David Wondrich has been at it again. The acclaimed author of Punch & Imbibe is back, but this time he has sat in the editor’s chair with Noah Rothbaum (Editor of the Daily Beast’s Half Full section) to create The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails.
This is an encyclopedia for all things drinks. Remember when you were a kid (okay, maybe just the old people who remember a time pre-Google) and there was an internet in book form called the Encyclopaedia Britannica? It was collection of twenty books or so, that covered all the things you might ever need to do a school project? Well, this new book is just that, but for bar people, and all contained in one epic hardcover.
“Leave it to the great minds of Wondrich and Rothbaum to create what the industry has needed for so long, the definitive book on imbibing… this book is a MUST have for whetting the whistle and knowing what you need to know the world over,” says Ivy Mix, owner of Bar Leyenda, Brooklyn and author of Spirits of Latin America.
According to the publishers, this is the first major reference work to cover the subject of alcohol “from a global perspective, and provides an authoritative, enlightening, and entertaining overview of this third branch of the alcohol family. It will stand alongside the bestselling Companions to Wine and Beer, presenting an in-depth exploration of the world of spirits and cocktails in a groundbreaking synthesis.”
If you want to know how spirits are produced, there are sections on fermentation, distillation and ageing. Need a bit of info on a classic cocktail or cocktail bar, you will find that too. Do you know what a ‘Brix’ is? Flick to the Bs and you will find out that it is a unit of measure for the concentration of sugar in a liquid. Of ‘Floor malting’? Flick to the Fs and you will read all about this ancient method of malting grain on a stone or cement floor.
“Leave it to the great minds of Wondrich and Rothbaum to create what the industry has needed for so long, the definitive book on imbibing… this book is a MUST have for whetting the whistle and knowing what you need to know the world over,” says Ivy Mix, owner of Bar Leyenda, Brooklyn and author of Spirits of Latin America.
Definitely get your hands on this one. We got it through Booktopia.