Speakeasy Cocktails if you have an iPad. The video content is really well done, and was shot at either PDT or Little Branch in NYC.

The Essential Cocktail by Dale DeGroff if you don't. Lots of full color photos and it is set up more like a traditional recipe book.

The PDT book is good as well but doesn't spend as much time talking about technique, glassware, or garnishes. However, in the PDT book you get Jim Meehan's spirits primer and personal recommendations for brands to purchase.

If you can find it (maybe email him?) Paul McGee's little starter pamphlet is great. I also highly recommend Ted Haigh's "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails," and Dale DeGroff's "Craft of the Cocktail." "PDT" is a wonderfully assembled book, but frankly a little too rarified for even moderately ambitious tastes, unless you're the sort prone to infusing an entire bottle of bourbon with bacon just to make a couple of drinks. Oh, and Jason Wilson's "Boozehound" book is a must-have, for both the recipes as well as for the essays that point you in the right direction.

Annoyingly, I have yet to find a good book that has an index by ingredient, as obvious as something like that sounds. In that regard some random googling comes to the rescue. I have a little notebook in which I compile drinks and ideas I can't find in books.

Vitesse98 wrote:Annoyingly, I have yet to find a good book that has an index by ingredient, as obvious as something like that sounds. In that regard some random googling comes to the rescue. I have a little notebook in which I compile drinks and ideas I can't find in books.

The Joy of Mixology, by Gary Regan, has an excellent taxonomy of drinks by major classification (i.e. grouping similar styles of drinks together), then by base spirit, and then by other ingredients. This is the first place I go to when I want to look for new drink ideas using a particular ingredient.

The accompanying iPhone app, Flip n Drink, has a search function to search by ingredient. It's a little clumsy, but handy.

Want to say, if memory serves, that the irony of the Regan is that it is actually relatively short on recipes, despite its great index.

Have you tried the Bartender's Choice iPhone application yet? By Sammy Ross of Milk & Honey.

It allows you select base spirit, "sensation" (bitter, dry, refreshing, smoky, spicy, sweet, etc.), and style (boozy, cracked, crushed, rocks, shaken and down, shaken and up, stirred and down, stirred and up, tall, etc), and the suggests cocktails you might like. With all of their recipes, of course.

Vitesse98 wrote:Want to say, if memory serves, that the irony of the Regan is that it is actually relatively short on recipes, despite its great index.

It has over 350 drink recipes, according to its Amazon page. I find it far more useful than Dale DeGroff's book, The Craft of the Cocktail. I also have Imbibe, which is a larger book, but I have yet to really get into it. Regan's book is also very good at teaching you how to create your own drinks. Also, it isn't just a recipe book. The first half or so of the book is about the history of cocktails, the proper way to run a bar, etc. This may not be of interest to those who just want drink recipes, but it's the book he wrote.

I would like to learn more about making cocktails, but I don't know where to start. For spirits, I love whiskey (bourbon is my favorite), gin, and armagnac.

jlee, welcome to LTH Forum.

Like jpchust upthread, I recommend starting with Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology. It's a classic and an excellent instructional book, not just a book of recipes. There are other very good books on the market, but I'd start here.

Here are some other good threads on LTH Forum about cocktails:

Home Made Violet Hour

An old fashioned Old Fashioned

Make Mine (Wild Turkey) Manhattan

Let's share martini recipes!

Help me make a better martini

Finally, if you like whiskey and gin, I'd start with some classic cocktails that feature those: The Martini, Manhattan, and Old fashioned. My other favorite gin cocktails are the Negroni, Martinez (of which the Martini is derived from) and the Pegu Club Cocktail. You can riff on all of these by making small changes to ingredients.

One more thing I'll add: you can learn a lot by sitting at the bar and talking to, or just watching, good bartenders. They are busy, but many are really happy to talk about what they are doing.

Darren72 wrote:One more thing I'll add: you can learn a lot by sitting at the bar and talking to, or just watching, good bartenders. They are busy, but many are really happy to talk about what they are doing.

I find this approach to be especially effective early, on weeknights. This is typically a great time to chat up bartenders, ask them questions and offer yourself up as a guinea pig for their works in progress.

=R=