Synopses & Reviews
and#160; A new generation of urban bootleggers is distilling whiskey at home, and cocktail enthusiasts have embraced the nuances of brown liquors. Written by the founders of Kings County Distillery, New York Cityand#8217;s first distillery since Prohibition, this spirited illustrated book explores Americaand#8217;s age-old love affair with whiskey. It begins with chapters on whiskeyand#8217;s history and culture from 1640 to today, when the DIY trend and the classic cocktail craze have conspired to make it the next big thing. For those thirsty for practical information, the book next provides a detailed, easy-to-follow guide to safe home distilling, complete with a list of supplies, step-by-step instructions, and helpful pictures, anecdotes, and tips. The final section focuses on the contemporary whiskey scene, featuring a list of microdistillers, cocktail and food recipes from the countryand#8217;s hottest mixologists and chefs, and an opinionated guide to building your own whiskey collection. Praise for
The Kings County Distillery Guide to Urban Moonshining:
and#147;The moonshining world is notoriously full of orally-perpetuated misinformation and the legitimate whiskey industry is full of marketing lies and half-truths; Spoelman and Haskell have thankfully defied those traditions and released an educational book of honesty and transparency.and#8221; and#151;Serious Eats
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Review
"David Wondrich is a such an envy-producing polymath that it drives me to drink. Brilliant historian, beautiful writer, former punk rocker, absinthe-maker, mixological marvel, and perhaps, yes, even WIZARD. Plus he can grow an amazing beard. There are few people in the world I rely on to be so authoritative and so entertaining all at once, and to mix an amazing cocktail at the same time. And those few people are DAVID WONDRICH."
—John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
"[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
"David Wondrich has drunk his way through two centuries of American cocktails and other mixed drinks. He emerges to tell us, with clarity and wit, what he encountered, how it was made. and how to make it now. In his recreations of the drinks of yesteryear, he stops at nothing, even growing his own snakeroot to make Jerry Thomas' Bitters. Thomas was called "the Professor" in his day. If this title belongs to any living expert on the cocktail, it belongs to Wondrich."
—Lowell Edmunds, author of Martini, Straight Up
Review
“A fascinating literary-booze study . . .”
—The Washington Post
“An interesting read and a must-have for Hemingway lovers and craft bartenders.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“At a time when cocktail books have become rote, To Have and Have Another by Philip Greene subverts the formula and provides recipe-by-recipe substance to Ernest Hemingways drinking ways . . . [Greene] lets the drinks lead the way but fleshes each one with meticulous detail to round out the pieces of Papas lusty life.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Even a casual student of the novelist Ernest Hemingway knows the man liked to drink. But a quick skimming of Philip Greenes new book, To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion, reveals exactly how much the man enjoyed his cups.”
—The New York Times
“Might be the next best thing to drinking with Hemingway.”
—Imbibe
“Greene, the cofounder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, makes it easy to recreate some of Hemingways most memorable literary libations, including the Dripped Absinthe from For Whom the Bell Tolls and the Jack Rose from The Sun Also Rises.”
—Wine Enthusiast
“[A]n off-beat and worthy addition to the Papa bookshelf, especially for the imbibers among us.”
—The Florida Book Review
“To Have and Have Another is light and engaging, a fast read that works as both a dictionary of cocktails and a reference text on Hemingways works and personal life.”
—Serious Eats
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
How bourbon came to be, and why itand#8217;s experiencing such a revival today and#160;
Unraveling the many myths and misconceptions surrounding Americaand#8217;s most iconic spirit, Bourbon Empire traces a history that spans frontier rebellion, Gilded Age corruption, and the magic of Madison Avenue. Whiskey has profoundly influenced Americaand#8217;s political, economic, and cultural destiny, just as those same factors have inspired the evolution and unique flavor of the whiskey itself.
and#160;
Taking readers behind the curtain of an enchantingand#151;and sometimes exasperatingand#151;industry, the work of writer Reid Mitenbuler crackles with attitude and commentary about taste, choice, and history. Few products better embody the United States, or American business, than bourbon.
and#160;
A tale of innovation, success, downfall, and resurrection, Bourbon Empire is an exploration of the spirit in all its unique forms, creating an indelible portrait of both bourbon and the people who make it.
Synopsis
Few writers have achieved such legend as Ernest Hemingway, and fewer still have won such a reputation for drinking as constantly and heavilyquite an accomplishment in a profession chock-full of heavy imbibers. For Hemingway, the artists craft was twofold: to write well and to drink well, too.
In To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion, Philip Greene, cocktail historian, spirits consultant, and cofounder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, offers us a view of Papa through the lens Papa himself preferredthe bottom of a glass.
A bartenders manual for Hemingway enthusiasts, this revised and expanded volume offers a unique take on Hemingways oeuvre that privileges the tastes, smells, and colors of the cocktails he enjoyed and the drinks he placed so prominently in his stories they were nearly characters themselves. To Have and Have Another delivers fascinating and lively background on the various drinks, their ingredients, their histories, and the charactersreal and fictionalassociated with them.
About the Author
Philip Greene is one of the founders of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans. He is a sought-after speaker on topics within cocktail history, as well as a mixology consultant for restaurants and institutions across the world.
A descendant of the Peychaud family of New Orleans, Greene counts among his ancestors the illustrious Antoine Amedee Peychaud, the nineteenth-century New Orleans pharmacist who created Peychauds Bitters (essential to a true Sazerac) and is credited with coining the term cocktail.”
By day, Philip serves as Trademark and Internet Counsel for the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed at the Pentagon. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and three daughters.