Product Description

Charles Baker has created what is perhaps the greatest armchair drinking book of all time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112809 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

A classic tale of classics
A wonderful journey, by a true bon vivant, around the world and into some of its most famous, and infamous bars to sample the spiritous joys within.
The classical work on the classic cocktails and drinks, and many other beverages besides that didn't quite make that lofty status, but still deserve to be tippled occaisionally too.
Loved it, loved it, loved it, please reprint the south american epic now please, I await with baited breath.

Classic, but a word of caution
Many of the recipes in this book vary considerably from how the drink of the same name is prepared today. The author often calls for ingredients which can no longer be procured, but that is to be expected. For the serious cocktail enthusiast, this book is a must-have, and this inexpensive reprint means you won't want to kill yourself if you spill grenadine on it.

The previous person to review this book makes a good point, too. This is not simply a formula book of recipes, but THAT is exactly what makes it a great read. Another perfect example of this is "Cocktail Recipes from the Nineteenth Century - The Flowing Bowl", by Spencer (another recent reprint of a rare old cocktail book.)

The Gentleman's Companion
It should be noted first, that this book is a faithful reprint (all except the title and cover :-) of the classic "The Gentleman's Companion", first published in 1939. That first edition came as a two book set: "Exotic Drink Book", and "Exotic Cookery Book". The former is the book here in question, the latter has been likewise reprinted under the title "Knife, Fork, and Spoon : Eating Around the World".

If you are expecting the same old "wad-o-drinks" type of book here, then you will be quite surprised in what you find. Mr. Baker has a dry wit, as well as a cunning charm about him. And he exercises it well as he relates to his readers the various drinks that he has collected through his travels and adventures. The recipes often consist of more prose then raw ingredients, which makes them both more interesting to browse through but at the same time slightly more difficult to work from.

For a taste of his style, here is just one of the drink recipes from this book:

SANTIAGO NIGHTCAP, from a STAY in SANTIAGO de CUBA,
in the EARLY SPRING of 1930
------This is another favour passed along to this field
representative and wine tester by the late Senor Facuno
Bacardi, it being his primary thought to donate something
to woo sleep and restore the slightly frayed physical
assembly. It is a simple drink, and would also make a
fine picker-upper. . . . Take 1 1/2 jiggers of Gold
Seal Bacardi rum, add 1 pony of orange curaco and the
yolk of 1 egg. Shake hard with cracked ice and strain
into a large saucer champagne glass.

While the formatting of these recipes may make it a bit more difficult to glean direct recipes from them, they do present a provocative and insightfull snapshot of the cocktail world of those days. Few books, before or since, have even approached this wonderfully eclectic performance.

I highly recommend this book for anybody who has an interest in classic cocktails.