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The New York Times Essential Book of Cocktails (Second Edition): Over 400 Classic Drink Recipes With Great Writing from The New York Times
Top 4 Finalist for the Best New Cocktail or Bartending Book in Tales of the Cocktail Foundation's 17th Annual Spirited Awards. This updated edition contains more than 400 classic and contemporary craft cocktail recipes, paired with exceptional writing and the authoritative voice of The New York Times. Cocktail hour is one of America’s most popular pastimes and a favorite way to entertain. What better place to find the secrets of craft cocktails than The New York Times? Steve Reddicliffe, the “Quiet Drink” columnist for The Times, brings his signature voice and expertise to this collection of delicious recipes from bartenders from around the world, with a special emphasis on New York City. This informative guide Reddicliffe has carefully curated this essential collection, with memorable writing from famed New York Times journalists like Craig Claiborne, Toby Cecchini, Eric Asimov, Rosie Schaap, Robert Simonson, Melissa Clark, William L. Hamilton, Jonathan Miles, Amanda Hesser, William Grimes, and many more. Discover over 400 recipes and the wit and wisdom of decades of this venerable paper’s best cocktail coverage.
624 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2015
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237 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 4, 2022
This insidious book blends excellent content with so‐bad‐they‐must‐be‐joking recipes and outright misinformation, and it uses the good names of top mixologists and the New York Times itself to cast an air of respectability over its quackery.
Had pieces been retained in chronological order of original publication, this volume could have at least served as a history lesson: the reader could be shocked at how many ounces of vodka were considered acceptable in 1999, amused by an apparent need to shoehorn elderflower into everything in 2007, and entranced by the subtle but perceptible improvements that followed in the wakes of David Wondrich’s Imbibe! and Jim Meehan’s The PDT Cocktail Book. In its actual arrangement, however, the book treats all recipes as equally valid. A quite decent recipe for lime cordial by Toby Checchini is sandwiched between a 2002 essay suggesting that the best gimlet is made with vodka (4 ounces of it!) and a 2013 recipe in which the usually savvy Rosie Schaap proposes a gimlet recipe using that chemical morass known as Rose’s Lime. Mr Checchini's thoughtful contribution drops into this bog without so much as a ripple.
The second failing is a lack of care in editing. There is no consistency in wording, even for oft-repeated shake‐and‐strain instructions, and ingredients are treated with indifference. The esteemed Mr Meehan has recipes that have held up well in their proportions but which have been stripped of nuance, his El Presidente calling for “rum” with no hint as to color, age, or region—not an oversight Mr Meehan would have himself made.
If only because of the book’s frequent suggestion of dangerously large quantities of alcohol, I can say that this is the single worst cocktail book I’ve yet encountered. Throw in all its other failings, and I’m left wondering if Mr Reddicliffe was not being deliberately malicious in assembling this blight on culture.
Had pieces been retained in chronological order of original publication, this volume could have at least served as a history lesson: the reader could be shocked at how many ounces of vodka were considered acceptable in 1999, amused by an apparent need to shoehorn elderflower into everything in 2007, and entranced by the subtle but perceptible improvements that followed in the wakes of David Wondrich’s Imbibe! and Jim Meehan’s The PDT Cocktail Book. In its actual arrangement, however, the book treats all recipes as equally valid. A quite decent recipe for lime cordial by Toby Checchini is sandwiched between a 2002 essay suggesting that the best gimlet is made with vodka (4 ounces of it!) and a 2013 recipe in which the usually savvy Rosie Schaap proposes a gimlet recipe using that chemical morass known as Rose’s Lime. Mr Checchini's thoughtful contribution drops into this bog without so much as a ripple.
The second failing is a lack of care in editing. There is no consistency in wording, even for oft-repeated shake‐and‐strain instructions, and ingredients are treated with indifference. The esteemed Mr Meehan has recipes that have held up well in their proportions but which have been stripped of nuance, his El Presidente calling for “rum” with no hint as to color, age, or region—not an oversight Mr Meehan would have himself made.
If only because of the book’s frequent suggestion of dangerously large quantities of alcohol, I can say that this is the single worst cocktail book I’ve yet encountered. Throw in all its other failings, and I’m left wondering if Mr Reddicliffe was not being deliberately malicious in assembling this blight on culture.
December 24, 2016
Not only an outstanding reference, but a wonderful history, collection of essays- essentially an homage to spirits and the art and craft of mixology.
July 4, 2017
A really fun combination of essays on and about cocktails, along with hundreds of recipes. Some of the essays are very strong, and almost all of them are entertaining and topical. The drinks vary from simple, classic recipes to very complex re-imaginings, and most of the ones I've tried have been quite tasty. A great cocktail book that wil be a staple of my bar for years to come.
April 13, 2025
I wasn't totally sure that I would put a review for this on here, as a) it's a cocktail recipe book and b) I read the vast majority of this in bed as a means of putting me to sleep, but at the end of the day it is over 600 pages in all, about 300 of which I'd guess are straight-up news articles, and so it would feel remiss to not include here.
