a favorite new drink, but, as a Texan, its sweet and hot taste is particularly pleasing to my Tex/Mex palette. It combines strawberries, a small zip of jalapeno chilis, agave nectar, lemon juice and tequila to take your mama's margarita into a modern sensation.
The saffron margarita is a new taste sensation as well, combining tequila, contreau, lime juice, mango puree made from mango chunks, agave nectar, and saffron threads for an orange/red sweet and tart margarita.
Of course, organic suggestions of all of the above ingredients are noted.
Lest it be assumed all drinks are as exotic as the above, know that the book also has recipes for still unique, but not quite so exotic: prickly pear mojito, organic agave margarita, lavender lemon drop, Harvey Wallbanger version 2.0, all natural bellini, etc.
Few recipes are "old school" recipes with simply new organic ingredients. Most have a gourmet twist so that even if you decide to use non-organic ingredients to save money on occasion, you won't be scrimping on discovering new tastes within your mixology.
Kentucky Christmas is a great suggestion for cocktails prior to Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner for the adult household...or even a holiday party. You muddle organic cranberries then simply add cranberry juice and bourbon. We have also made this with frozen cranberries and it's crisp and fresh enough for summer parties on the porch and festive enough for winter celebrations--but could not be any easier to prepare.
The recipes aren't hard to do and are unique enough that they are actually fun to try...the taste combos are wonderfully paired in my opinion.
Look: As the other reviewers noted, this is just a gorgeous book with beautifully done full-color photos and color throughout the book, including divider pages and fonts. Even if you left this on a coffee table, it would serve well. Heck, the photos are so well done that you almost wanna tear em out and frame em! (this is coming from an artist. But I think anyone would notice this aspect of the book.) The beauty of the book helps make it a good gift for your organically inclined family member or neighbor, I think it would be safe to say...Well, so long as they drink.
Negatives: It's rare that anyone would have their bar well-stocked enough to simply open this book and begin creating scores of recipes. To truly go organic in every recipe, you will need to do some bar stocking. If you don't want to order anything off the internet then it's best, in order to create many recipes, that you have an all-natural grocery nearby such as Whole Foods or Central Market, in order to create some of the more exotic recipes that may call for organic ingredients such as organic lemon juice. But, with such shopping trips, you'll be able to take old school cocktails like "spiked lemonade" to new-age ones such as "spiked blueberry-thyme lemonade". And the tastes are unique and worth it to us--and living in Austin made the ingredients easy for us to locate. However, there were some recipes that were also seasonal due to the ingredients, so this should be kept in mind as well. Organic drinking is no different than eating...it takes extra effort but only the reader can decide if this is worth it or if they have the stores near them to allow them to access organic ingredients to make the book worth it. If not, however, they are still sure to find some unique new takes on classic faves.
