The 12 Best Cocktail Books For Your Home Bar
Well over a decade ago, when I was taking my first steps into the world of craft cocktails, there were about a half dozen must-read books on the subject—most of which were around 100 years old, and all but impossible to decipher.
That was just before the modern cocktail renaissance: A cultural zeitgeist that brought single barrel bourbons, many-hued French liqueurs, and meticulously waxed mustaches out of their obscure stations in history and into bars, restaurants, and homes.
Now, there are a half dozen must-read cocktail books released almost every year. The environment has never been richer for the cocktail curious. And while an exhaustive list of cocktail books would deserve a book of its own, this list of the 12 best cocktail books for your home bar is an excellent place to start.
Raising the Bar: A Guide to Mixing Masterful Cocktails at Home
If you could only have one book to reference when building your own home bar, Raising the Bar would do admirably. Written by two veterans of the cocktail industry, this book focuses on the process of creating a versatile and well-equipped home bar by understanding the purpose of each ingredient, bottle by bottle.
Its user-friendly illustrations and recipes provide an excellent jumping-off point for making your first cocktails, while the many nuggets of wisdom buried throughout the text will give you a lot of mixological knowledge to grow into.
The Joy of Mixology
Gary “Gaz” Regan is one of the forerunners of the modern cocktail renaissance—a renaissance man of spirits and liqueurs, with a keen eye toward deep research and historical context. At the same time, he is intimately familiar with current trends, and publishes a yearly collection of the best new cocktails from bars around the world.
The Joy of Mixology is his seminal work, originally published in 2003 and updated here to include the latest developments in mixology mastery. It’s a one-stop reference guide for all things mixed drinks, and a staple in the libraries of professional and amateur mixologists alike.
The Negroni: A Love Affair with a Classic Cocktail
Bitter. Sweet. Spiritous. Complex. The Negroni is many things—but what it is most decidedly not is a beginners’ cocktail. One wrong move while you’re measuring, and the entire balance of the drink can be blown out of the herb-soaked water. That’s why a book like The Negroni: A Love Affair with A Classic Cocktail is a must-read for any would-be home mixologist.
It covers not only the history and origins of the classic cocktail, but provides an in-depth look at everything you’ll need to know to make your own Negroni (or one of its many variations).
Meehan’s Bartender Manual
For a peek into the high-stakes, design-driven arena of the world’s best cocktail bars, look no further than Meehan’s Bartender Manual. Written by industry stalwart Jim Meehan, it’s a complete guide to (just about) everything you would need to know to one day open your own cocktail bar—from how to set up your bar’s organization, to understanding your ingredients, to creating your own signature recipes.
While it’s a dense read for a beginner, this book is ideal for the home bartender who already has a decent knowledge of mixing drinks.
The Martini
The Martini: It’s been immortalized in fiction, film, television, and the visual arts, and perhaps no other cocktail has as wide of recognition as this classic. The Martini also happens to be quite a bit like playing the guitar: Easy to pick up and learn, but almost impossibly difficult to master.
Matt Hranek’s The Martini will bring you one step closer to the near-frozen beverage of your dreams, though, with deep commentary on the origins of the drink, a comprehensive examination of how to mix one, and beautiful full-color photography throughout.
The Aviary Cocktail Book
Grant Achatz’s restaurant Alinea turned heads ‘round the world when it opened in 2005, offering a new vision for American fine dining. So when Achatz opened The Aviary, his cocktail bar, in 2011, expectations were high. And in the decade since the bar welcomed its first patrons, those expectations have been routinely shattered, with a seemingly neverending well of creative cocktails to draw from.
In The Aviary Cocktail Book, Achatz takes you inside the process of crafting truly original drinks—but honestly, the book is almost more fun to look through than to recreate recipes from, as many of the drinks require elaborate preparation and/or specialized equipment.
Spirited: Cocktails from Around the World
The cocktail as we know it today is an American invention, pioneered and popularized by Professor Jerry Thomas in the mid-1800s. But around the world, the tradition of mixing drinks has taken many different faces—a fact attested to in Spirited: Cocktails from Around the World.
Filled with historical detail and cutting-edge recipes, Spirited offers a fascinating look into the march of the mixed drink around the globe, with over 600 detailed and fully illustrated recipes from more than 60 countries on six continents.
The Essential Cocktail Book
Part cocktail compendium and part gorgeous showpiece, The Essential Cocktail Book is a leather-bound masterwork that’s perfectly suited to take up residence on your coffee table. Recipes, lore, and techniques are all explained in detail here, giving you everything necessary to recreate over 150 cocktails in your own home.
The recipes range from the utterly classic (like the Old Fashioned) to the hip and modern (the Brancolada) and everything in between. It’s a beautifully illustrated book with clear and easy-to-follow directions, and will make a handsome addition to any home bar.
Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions
Death & Co. is a bar practically synonymous with the New York City cocktail scene—and as with everything cultural, once a cocktail bar makes it big in NYC, they make it big everywhere. Cocktail Codex is the brainchild of the minds behind the world-famous bar, and it is one of the finest explorations of cocktail creativity that’s ever been printed.
Dissecting each classic formulation to extract the principles of its construction, the Codex will give you a masterful view of how to make the best of every single ingredient that you choose to stock in your home bar.
The Craft of the Cocktail: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Master Bartender
If it weren’t for Dale DeGroff, today’s cocktail scene as we know it might not even exist. Thanks to his work at The Rainbow Room in the ’90s, amateur mixologists in the early oughts were given a springboard for their ideas.
In The Craft of the Cocktail, DeGroff shares his stories and recipes in the style of a true barman of old: Magnanimous and witty, skillful yet humble. Though the recipes in the book haven’t all aged well, it’s considered a modern classic in the cocktail canon, and is well worth having on your bookshelf.
Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails
Donn the Beachcomber and Trader Vic provided an incredible service to the American public at a time when they needed it most: In the post-war era, when returning GIs and their families wanted nothing more than to escape into an endless Polynesian summer.
In Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails, Shannon Mustipher picks up where the tiki greats of old left off and then brings this style of cocktail into the modern age. It’s a comprehensive look at everything tropical and kitsch, with top-tier recipes for every rum punch under the Tahitian sun.
Camp Cocktails
Your home bar doesn’t necessarily need to be in your home—in spirit, it can be anywhere that you gather together with friends to share libations. That’s why we want to mention Camp Cocktails here. It’s an unexpected guide to mixing drinks au natural, covering everything from planning your ingredients to packing them out with you as you trek into the woods and streams.
The chapter on foraged ingredients makes it a particular standout for outdoorsy types who enjoy a good mixed drink to cap off their day.
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