Standing behind the bar is one fine place to be. As the bartender and host at a home party or in the workplace, it's your job to keep the good times rollin'—and with this book you'll be prepared. Above all, you'll be able to dip into the book for information, tips, ingredients, and recipes. You'll find everything—glassware, tools, spirits, beer, wine, mixers, garnishes, party ideas, and techniques.
The Everything® Bartender's Book, 3rd Edition begins with a brief history of alcohol, spirits, cocktails, and the bartending profession. It goes on to give you all the basics you need to know to concoct a cocktail. You'll find that there's no great mystery to making one. You only need to grasp the differences between drink families and the basics of shaking, blending, and mixing drinks.
For the sake of understanding—and sampling—the basic contents of drinks, a chapter is devoted to each spirit that makes cocktails possible: vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and whiskey. Some of the greatest drinks ever invented are made with one liquor and one mixer, and you'll find them in their respective chapters.
If you are going to be an Everything® bartender, you have to be hip to what's current and wise enough to know what's classic, so this book gives you the best of what's timeless—the Whiskey Sour, Tom Collins, Old-Fashioned, and other favorites with their variations and mutations. There is a special classic symbol by each classic cocktail so that you know the difference between a mutation and the original classic. All bartenders should know these classic drinks in their basic forms.
Other chapters include shots and shooters; specialty and multi-spirit drinks; beer; wine; aperitifs and cordials; holiday drinks and punches; and homemade recipes. The shots and shooters chapter includes the hottest and hippest shooters found in nightclubs—classics, layered, flaming, and even more shots. Drinks like the Long Island Iced Tea, which contains vodka, gin, rum, and tequila, will be found in the multi-spirit chapter. The wine chapter covers recipes made from many wine-based alcohols, such as champagne, port, sherry, cognac, and brandy. Aperitifs with a wine base like vermouth bleed over into the aperitif and cordial chapter. There's even a chapter of recipes where you can learn to make, for example, your own coffee liqueur, Irish cream, faux absinthe, and more!
Finally, you'll find many tidbits peppered throughout the book—bar- and cocktail-related jokes, trivia, hints, bar tricks, and more. As a whole, The Everything® Bartender's Book, 3rd Edition provides you with a well-rounded perspective on what it takes to be a bartender. Now go out and shake things up!