The Joy of Mixology Quotes

“I pleaded with Norman to use my first name, and he always agreed to do so: “Okay, Mister Regan, I’ll remember in the future,” he’d say with a wicked grin on his face. Eventually Norman explained that he had a reputation for remembering all his customers’ names, and that if he had to learn first names as well as surnames, his workload would be doubled, so I backed down.

All would have been well with this had I not introduced Norman to Roy Finamore, who was the editor of the first edition of this book, some six months later; Mister Finamore joined the ranks of thousands addicted to Norman’s wit and his cocktailian skills. A few months thereafter I was informed that Norman had taken to using Roy’s first name at the bar, and I was livid. This called for action. I made the pilgrimage to Norman’s bar. “I hear that Roy Finamore is a regular here now.” “That’s right, Mister Regan, he’s here three or four times a week.” “And what do you call him, Norman?” “I call him Roy.” “And why is that, Norman?” He leaned over the bar until our noses almost met. “Just to piss you off.”

It had taken Norman months to set up this one glorious moment. In my opinion, I was looking into the eyes of Manhattan’s best bartender.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“New Orleans Sours call for a base spirit, citrus juice, and an orange-flavored liqueur.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Enhanced Sours call for a spirit, citrus juice, a sweetening agent of any kind, plus vermouth or any other aromatized or fortified wine.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Simple Sours contain a base liquor, citrus juice, and a nonalcoholic sweetening agent, such as simple syrup, grenadine, or orgeat syrup.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Bitters often come into play in French-Italian drinks, especially when whiskey or brandy is called for as a base, and the creative bartender should always bear that in mind when composing new formulas. By experimenting with Angostura, Peychaud’s, orange, or any other flavor of bitters, you can change the character of the resultant cocktail quite dramatically.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Drinks included in the French-Italian family all contain vermouths, either sweet, dry, or both, or sometimes brand-named products, such as Lillet, an aperitif wine that’s closely related to vermouth. The name of this family of drinks is derived from the fact that people used to call sweet vermouth “Italian” and dry vermouth “French,” referring to their countries of origin (regardless of where specific bottlings were actually produced).”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“The purpose of grouping these drinks together, though, is not merely for the sake of giving them somewhere to hang their hats. In many cases, listing these drinks and their ingredients one under the other—as you will see in the various charts beginning on this page—makes whole strings of drinks far easier to memorize. Once you know the formula for, say, New Orleans Sours, the family in which you’ll find the Margarita and the Sidecar, you will understand that the Kamikaze is just a vodka-based Margarita and that the Cosmopolitan, using citrus vodka as a base, follows the same formula, with just a little cranberry juice thrown in for color.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“BITTERS BOTTLES: Commercial brands of bitters are fitted with a device known as a dasher that ensures only small amounts can be released from the bottle. Antique bitters bottles are available from various sources and are very pleasing to the eye. Empty commercial bitters bottles, once they are thoroughly washed and their labels removed, can be used to dispense absinthe, Bénédictine, and other strongly flavored ingredients called for in small quantities. Antique bitters bottles, of course, can be used in this fashion, too, or you can use small bottles fitted with an eye-dropper, easily available online, if you like.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“One practice that faded from fashion about a hundred years ago is the custom of topping drinks, especially those made with crushed ice, with mounds of berries and small slices of other fruits, such as strawberries and bananas. In the days when these drinks were served at first-class bars, the customers were provided with short spoons with which to eat the fruit—it’s a practice I’d love to see return to the barrooms of America.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Caper berries also make good Martini garnishes, and I’ve even seen regular capers added to the drink, but the most common “other” Martini garnish is the pearl onion, again packed in brine, which turns the Martini into a Gibson.

The only real rule of thumb when using any of these berry-type garnishes is that an odd number of them must always be used: One olive is standard, three are acceptable, but two are verboten. This, I believe, comes from an old superstition, but I can’t find a good reference to it. The same rule, incidentally, applies to coffee beans when added to a glass of sambuca.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“The second most important cocktail bitters, Peychaud’s is an integral ingredient in the Sazerac cocktail and can be used as a substitute for Angostura in many drinks, especially such cocktails as the Manhattan. The resultant cocktail will not duplicate the same drink made with Angostura, but Peychaud’s will add its own nuances and complexities.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Angostura bitters can help cure hiccups. Coat a lemon wedge with granulated sugar and douse it with Angostura bitters. The person suffering from the malady should then bite down on the lemon wedge.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Dr. Siegert stayed on in Angostura (renamed Ciudad Bolívar in 1846) to study native botanicals and determine if they could be used medicinally. By 1824, he had developed a tonic known as amargos aromáticos, which he marketed commercially. Now called Angostura bitters, the product is made in Trinidad, and is the best-known cocktail ingredient of its kind in the world.

