World's Best Cocktails
When I was six, I wanted to be a fireman. By the time I was 12, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. Now that I am — well, let’s just say older — I have discovered what is truly my dream job: being paid to travel the globe in search of the world’s best cocktails, the best bars, and the best bartenders.
Unfortunately that job is already taken by Tom Sandham, cocktail columnist for the Times (London, not New York) and co-creator of Dwink.com. He has recently published a comprehensive assessment of the global beverage culture: The World’s Best Cocktails — 500 Signature Drinks from the World’s Best Bars and Bartenders. Both inspirational and practical, the author provides a grand photographic tour of individual spirits, from absinthe to whiskey, providing histories, styles and recipes for each accompanied by profiles of the bars and bartenders who best celebrate those particular liquors. Additionally, readers discover:
- The “basic kit” of simple tools needed to start mixing cocktails as well as some fancy additions for a collection.
- The history of the Martini and why the botanicals in gin bring the classic cocktail to life even though many fans use vodka as the base.
- How rum, a popular liquor in many cocktails, is also used many other ways: as a medicine, splashed on the heads of babies at christenings, poured over coffins on funerals pyres.
With this book at home one can confidently experience the vast variety of libations, applying tips and techniques from the experts. Stating the obvious, the best method to enjoy the book is with a glass in hand.
You can find this book at Carmichael’s bookstore. As a founding member of the Louisville Independent Business Alliance, Carmichael’s represents the kind of retailer where the benefits of buying local can be experienced.
