Reddit Reddit reviews The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft

We found 14 Reddit comments about The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Cookbooks, Food & Wine
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Beverages & Wine
Cocktails & Mixed Drinks
The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft
Clarkson Potter Publishers
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14 Reddit comments about The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft:

u/ems88 · 37 pointsr/cocktails

I refer to the Flavor Bible frequently. It is a compendium of flavors that pair well together.

There isn't a particular book that I can think of that focuses on cocktail creation, but I enjoy Kevin Liu's discussion of balance in Craft Cocktails at Home and Gary Regan's discussion of drink families in The Joy of Mixology. I would start there and then move onto other books.

In terms of process, it's very situation-based. Modifying current recipes can be fun and a good jumping off point. Start by trying to make your own signature Last Word variation. Classically it would be equal parts gin, Green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice. I do something with equal parts rose green tea-infused gin, Liquore Strega, pear liqueur, lemon juice and chamomile-citrus bitters.

You can also think about what certain drinks have in common and try something in the same style i.e. Sidecars and Margaritas are both spirit, sweet, and sour while Manhattans and Negronis are both spirit, sweet, and bitter. The history of drink making is so long that it is highly unlikely that you'll be making something that doesn't at least slightly resemble an extant drink, whether or not you ever figure it out.

The key to a good cocktail is balance. Sweet, sour, and bitterness all help to mellow each other out. Bitters are great for this because the addition of even a small amount of bitter flavor will dull the perception of sweet and sour so that any extremes are rounded out. Sweet does the same to sour and bitter while sour does the same to the other two, though both to a lesser extent than bitterness.

Again, I highly recommend the Flavor Bible. With it you can take a spirit, see what flavors you can pick out and see what will pair well with them. Then find ingredients that can bring that flavor to the table. You can then check out the pairings for that flavor and see if the two lists have any overlap.

The more classic recipes you become familiar with, the more you'll be able to see patterns in what general drink formulas work.

Be sure to straw taste as you go to correct any issues with balance early on in the process. You should do this anyway with drinks you already know the recipes for, but it's especially important when creating so that you can tell what each ingredient is bringing to the table.

Another approach, once you have an idea of ingredients to mix, taste each on its own to get an idea of how it might play with the others and also the intensity of flavor to give you an idea of what proportions you might aim to balance intensities.

Have at least part of an idea in mind before you start pouring. Cocktails are an ephemeral art, so you won't have to live with your mistakes for long if you make a bad drink, but don't go wasting good liquor chasing after a completely unformed thought (at least not at this point).

That should be enough to get you started. Let me know if you'd like additional reading recommendations.

Source: I run the bar, train the bartenders, and write the drink menu for a successful bar/restaurant with a focus on craft cocktails.

u/HerpDerpinAtWork · 11 pointsr/cocktails

Dude, that's fantastic news. This comment immediately got me subscribed for updates.

Some other source recommendations off the top of my head...

Tiki drinks:

u/josephtkach · 5 pointsr/cocktails

Dear Refined Chef,
The drinks on your site are disgusting. Please read some David Embury or Gary Regan and then get back to us. We want to like you, and we applaud you for your efforts, but you are trying to get us to drink equal parts of grenadine, peppermint schnapps, and vodka. Your instructions for making a Pimm's Cup neglects to mention the cucumber and lemon wheels, (though they are pictured) and the addition of soda. Your fourth of July drink was just a disaster.

Your other drinks range from the cloying [blackberry martini] (http://www.refinedchef.com/recipes/drinks-and-cocktails/a-blackberry-martini.php) to the surreal wild blueberry daquiri, in which you suggest rimming a glass with egg white and fine table salt before filling it with blended soda water, blueberries, and coconut cream, rum optional.

I will admit, it's not all bad, as I was able to find the classic Mary Pickford, though I found your instructions to be lacking. You list "house-made grenadine" among the ingredients, but you don't bother to specify how one would go about making grenadine. You could at least link to Morgenthaler or something. It is obvious that you copied the ingredient list from a bar menu without even bothering to consider its nuances.

In short, please strive to become more refined before you go cheffin' around here.

Love,
Joe

u/lothlin · 5 pointsr/bartenders

Do yourself a favor and buy these books, they've got some very good basic stuff.

The Craft of the Cocktail - Dale Degroff

The Joy of Mixology - Gary Reagan

Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails - Ted Haigh

The Dale Degroff book isn't huge but it has some super solid information (and Degroff is just about the most down to earth but still crazy knowledgeable dudes that's around.)

The Gary Reagan book has a great section that breaks down a ton of different drinks by drink families and can really help you understand why things are constructed the way they are. IE - A sidecar and a margarita are both daisies, except a sidecar is cognac and lemon juice whereas a margarita uses tequila and lime. Or, basically how using the base of a spirit, a sweet, and a sour gives you a ton of different cocktails (Rum, lime, simple - Daiquiri. Whiskey, lemon, simple - whiskey sour. Gin, lime, simple - gimlet. Switch out the lime for lemon, put it in a tall glass and add soda water, and you get at tom collins. etc...) Basically its all super useful information and once you understand the whys and hows of construction it can allow you to either make shit on the fly, or more easily remember common proportions.