The Angostura company claims that the product gained worldwide renown when, shortly after its creation, it became a staple of ships’ provisions; it was used to treat seasickness, fever, and scurvy. The recipe for this potion, though, remains a well-guarded secret.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“The amount of ice needed to make any specific frozen drink is in direct relationship to the size of the serving glass, so if you’re in doubt, simply build the drink in the glass and then pour the whole thing into the blender. You’ll find that this results in a full glass with a slightly convex dome, which is visually appealing.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“[A]s a generalization, drinks containing eggs; fruit juices; cream liqueurs, such as Baileys; or dairy products (cream, half-and-half, or milk) should be shaken, while clear drinks, such as the classic Martini or Manhattan, are usually stirred. It’s fairly easy to determine why some drinks should be shaken: It’s far easier, for instance, to thoroughly combine a spirit with heavy cream or a fruit juice by shaking rather than stirring, whereas the Martini and the Manhattan, made with a spirit and vermouth, are easily mixed when stirred.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“as a generalization, drinks containing eggs; fruit juices; cream liqueurs, such as Baileys; or dairy products (cream, half-and-half, or milk) should be shaken, while clear drinks, such as the classic Martini or Manhattan, are usually stirred. It’s fairly easy to determine why some drinks should be shaken: It’s far easier, for instance, to thoroughly combine a spirit with heavy cream or a fruit juice by shaking rather than stirring, whereas the Martini and the Manhattan, made with a spirit and vermouth, are easily mixed when stirred.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“[A]s a generalization, drinks containing eggs; fruit juices; cream liqueurs, such as Baileys; or dairy products (cream, half-and-half, or milk) should be shaken, while clear drinks, such as the classic Martini or Manhattan, are usually stirred.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“[Y]ou should know that certain garnishes are also ingredients. Lime and lemon wedges and any citrus twist (a strip of peel from limes, lemons, oranges, and the like) are the “ingredient garnishes.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“[T]he vast majority of drinks called for in any bar are simple Highballs such as Scotch and Soda, as well as Martinis, Manhattans, Margaritas, and other perennial favorites that are quite easy to master. Every bar also has its idiosyncratic cocktails, such as house specialties or weird potions peculiar to that one particular joint. Most bartenders will tell you that it’s seldom necessary to know how to make more than a couple dozen drinks in any one bar.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Mixed drinks of all kinds should glide down the throat easily, and since most cocktails have a spirit base, the addition of ingredients containing less or no alcohol is needed to cut the strength of the drink and make it more palatable. In most cases, the base spirit, be it gin, vodka, whiskey, or any other relatively high-proof distillate, makes up over 50 percent of the cocktail, and its soul must be soothed if the bartender wants to achieve balance.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“As far as I was concerned, Sex on the Beach was a Highball comprising vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice, and cranberry juice. It’s a fairly simple affair, and in its heyday it’s possible that it was ordered more for its name than for the quality of the mixture. But I found recipes from bartenders nationwide who were using melon liqueur, raspberry liqueur, and even scotch in their rendition of this drink.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Most people enjoy being put into the role of adviser, and often they will take care of the situation for you by departing with their friend. A phrase that has helped me on countless occasions is, “I need your help,” and you might want to think about using it yourself next time you’re trying to convince someone to act a certain way. Asking for help seems to disarm people, and the majority of folks become putty in your hand when you ask them for help.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“[H]e cannot be drunken or dirty; the slightest dubiousness is quick to exile him to the police force, journalism, the oyster boats or some other Siberia of the broken.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Why do people choose to adulterate fine wines, beers, and spirits? For variety’s sake. It’s the very spice of life.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Why do people choose to adulterate fine wines, beers, and spirits?”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“My belief is that it didn’t take too very long for the marketing mavens in the big drinks companies to recognize that bartenders are their best brand ambassadors, and since these companies tend to have deep pockets, they quickly started putting their money where it worked best for everyone concerned. They launched competitions with fabulous prizes, flew bartenders around the world to strut their stuff in all manner of exotic locations, and hired bartenders as educators and as marketers. In my opinion, without the support of the liquor industry, the craft cocktail revolution might well have died early.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Dale is the man who mentored Audrey Saunders, who went on to open The Pegu Club in New York—one of the world’s most renowned craft cocktail bars. Audrey has given birth to such delicious potions as the Gin-Gin Mule and the Old Cuban, both cocktails that have become global phenomena. DeGroff and Saunders have a lot to answer for.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Dale DeGroff took over the bar at New York’s legendary Rainbow Room in 1987, and a star was born. DeGroff brought us classics such as The Ritz—cognac, Cointreau, maraschino, lemon juice, and champagne—and the Fitzgerald: gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and Angostura bitters. He worked tirelessly for his well-earned reputation as the consummate craft bartender. His perfectionism caught the eye of the media, and eventually thousands of bartenders would hold Dale up as a shining example of how to tend bar in the classic mode. Now he is probably the best-known American cocktailian of our time.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“Bartenders revolted against the elevator-music drinks of their elders and created noisier potions of their own. This phenomenon was exactly what was needed to make potential cocktailians rethink their craft.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition

“By the mid-1980s the health craze had swept the country, and the cocktail scene was all but dead.”
― Gary Regan, The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft, Revised & Updated Edition