I got this as a Christmas present as my first cocktail book, on the (definitely biased) recommendation of Wirecutter (a Times subsidiary). I figured, with a title containing the phrase "essential book of cocktails," it would be a nice intro to the cocktail-making world, and would go nice with the cocktail supplies I was also getting for Christmas.
So then you can imagine my surprise when I unwrapped this 600-page behemoth. Essential??? Definitely not. A very large proportion of the cocktails in this book are anything but essential, and require some obscure ingredients or days of prep time to make. So there is maybe a bit of false advertising going on here, or I am just a dumb consumer who should have read the fine print.
The book itself is nice enough and well-organized and readable: the chapters are broken into major cocktail sections for the most part (although I will say 'cider and apple cocktails' getting their own chapter seemed a bit strange), and are in general interspersed with plenty of articles from the New York Times' cocktail writers throughout the decades. These writings were pleasant to read for the most part, with some providing a cool glimmer into the past (one or two come from pre-1930).
Anyways, I still had fun discovering some new cocktails I'd previously never tried before. A few that come to mind: the classic daiquiri (I know, I should've heard of it before), the Bronx, the Americano (cocktail, not coffee). There's others that I definitely want to check out. But again, like 80+% of this book has cocktails that I have no interest in making, either because the ingredients would be impossible to find or I simply don't want to undergo the laborious process to make it.
In short: hardly an 'essential' cocktail book, but a fun read, especially before bed.
I got this as a Christmas present as my first cocktail book, on the (definitely biased) recommendation of Wirecutter (a Times subsidiary). I figured, with a title containing the phrase "essential book of cocktails," it would be a nice intro to the cocktail-making world, and would go nice with the cocktail supplies I was also getting for Christmas.
So then you can imagine my surprise when I unwrapped this 600-page behemoth. Essential??? Definitely not. A very large proportion of the cocktails in this book are anything but essential, and require some obscure ingredients or days of prep time to make. So there is maybe a bit of false advertising going on here, or I am just a dumb consumer who should have read the fine print.
The book itself is nice enough and well-organized and readable: the chapters are broken into major cocktail sections for the most part (although I will say 'cider and apple cocktails' getting their own chapter seemed a bit strange), and are in general interspersed with plenty of articles from the New York Times' cocktail writers throughout the decades. These writings were pleasant to read for the most part, with some providing a cool glimmer into the past (one or two come from pre-1930).
Anyways, I still had fun discovering some new cocktails I'd previously never tried before. A few that come to mind: the classic daiquiri (I know, I should've heard of it before), the Bronx, the Americano (cocktail, not coffee). There's others that I definitely want to check out. But again, like 80+% of this book has cocktails that I have no interest in making, either because the ingredients would be impossible to find or I simply don't want to undergo the laborious process to make it.
In short: hardly an 'essential' cocktail book, but a fun read, especially before bed.
December 29, 2016
This has become my go-to source at home. Just wish it were easier to locate specific drinks when my buzz is on and my guests are waiting and I need to find a quick cocktail recipe. Hence short of five stars.
November 4, 2025
What a fun book - a collection of articles from the NYTimes and hundreds of cocktail recipes! Now I just have to start mixing!
March 28, 2024
This makes a great gift for someone who is recently into making cocktails, as I am. The expanded version is filled with interesting short articles about mixology as well as nice color photos, although not enough of them (I’d like to see how some of these cocktails are supposed to look like). While an entertaining read, some errors and omissions make this far from a definitive collection of recipes. For example, the recipe for the Aviation makes zero mention of violette, which I happen to know is kind of the whole point of that drink and makes me wonder what other mistakes there could be. And some chapters are seemingly filled with every high-brow variation of a particular cocktail except for the basic recipe for the cocktail. After reading some recipes, I found myself more than once turning to Liquor.com to get a better sense of how I actually should make a drink. It’s a beautiful hardcover edition that I’m happy to have next to my bar cart but I wouldn’t recommend it as your only book on cocktails.
September 11, 2017
This is a great book, but it needs to be pointed out that the index is incomplete. The "bourbon, scotch and whiskey" section merges into the "gin" section alphabetically around the letter "G". So there are no whiskey cocktails starting with "H" through to "Z", and no gin cocktails from A-F. I wish someone could point me to a corrected index online. One can hope! Otherwise, excellent collection of spirited stories and cocktail recipes.
February 23, 2022
The fanciest cocktail book I own. I didn’t read it word for word, but flipped through the entire thing skimming articles and noting drinks to try. Making “The Madras” for a happy hour soon, excited about the Old Fashioned chapter, and would like to up my sangria and spritz games.
October 28, 2017
Like a perfect Old Fashioned.
December 20, 2023
I read this for the writing, of all things. The cocktail recipes are what you would expect: good, classic drinks, drinks that require you to prepare a special concoction as one of the ingredients, drinks that include obscure ingredients, and good advice for a cocktail party.
August 19, 2024
can’t drink but will drink🫡
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews