Paul Clarke is a cocktail savant. His blog, www.cocktailchronicles.com, inspires people daily. He was one of the founding contributors to Imbibe magazine. So this past decade has seen him, cocktail shaker in hand, testing, tasting and tempting all of us devoted to a spirited beverage.
He’s been through thousands of cocktail ideas. Here, in his book The Cocktail Chronicles, 200 of the best appear in all their liquid glory. Living in Seattle, a very good cocktail town, Paul does understand the West Coast approach to cocktails and how ideas have sprouted from Seattle to San Diego. With, of course, San Francisco as the cocktail match for New York.
Cocktails are a gift of the American 19th Century. Early in the 20th, we had Prohibition and then World War II. After the war, Paul explains, things changed but did not get better. The 1970’s were the worst for cocktail lovers. Bad bars, too many blenders, and those packets you ripped open to add to your mediocre whiskey.
And then, by some grand miracle, the revolution began. People read old books, remembered thing their parents had said, and began to experiment. The old drinks came back with relish. New drinks abound. Great bars brighten every city.
And to celebrate all that, Paul has assembled this fleet of essential beverages. There are three chapters here:
- Not Forgotten surveys classic recipes that you really never want to ignore
- Muses and Bridges are a collection of classics, like the Martini, that serve as templates for new beverage idea
- Staying Power display contemporary cocktails, ones that just might be on the classic list 50 years from now
How does the book start? With the Gimlet, made with just gin and lime cordial. Not Rose’s lime juice, Paul notes, and not fresh lime juice. But real lime cordial, which means you’ll be going shopping. Authenticity is goal here.
Next up? The French 75 with gin, lemon juice and simple syrup. Oh, and champagne. There is a reason people have enjoyed this drink for well over a hundred years.
Then, from that Not Forgotten chapter, come pages of surprises, cocktails that once were prominent, drifted away and now are given new life. How about a Widow’s Kiss: calvados, Chartreuse, Benedictine and bitters? Or, to awaken you after a night of cocktails, a Black Jack: coffee, brandy, and kirshwasser.
That final chapter, on Staying Power, displays the extent of the cocktail revolution around us. Drinks here are more complex, more sophisticated, and perhaps even more satisfying. Consider the Malecon: white rum, lime juice, ruby port, oloroseo sherry, sugar, and bitters. Your mouth is going to be happy but quite perplexed unscrambling all those special flavors.
Page after page, you’ll stop, consider, and pour. With 200 recipes, you’ve got many evenings to delight in all the ideas presented here. And an occasional morning, too, by the way. There is, after all, the Breakfast Martini: gin, lemon juice, Cointreau, and orange marmalade. What a wonderful way to dispense with the need for toast. Although you might toast a different way to every page of The Cocktail Chronicles.