Book Review: The New Cocktail Hour
With The New Cocktail Hour, Andre and Tenaya Darlington take a freshness-first approach to the cocktail trade, with the goal of “blurring the line between the bar and the kitchen.”
That means: Expect lots of classic cocktails and a smattering of originals that make as much use of fresh fruit, herbs, and homemade syrups as possible. The Darlingtons try to dial down the sugar in various concoctions, and they rely on honey and demerara sugar when possible.
The book is breezy and well-organized, with a nice balance between recipes and the dissemination of basic drinking knowledge (understanding various vodka types, tequila expressions, etc.). Most recipes are not overly complex, so if you’re looking for a beginners’ guide that still has a focus on quality, this is a good book to get you started. I would however like to have had more photography in the book, though what’s there is quite appealing.
Cocktail pros probably won’t learn much here, but there’s plenty of other material out there for that…
B+ / $14 / [BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON]
The New Cocktail Hour
$14
