19 Best Cocktail Books

Alex Day, Nick Fauchald, and David Kaplan explain cocktail making through foundational drink formulas and their variations. Recipes accompany lessons on ingredients, balance, and technique, helping readers understand familiar cocktails and develop new combinations of their own.

Dave Arnold applies scientific principles to cocktail making, examining temperature, dilution, acidity, sweetness, and carbonation. Recipes and experiments range from improvements to everyday techniques to specialized methods, showing how precise control of ingredients and processes changes a drink.

Jim Meehan examines bartending as both a craft and a hospitality profession. Cocktail recipes sit alongside guidance on bar design, spirits production, menus, service, and technique, with contributions from industry colleagues illuminating the practical workings of a successful bar.

David Wondrich investigates the emergence of American cocktail culture through the life and influence of bartender Jerry Thomas. Historical research, anecdotes, and reconstructed recipes connect nineteenth-century drinking practices with the classic cocktails that followed in their wake.

The team behind a New York cocktail bar shares its approach to ingredients, technique, and drink development. Hundreds of classic and original recipes accompany explanations of tasting, balance, and the working habits behind a modern cocktail program.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler explains the techniques behind making cocktails, including juicing, garnishing, shaking, stirring, carbonation, and handling ice. Photographs and recipes demonstrate how these methods affect flavor, chilling, and dilution, providing practical foundations for home bartenders.

A lively tour of the plants behind beer, wine, and spirits, from agave and barley to herbs, fruits, and fungi. Stewart blends botany, history, and drink recipes into a book that's as curious as it is useful.

Gary Regan organizes cocktails into families to explain their shared structures and make recipes easier to understand. Alongside drinks and bartending guidance, this revised edition explores how recognizing patterns can help bartenders remember formulas and create their own variations.

Harry Craddock collects hundreds of cocktail recipes associated with the Savoy Hotel's American Bar and the drinking culture of the early twentieth century. Illustrated in Art Deco style, the volume preserves classic formulas alongside period observations on drinks and entertaining.

Shannon Mustipher presents a contemporary approach to tropical cocktails, with particular attention to rum and other cane spirits. Recipes, ingredient notes, and contributions from fellow bartenders connect tiki traditions with new combinations and practical guidance for mixing them.

Gary Regan combines more than a thousand mixed-drink recipes with guidance on stocking and equipping a bar. Entries cover spirits, liqueurs, glasses, and garnishes, while the recipe collection includes classic cocktails, lesser-known combinations, and nonalcoholic drinks.

Jim Meehan collects classic and contemporary cocktails associated with the New York bar Please Don't Tell. Illustrated recipes identify ingredients, methods, glassware, and garnishes, alongside practical information about tools, spirits, and the work of making drinks.

Martin and Rebecca Cate explore tropical cocktail history, rum styles, and the culture surrounding their San Francisco bar. Recipes accompany guidance on selecting spirits, preparing syrups, and using techniques that shape the flavors and presentation of these drinks.

Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas present inventive drinks from Chicago's Aviary bar in a large illustrated collection. Recipes, detailed photography, and whimsical artwork document its experimental approach to cocktails, combining culinary techniques with elaborate presentation.

Dale DeGroff introduces cocktail making through spirits, tools, techniques, and five hundred recipes. Historical anecdotes accompany practical guidance on stocking a bar, using fresh ingredients, and preparing both classic and contemporary drinks for guests at home.

This reprint preserves Jerry Thomas’s 1862 collection of mixed drinks, from juleps and punches to lesser-known nineteenth-century preparations. It also includes Christian Schultz’s manual for making cordials, liquors, and syrups, offering a window into the craft of early American bartending.

Sother Teague introduces spirits and cocktail making through recipes, history, and insights from professional bartending. More than one hundred drinks range from familiar classics to lesser-known combinations, with explanations intended to make choosing and mixing drinks more approachable.

Ivy Mix explores Latin American spirits through travel, cultural history, and cocktail recipes. Tequila, rum, pisco, and other drinks become entry points into the people and production traditions behind them, with recipes drawn from Leyenda and fellow bartenders.

Dale DeGroff revisits his cocktail guide with additional recipes and updated discussions of spirits and bartending. Five hundred drinks accompany explanations of ingredients, tools, history, and technique, encouraging readers to understand the choices behind a well-balanced cocktail.