Wondrich David - Drink like a man: the only cocktail guide anyone really needs

A whole lot of thanks go to...

Jessie Kissinger, formerly of Esquire, whose work involved every page of this book; and who compiled, tested, and edited the recipes in A Little Something to Eat, Maybe?

All of the chefs who contributed those recipes.

Esquires research director Bob Scheffler and the research staff of Esquire, who fact-checked much of the work in this book and who never get enough credit for what they do.

And Ryan DAgostino, formerly of Esquire, and Lorena Jones, formerly of Chronicle Books, who decided this is a book that should exist, likely over drinks.

Copyright 2016 by Hearst Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781452143552 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Chronicle Books (Firm)
Title: Drink like a man : the only cocktail guide anyone really needs.
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, [2016] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015032398 | ISBN 9781452132709 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Cocktails. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.
Classification: LCC TX951 .E87 2016 | DDC 641.87/4dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015032398

Designed by Erin Jang
Image on is credited to Nigel Cox.

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At Esquire, we drink. We dont drink thoughtlessly. We dont generally drink aggressively. But we drink. Its part of our lives, both work and social and, to us, it seems as if drinking improves both parts. We think a lot about drinking and, as a result, have theories about drinking, and strong opinions (dont get me started on the measured pour of neat liquor). We feel as though weve earned the opinions expressed in this book, both through experience and by virtue of the graduate course in drinking Dave Wondrich has been teaching us for the past fifteen years or so. Nobody knows more about the mechanics and rituals and particulars of drinking than Mr. Wondrich. He has literally written the book on cocktails (Imbibe!) and taught most of the great bartenders in America their craft. Dave is supremely knowledgeable without ever being didactic, and we hope that we can say the same about ourselves. With the exception of the recipes and some of the techniques presented here, most of the advice in this book is offered as suggestions toward better living through drinking. Accept or reject them, but know that they have worked for us.

I should note here that this manual does not aspire to be a comprehensive encyclopedia of drinks. There arelotsof drinks in here. But there are thousands of drinks that have been made and served that you will not find here. What we offer is a collection of cocktails that are (a) fundamental, (b) important, (c) delicious or otherwise interesting, and (d) not full of shit. I understand this. For about ten months in the great American city of Chicago, I tended bar to make a living. What we chosenotto serve was as important as what we served. We had just about everything a human could reasonably expect but, for instance, we did not have a blender. We did not have tap beer (this was long before the craft beer revolution and better beers were available only in bottles). We did not serve Malibu rum. It wasnt that kind of a place. Neither is this book.

WithEsquiresDrink Like a Man, we hope to improve your drinking life. And we take encouragement from the realization that a man with a drink in his hand is never alone.

David Granger
editor in chief,Esquire

BY DAVID WONDRICH

Drink Like a Man. First off, I should say that by man here we mean anyone, regardless of gender, whos okay drinking a dry gin martini with a skewer of olives in it; who will sip a little whiskey neat from time to time; who appreciates a good IPA but will slug down the occasional High Life if thats what there is to drink; who thinks wine goes with food just fine; who doesnt consider a pink cocktail or a thin-stemmed glass some sort of test of gender identity (or, for that matter, gender solidarity). Anyone who drinks like an adult.

As much as we love beer and wine, though, this book is, for the most part, about cocktails (and sours, punches, fizzes, slings, nogs... ). Thats because learning to mix such things well takes rather more work than learning to open a bottle and pour it into a glass, and we firmly believe that such work is worth performing. Why? We could say its because it will help you resist the hype that lies behind so many trendy cocktails, or because its a craft, and mastering any craft will make you a better, more self-sufficient person. But really, its enough to say that mixing excellent drinks is fun and easybut nottooeasyand your friends will like you for it. And, when youre sitting down to the perfect Sazerac youve just stirred up at the end of a long day of dealing with whatever your job flings at you, so will you.

Weve tried to give you the basicsthe tools youll need and how to use them and a few essential mixers that youll need to keep around. We havent wasted a lot of space on pocket guides to all the spirits youll need; in our experience, for those to be detailed enough to be helpful they need far more space than a book of this scope can afford. Where brands matter, weve specified, but otherwise we suggest you do what we do: Start with established, old-school brands, learn the recipes, and then see what happens when you make substitutions.

The same principle guides how the book is arranged. After a quick look at the DNA that lies behind most of the mixed drinks in popular circulation (The 7 Cocktail Formulasokay, some of them arent cocktails, but lets not quibble), it starts with what were calling the Classics, which leads to fourteen drinks that are so foundational that you should know them coldnot all of them, mind you, but certainly the ones youre interested in. If you drink old fash- ioneds, you should know how to roll one up without having to look at a recipe to do it. The same goes for the martini, the Manhattan, the daiquiridrinks like that. There are no surprises on this list. Well, okay, one surprise: Chatham Artillery Punch, which is in there because its the most badass large-bore drink we know, and your friends will treat you with respect verging on fear after youve introduced them to it.

Once you get the essentials down, its on to The Second Round: thirty-three recipes that spin off of the formulae and techniques youve already mastered. Theres no system behind their selection other than the fact that theyre all delicious. The same goes, and then some, for the thirty-six drinks were calling the The Third Round: These are hardly essential, and some of them are downright odd, but theyre all delicious and its nice to have a sprinkling of them in your repertoire to keep things fresh. And because you have friends and your friends like to drink, weve started the final cocktail section with five big-batch cocktails followed by five tried-and-true (and not too frilly) punch recipes. Add half a dozen of our favorite recipes for things to eat with your drinks and some hangover-purchased advice about drinking from