The Ted Haigh book is just kind of neat to have and has some weirder, not-so-standardized cocktails that some people may sometimes ask for. Think Singapore Sling, Blood and Sand, Vieux Carre, Fogcutter, French 75, etc. There's also a heap of neat old cocktails that NO ONE asks for anymore, and a couple of the recipes are out of date (The Aviation recipe is an old one, there was a period where creme de violette wasn't available and this book was published before it became available again BUT I DIGRESS that's more than you're probably looking for anyway.)

I could post some more if you really get down into nitty gritty neat stuff, but I'm a nerd for using historical knowledge to round out my skills, so I could actually go on for pages with recommendations.

Edit: All that said, if you just get one, get the Joy of Mixology. Its got a chart, it'll tell you what you need if anything weird comes up, but honestly, if its a pub you're probably not going to have that many issues.

u/AirAssault310 · 5 pointsr/bartenders

When I was learning (in a similar environment that OP described), I had a mentor teach me. I believe that is by far the best way to learn in any industry whether it be in the kitchen, behind the bar, on a construction site, etc.

In lieu of a mentor, there are several books worth picking up to bring up your knowledge, with the combination of internet research:

-Craft of the Cocktail

-Death & Co.

-Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails

-Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique

-Imbibe!

-The Drunken Botanist

-The Curious Bartender

-The Joy of Mixology

Some helpful links:

-Kindred Cocktails

-The Spirits Business

-Good Spirit News

-Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Blog

-Jamie Boudreau's Blog: not updated but still has good info.

u/mwilke · 3 pointsr/cocktails

I have this book, and while there are great recipes in it, I find that I hardly ever use it.

The pages are laid out in a weird, confusing manner; the book is really big and won't stay open while I'm working, and honestly I didn't think it was very well-edited; there are a lot of "space-filler" drinks in there.

To me, the ultimate bible is Gary (Gaz now) Regan's The Joy of Mixology.

u/[deleted] · 3 pointsr/funny

Don't take a class unless it's at a working bar. Most bartending classes suck. Get paid to learn instead - be a barback and you will get shifts shortly.

Also read this

http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Mixology-Consummate-Bartenders/dp/0609608843


best bartending guide out there, easily.

u/sporkus · 2 pointsr/cocktails

Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology has a detailed list of liqueurs by density, in case anybody wants to level up their layering abilities.

u/tomflash · 2 pointsr/cocktails

I highly recommend getting a cocktail book like this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Mixology-Consummate-Bartenders/dp/0609608843/

It covers the bulk of the basics that you'll be able to make with what you listed plus fresh citrus and sugar.

I don't know much about local argentine tastes, but the simple cocktails I make most often at home are

-Caipirihna

-Sazerac

-Old Fashioned

-Martini / Martinez

-Gimlet

-Americano

-Negroni

-Daiquiri


All of these are quick/easy/accessible and are 3-4 ingredients.

u/mleonard31 · 2 pointsr/bartenders

Vodka: Svedka 14 dollars or Reyka 20 dollars

Gin: New Amsterdam 12-15 dollars

Rum: Don Q 13 dollars

Tequila: Piedra Azul is super cheap (15 dollars) 100% blue agave choice of blanco or reposado for the same price. Esplon is really good too and only 6 more dollars

Bourbon: Buffalo Trace or Jim Beam are both solid choices around 20 dollars

Rye: Old Overholt 20 dollars

Vermouth: Martini makes solid super cheap affordable for both sweet and dry together your looking at maybe 15 dollars

Triple sec is key eventually you'll want a better orange liqueur.

Peach Schnapps is another staple

get yourself some bitters, angostura, orange, and peychauds first then get the more obscure stuff later

get a couple juices: cran, orange, pine
get a few sodas: coke, sprite, tonic, soda

Keep adding stuff here and there. Eventually, you'll have a solid collection... Unless you drink your product faster than you add product.

Also highly recommend getting yourself some books. http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Mixology-Consummate-Guide-Bartenders/dp/0609608843
The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan has some solid advice for getting started as a professional bartender and is full of recipes.

Good luck my friend!

u/i_am_socrates · 2 pointsr/cocktails

Great list. I would only add that if you have 10 people that can be a lot of downtime if you are waiting on cocktails.

In the joy of mixology Gary Regan has a few suggestions for bottled cocktails that you can make beforehand and have available so people aren't waiting for their cocktails to be made. I had the bottled Manhattan and it was quite nice. I would also consider making some sort of punch, having beer and or other drinks so that people who don't like bitters or prohibition style cocktails (they exist!) aren't forced to partake. It also means that they don't have to wait to get themselves a drink.

u/Naikoh · 1 pointr/cocktails

http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Mixology-Consummate-Bartenders/dp/0609608843

This book breaks down drinks into a few well defined archetypes. Highly suggest it.

u/hebug · 1 pointr/cocktails

The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan