Books
Drinkhacker’s books category covers everything from the history of drink to cocktail recipe collections and more. Books are rated using the same letter grade scale as our beverage reviews.
Top Book Posts:
The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book
Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol
Japanese Whisky
Cork Dork
I am generally not one for an adventurous life in the great outdoors. When discussing the splendid pursuits of natural environments with someone evangelical about its numerous benefits, I often reach for Frank Zappa’s quote: “Outdoors for me is walking from the car to the ticket desk at the airport.” Folks will either sail right…
Switching from 2022’s remarkable volume on doctors and distillation, Camper English sets his sites on writing the ultimate book about one of his passions: ice. Readers of his long-running site Alcademics know this to be one of his biggest areas of study, and The Ice Book takes some of the ideas found in some of…
For those who want to throw a whiskey-themed dinner party, there are few books available to guide the way. Several bourbon-focused cookbooks have hit the shelves in recent years, but no cooking guide, to my knowledge at least, has attempted the kind of wide-ranging approach that Richard Thomas’s recent The Whiskey Cookbook admirably undertakes. Over…
There are certainly moments when drinking alone in solitude is a blissful thing. However, sometimes it’s equally enjoyable to have a loyal companion of the non-human sort quietly hanging around, relaxing next to your favorite chair, couch, or fireplace with unwavering loyalty. Such a celebration of dogs is the guiding concept behind Natalie Bovis’ book,…
As a recently-minted member of the “olds,” it is my solemn duty to maintain a blissful level of ignorance when discussing the zeitgeist of coolness within the entertainment industry. I do not take this responsibility lightly, so I posit the question: Do we need a Lebowski-themed cocktail book in 2023? Has there been a new…
Steve the Bartender’s Cocktail Guide prides itself on accessibility, with both classic cocktails, and variations that will pique the curiosity of seasoned drink masters. With well over 100 recipes, it is quite easy to find something which can appeal to every taste and situation and doesn’t require previous knowledge or advanced expertise. It’s also quite…
What’s the last drink you’d want before you die? I’ve been thinking about this since cracking open Last Call, but still haven’t made up my mind. Maybe a Zombie. Something to go out with a bang, and something immediately delicious and decadent. Definitely not something like a Martini or a Negroni… though some 30 year old…
In his forward for the second edition of Richard Thomas’s American Whiskey, Robin Robinson offers up the monumental understatement that the American whiskey industry is “a dynamic industry where change is constant.” That truth is born out just in a quick comparison between the first edition of Mr. Thomas’s book, published in 2019, and the…
It always feels like a flippant cop-out to reply “the one that’s in your hand right now” whenever someone asks me the name of the best (insert style of spirit here) they can procure, but any other response I could offer would send them on a wild goose chase that will, more often than not,…
There’s a high probability that Karen MacNeil has forgotten more about wine than most of us will ever know. Over 700 pages in length, this 3rd edition has made many significant upgrades over the first two printings: color coding, 400 new photos, sharper infographics, new sections on Great Britain, Israel, and Croatia, as well as…