Party Drinks! 50 Classic Cocktails and Lively Libations

Rating:
Summary: Luscious Libations for Hospitable Hosts
Review: I love Party Drinks! It's a completely useful book full of recipes for tasty drinks both new and classic, along with gorgeous pictures of them all. Whether you need to come up with drinks for a crowd or just a few cocktails for company, you can flip through the pages and find something new and special that won't take an extra trip to the liquor store. Naturally, I love "The Rebecca," (raspberries! champagne! yum!), but I've already mixed up a pitcher of "Don't Just Stand There" (mmm, apple-y for fall!) and my guests were pleased. Got a liquor cabinet? Then you need this beautiful, brilliant little book!

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Summary: This Book Is Champagnalicious!
Review: I think this will be a great gift for the holidays--I plan to get several to give to family and friends. The book is slim, but packed with lots of great drinks, plus gorgeous photos! One thing I really like about the book is that it gives lots of suggestions on variations of the drinks--in case you need to mix different amounts, or don't like or have a particular ingredient. Plus, there's some good general bartending advice at the beginning of the book.

So far we've tried two of the drinks. We had some friends over last weekend and my husband made the Champagne Punch, which has light and dark rum, lemons, and champagne. It was delicious! Even one of our friends, who isn't a huge champagne fan, really loved it. We also have tried The Rebecca, another champagne drink. We actually froze the raspberries in the vodka during the day, and had the drink in the evening--the frozen raspberries were delicious, and a perfect garnish for this very pretty drink.

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Summary: LIGHT LIBATIONS OF EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER
Review: Ne'er have the pleasures of contemporary pleasure-drinking been so lucidly and persuasively and clearly set forth with not only the time and liver tested recipies but also the literary, social, and personal contexts of a true, rare spirit such as Mr. Rathbun, whose fine poetry is as intoxicating as the pewter cupped juleps, the spiraling highballs, and the mystifications of the orange buck, known in the southern hemisphere as le mâle orange. I am buying a copy for every (over-21) friend this Christmas.

Rating:
Summary: Every Cocktail Guide Should Be Written By a Poet
Review: This book is worth reading even if you don't drink! If you do, all the better. Great recipes, very inspiring commentary. Rathbun quotes Gogol on vodka, W. C. Fields on whiskey ("Always carry a large flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake") and provides plenty of good party ideas for intemperate friends.

Said friends will also find this to be a welcome gift.