Product Description

A lively, historically informed, and definitive guide to classic American cocktails.

Cocktail writer and historian David Wondrich presents the colorful, little-known history of classic American drinks-and the ultimate mixologist's guide-in this engaging homage to Jerry Thomas, father of the American bar.

Wondrich reveals never-before-published details and stories about this larger-than-life nineteenth-century figure, along with definitive recipes for 100 punches, cocktails, sours, fizzes, toddies, slings, and other essential drinks, plus twenty new recipes from today's top mixologists, created exclusively for this book.

This colorful and good-humored volume is a mustread for anyone who appreciates the timeless appeal of a well-made drink-and the uniquely American history behind it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91756 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-06
• Format: Import
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
cofounder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, Wondrich delivers a well-researched chronicle of Professor Jerry Thomas's life and times as late 19th-century bartender extraordinaire. From gold rush saloons in San Francisco to last calls in lower Manhattan, Thomas collected material for The Bartender's Guide, the seminal 1862 collection of cocktail recipes. Wondrich offers up 100 classic cocktails from Thomas's guide and other period sources, along with 16 new drinks that recall those golden days. Old-time tools, ingredients and measurements are conveniently converted to their contemporary equivalents, as julep strainers and toddy sticks are hard to come by. Fortunately, many of the concoctions transcend time in their simplicity. General Harrison's Egg Nogg, for example, calls for hard cider, sugar, an egg and some lumps of ice. For the newly minted offerings, Julie Reiner of New York's Flatiron Lounge conjures up a Cherry Smash that includes brandied cherries, cognac and Orange Curaçao, and Wondrich weighs in with a glass of rye, simple syrup and Angostura bitters, which he calls a Tombstone. The result is a lovely homage to Thomas's indomitable spirits. B&w illus. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"{Jerry} Thomas finally gets his due in Imbibe!....Mr. Wondrich puts the drinks in context, with their ingredients explained, their measurements accurately indicated, and their place in the overall cocktail scheme clearly mapped out. At the same time, Thomas himself appears, for the first time, as a living presence: a devotee of bare-knuckle prize fights, a flashy dresser fond of kid gloves, an art collector, a restless traveler usually carrying a fat wad of bank notes and a gold Parisian watch. A player, in short."
--William Grimes, The New York Times

"This book will leave you shaken and, I hope, stirred. Wondrich, one of the top spirits writers in the country, delves into the rich and fascinating history of mixology in America."
--USA Today

"Imbibe brings back the delicious forgotten cocktails created by a pioneering American bon vivant....This book is a model for food history writing....{Wondrich is} always an enjoyable writer, curious, eager, mildly opinionated and with a taste for the amusing."
--The Los Angeles Times

"Cocktail connoisseurs and history buffs will find this book an essential addition to their reference libraries." --The San Francisco Chronicle

"Wondrich offers what amounts to a history of industrial-age America writ in booze, covering everything from punches, fizzes, and sours to toddies, slings, and juleps."
--Saveur, Top Ten Reads

"How and why America rose to world preeminence in mixology is explained zestfully in Imbibe!."
--Forbes

"With Imbibe!, David Wondrich's biography of 19-century mixologist Jerry Thomas, cocktails do the time warp."
--New York Daily News

"Wondrich delivers a well-researched chronicle of "Professor" Jerry Thomas's life and times as late 19th-century bartender extraordinaire...a lovely homage to Thomas's indomitable spirits."
--Publishers Weekly

About the Author
David Wondrich is one of the world's foremost authorities on cocktails and their history. A contributing editor at Esquire and Wine and Spirits, he has written for numerous other publications on the subject, including the New York Times, O Magazine, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Real Simple, and Drinks, and is the author of Esquire Drinks and Killer Cocktails.

Customer Reviews

"A cat can gaze upon a king..."
"...and after a Dry Martini or a Sazerac Cocktail or two, we're all cats." This beautiful, marvelous book is the best book I've read this year. It is part biography, part history and part mixology. If you enjoy the odd cocktail or two, you owe a measure of thanks to Jerry Thomas, the "professor". In the latter half of the 19th century, Jerry (now that I feel like I know the man) perfected and prodded forward the development of the cocktail. His life was interesting and productive. The book gives you many examples from his book (subtitled "the Bon-Vivant's Guide") with modern translations of the recipes. I have been experimenting with the recipes myself and have had one or two , um, slow mornings. Well worth it, however. Get the book for the history and enjoy it with a nice Saratoga Cocktail, or perhaps the "Tombstone". Just leave the vodka in the cabinet...forever.

A new standard is set
This is perhaps the best cocktail book written since The Fine Art Of Mixing Drinks, astoundingly well researched (which is all to rare when writting about cocktails) and wonderfully told. Imbibe a must read for proffesional bartenders, or for those who like to fix themselves a proper drink, and think about what went into it as they enjoy their tipple. well done Mr Wondrich.

Historical, beautifully detailed and ultimately readable
It's less of a modern bartender's guide than a treatise on the essential cocktails and their history. As a bartender in my earlier days, I found the author's handling of drink-making essentials, and especially the illustrations, dead on target. But the best part of this book is its readability. Go straight through it, or pick it up at any point and you will find yourself enthralled by the humor, the detail, the history, and the writing. I raise a glass to Mr. Wondrich. Cheers!