Book Inspirations part III.
To understand the craft.
Every Bartender should master the history of their craft, how the bar business has evolved, and why it is so unique. This beautiful craft is a part of our lives, change the peoples mood and helps to enrich the every day experience.
So here are a few tips for the books, that are enriching for you, if you are interested in history, bartending, and business behind. These books can help you to understand all the work behind the bar and inspired me to write the book The Cocktail Balance:
The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails
by David Wondrich & Noah Rothbaum
The Companion covers drinks, processes, and techniques from around the world as well as those in the US and Europe. It provides clear explanations of the different ways that spirits are produced, including fermentation, distillation, and aging, alongside a wealth of new detail on the emergence of cocktails and cocktail bars, including entries on key cocktails and influential mixologists and cocktail bars. With entries ranging from Manhattan and mixology to sloe gin and stills, the Companion combines coverage of the range of spirit-based drinks around the world with clear explanations of production processes, and the history and culture of their consumption. It is the ultimate guide to understanding what is in your glass. Beautiful book full of illustrations and timeline of spirits & distillation.
Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters: How the Cocktail Conquered the World
by Derek Brown & Robert Yule
A cocktail - the fascinating alchemy of simple alcohols into complex potables - is an invention as unlikely as it is delicious, and an American innovation whose history marches in step with that of the Republic. In Spirits Sugar Water Bitters, nationally recognized bartender and spirits expert Derek Brown tells the story of the cocktail's birth, rise, fall, and eventual resurrection, tracing the contours of the American story itself. Brown shows how events such as the Whiskey Rebellion, Prohibition, and the entry of Hawaii into the United States shaped the nation's drinking habits. Brown also tells the stories of the great men and women who made their mark on cocktail culture, including America's Distiller-In-Chief George Washington and modern-day King Cocktail Dale DeGroff, as well as lesser-known mixology heroes like Martha Niblo, the nineteenth-century New York proprietress famous for her Sherry Cobblers, and Frederic Tudor, whose ice-shipping business gave early drinks like the Cobbler and the Mint Julep the chill they needed. Featuring classic and original recipes inspired by each period, this book serves up the perfect mix of geography, history, culture, and taste.
Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization
by Edward Slingerland
Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically-grounded explanation for our love of alcohol. Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Drunk shows that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers. Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits provided by drunkenness, played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies. We would not have civilization without intoxication.
The Bar Shift
by Dave Nitzel & David Domzalski
The Bar Shift is 41 best practices for managing your bar and restaurant specifically targeting concepts and processes that will improve results and work-life. It’s designed to be specific and to the point; which is what our industry requires. The book also allows the reader to jump right to a topic that may be a burning need in the business at the moment without compromising any previous content. The book is purpose-built for an industry that doesn’t have time for a lot of waste, especially time! The Bar Shift targets the Bar Manager as it’s audience understanding that that role may be played by anyone from an owner to a bartender. The book ensures there’s content that will satisfy the most seasoned and talented of those involved in the industry from managers, owners, consultants and distributors alike.
Roundbuilding
by Daniel Waddy & Kevin Armstrong
Drinking is a sociable activity so bartending frequently involves making more than one drink at the same time. This requires a skill set of its own, and an understanding of the methods involved. It’s time to lift the lid on the mysteries of mixing a round of drinks.
Roundbuiding is a practical guide to mixing cocktails, aimed at the working bartender. This is a book about ensuring that, for every round you serve, every drink is made to a consistently high standard, and that first sip always makes an impression. It’s the nuts and bolts of mixing drinks.
