Cocktails: A Beginners Guide to Making Classic and Contemporary Cocktails at Home Paperback – March 1, 2014

The book is written in a simple language and it's a pleasure to read. There is almost no useless info, only the essence. Another fact I enjoy is that the author gives one recipe and doesn't go into details, like "in some bars a drop of that added" or "one may also try to add this", etc. There is no history of cocktails neither. Mayby for a reader with a serious approach and an intention to go deep into details this is a drawback but if you want to mix few drinks for the evening, that's good. Another issue I enjoy is that "Ingredients" mean ingredients, not "you'll need". What I mean is that only drinks are enumerated in the section, no "ice", "rocks-glass" etc. For me it is an advantage. IMHO, the person who decides to make cocktails should be prepared to have ice and a jigger. At the same time if you have a list of 8 items, of which 5 are tools you loose time to take the bottles you need from the bar. It's a question of seconds but still irritates.Taking into account all these things I would say that it is an extremely useful book to have in your... mobile phone. Probably for the shelf I'd prefer a bigger one with the history of mixology and famous cocktails, numerous photos, etc. But to fulfill the task it works perfectly.One more item to mention: the book uses US customary units, not metric system which was less convenient for a Russian guy, but all in all it's not a problem.

So, just bought the book and read through it so thought I would give some initial observations on it.What I'm writing about here is the information people who may be considering buying the book should know.I've made 2 cocktails from the book for my wife and I, both were excellent but I can't speak for the other 98 recipes in the book.This book will not teach you to be a skilled bartender. Instead the aim (as stated by the author) is to teach you how to make cocktails in your home.In this area the author does his job very, very well. He has removed any complexity from the "art of making cocktails" and seems to have broken everything down.The book also covers the following:- How you can set up your own bar at home- Bartender Lingo and Terminology- The equipment you need etc.In my opinion the book has one or two issues and this is why I avoided giving it a 5 star review:- Half of the cocktails need a piece of equipment or two to make them. This is a problem to me as it means I need to go buy equipment.- The bartender terminology section was needless in my opinion. Seemed like filler content. However I may be in the minority here as I am not a big fan of bars.Overall the author puts together a solid book.Once I have tried more of the recipes I will considering changing my star rating. As for now the book will remain at 4 stars in my opinion.

I have a copy of Mr. Boston's Official Bartending Guide (1981) and as you can see, it's really outdated. I was happy to see this on Amazon and since my man and I enjoy an afternoon cocktail every day, I picked it up right away.The list of cocktails is very long and covers a wide selection of alcohols. I love some of the names; Humble Pie, A Russian Italian, and Donkey Kick to name a few. Whatever your preference, you're sure to find something here to suit your preference and expand your list of pre-dinner cocktails.Simple to follow recipes with some examples of different methods of setting up bars for entertainment. This book will replace my Mr. Boston Guide and be on my shelf for a long time.

How can you look up a cocktail recipe when there are no page numbers in the book?

This product was a birthday gift. It is a nice book. It is kind of frustrating because there are page #'s in the index but the actual pages do not have numbers on them.

This guide has all the essentials a beginner needs to know without overcomplicating things. I love the sections describing three different types of home bars, the list of terms, and the suggestions on which starter glasses to purchase. It was bit early in the day for me to try one of them out, but when the time is right I'm going to give Woo-Woo a test run.In addition to being great instruction (there are a few drink names that are familiar,) the book is entertaining. A few drink names are cautionary, such as my favorite: Hop Skip and Go Naked.There's no need to wing it or serve the same old boring drinks at your next event. Let this book help you please and impress your guests and your family.

I really did not see any quick, interesting drinks for light entertainment or even ones for heavy drinks. Looked as though he wanted to show off his knowledge of mixology without regard to the fact that we buy these books to learn how to do simple, tasty drinks at home.

Making cocktails at home can be an endless source of fun for you and for your friends and family. This book may be that little push you need to start your own home based bar. The book starts with an introduction and tells you just what you need to know (for example, what equipment will you need). After this short and sweet introduction you can dive in to the recipes. They are all here - from the classic to the more contemporary to the exotic. Just take your pick and start enjoying those cocktails. Recommended!

There is a table of contents, but there are no page numbers! It's pretty straight forward stuff that you could get from a dozen other books, but not having page numbers makes it inconvenient.

I got this book when it was free, and don't see how you can go wrong with it.It has loads of different cocktails and the instructions on how to make them are very easy .I enjoy cocktails but tend to stick with just a few to make, I have no excuse now for special occasions I can be a cocktail queen!

Great book to get you started on whizzing up your own cocktails. Brilliant to impress your friends. There's all the cocktails that you can think or, plus the right terminology so you can really sound the part too.!!

Only complaint is at the front all the cocktails are listed against page numbeer but there are no page numbersWho missed this out on the proof reading sideOtherwise happy especailly after a couple of cocktails

The book contains a list of 100 cocktails, one per page, plus a small amount of information at the start about terminology. There's an index at the start of the book, giving page numbers for each cocktail, but as none of the pages have page numbers on them, this is a bit of a waste of time other than providing a list of cocktails in the book. Also, some cocktail recipes/instructions are only 8 lines long, but are still given a whole page, making many of the pages look very empty. In all honesty, you'd probably be better off just going to [...] and using that.