Impending Cocktails

Let's see how many of you read this blog: on this upcoming Monday night, at around 8pm, I will be hosting a cocktail party at my house. Anyone who attends as a result of this blog and mentions it gets a free drink.

You see, the key to the success of this cocktail party is about two pounds of glossy paper called The Ultimate Bar Book by Mittie Hellmich. This little compendium of cocktails is not just a recipe book - oh no - it is a full fledged education in alcohol. Reading it, I feel like I should have filled out a FAFSA to pay off the tuition.

Organized by main ingredient, the Book systematically conquers one major alcoholic establishment after another. Gin, Rum, Tequila, Vodka - they are disected, clarified, and explained in copious detail like exotic butterflies plucked out of the air by an overzealous 19th century encyclopedist.

Every recipe - and there are a lot of them - is accompanied by a snipet of back-story: where the drink originated, its evolution, and tricks for making it perfect. The Book actually has an unusually large collection of old drinks, harkoning back to the turn of the century and the 1920's especially. "Bring these drinks back into vogue!" it cries from its shiny pages.

In addition to information about the liquids themselves, the Book provides accompanying instructions on the subject of equipment, the hardware of drinking. In an easy and friendly way, it provides not only a detailed list of aparati required to mix drinks, but gives a profile mug-shot of the appropriate glass for every single drink.

The Ultimate Bar Book is a license to mix. It empowers any old DIY-obsessed schmo to go absolutely nuts in a pursuit of fine beverages. I am one such schmo, and I intend to offer lavish libations at the altar of DIY this Monday at 8.