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The Best Cocktail Recipe Books for Home Bartenders at Every Level
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items Want to make great cocktails at home, but don't know where to start? Do you already make a few basic recipes, and you want to learn more? Are you an expert home bartender looking for a challenge? These are my favorite cocktail recipe books for home b...
Sections
3
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Beginner
If you've never even picked up a jigger, these books are for you
I'm definitely biased because this is my book, but I wrote it with beginners in mind. You don't need a lot of unusual ingredients, it takes you through the basic techniques, and it includes 25 classic recipes to learn in addition to 25 botanical twis...
Cocktails, Mocktails & Garden Garnishes
If you want to start building a home bar but you don't know how, The 12 Bottle Bar is for you. The book is full of cocktails you can make with only 12 basic ingredients.
The 12 Bottle Bar
Part of learning about cocktails is learning about their history. This book will introduce you to “the Professor” Jerry Thomas, one of the first celebrity bartenders who still influences the way we make drinks today. It also contains recipes for a nu...
Imbibe!
If you're ready to plunge into the world of rum and Tiki, this is a great starting point. It's bordering on intermediate, but Cate will take you through the history and techniques behind these drinks, and does an excellent breakdown of rum categories...
Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails & Rum
You can't go wrong starting with the classics. Mixing your way through Classic Cocktails Done Well will teach you everything you need to know about making great cocktails.
Classic Cocktails: Tried-and-True Recipes
Once you've mastered the classics, it's time to learn the modern classics - recipes created in the last 20-30 years that are so good, every bartender knows them - or should!
Modern Classic Cocktails
Intermediate
Once you've got the basics down, you can handle the more creative recipes and techniques in these books.
This is my cocktail bible. The recipes inside are creative but approachable. The techniques described are used by professionals but broken down for the home bartender. The specs for the classic drinks are spot on. I open this book more than any other...
Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails
This book, by the late Sasha Petraske, contains not only impeccable cocktail recipes paired with creative illustrations, but also essays and thoughts on cocktails and bartending in general from one of the industry's defining figures.
Regarding Cocktails
Death & Co's second book is based on the philosophy that all cocktails come from six basic templates.
Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions
Once you've mastered the Jungle Bird, Zombie, and Saturn, it's time to move on to these more sleek and modern recipes by rum expert Shannon Mustipher.
Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails
I see this book at cocktail bars more often than any other. This is a true bartender's book, with notes about hospitality and bar design in addition to cocktail recipes.
Meehan's Bartender Manual
This was, as far as I know, one of the first cocktail recipe books to come from a bar. PDT (Please Don't Tell) is New York's famous speakeasy, hidden behind a phone booth in the back of a hotdog shop. This book is a gold mine of recipes.
The PDT Cocktail Book
Once you equip your bar with the basic spirits and liqueurs, chances are you'll discover Amari and want to buy every single one. This guide will help narrow it down, as well as give you plenty of recipe ideas.
Amaro: Bittersweet Herbal Liqueurs & Recipes
Sometimes deciding what to make is the hardest part. The Seasonal Cocktail is divided into the four seasons, so you can always find a drink perfectly suited to the weather and occasion.
The Seasonal Cocktail
Advanced
Even I can't make most of the drinks in these books, but they're beautiful and interesting and I like trying a recipe or two when I feel like a challenge.
These drinks from Chicago's innovative bar The Aviary require obscure ingredients and molecular gastronomy. But they sure are pretty to look at! This coffee-table worthy book comes in a beautiful box and is honestly worth the hefty price tag. The per...
The Aviary Cocktail Book
This book contains recipes from the eponymous New York City Irish pub. They're surprisingly complicated, but worth the challenge.
The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual
This book is for anyone who wants to get into the details and science of cocktails.
Liquid Intelligence: Perfect Cocktail Guide