The Cocktail Primer: All You Need to Know to Make the Perfect Drink

A worthy primer for nearly anyone - from the amateur to the 'semi-professional' drinker, The first chapter, Getting Started, provides the novice with an historical overview of 'The Essentials of a Well-stocked Bar' replete with recommendations on the 8 bottles required for a basic bar, all the way up to Bar 3: "Uh-oh! Eben's coming over, so I had to stock up on some more!" Subsequent chapters break all (nearly all?) cocktalia into six basic drink categories - the Martini (and its evolutionary children), the Manhattan (and beyond), simple and complex Sours, Muddled Drinks and Highballs. All are as much of a pleasure to read about as to drink. Klemm places all of his cocktails - old classics and new variations - in the historical framework of cocktails, which he traces over the past 50 years to its current fin-de-siecle epitome.