Tropical Standard Format: Electronic book text

Transforming tropical drinks with powerful techniques from the modernist bar

Weaving together lessons from the craft cocktail revival, history of the tropical canon, and today’s cutting-edge bar techniques, master mixologist Garret Richard and award-winning cocktail writer Ben Schaffer provide a unique handbook for the tropical cocktail’s next wave.

Crucial techniques are clearly detailed, including how to balance syrups, flash blend, handle carbonation, tackle tinctures, cordialize citrus, and power up juice with acid adjusting. Over the course of 84 recipes, vintage cocktails like the Rum Barrel, Mai Tai, and Ray’s Mistake are reimagined just as future classics are revealed, including the Beachcomber Negroni, Winter in L.A., and Field of Mars. These drinks honor founding legends such as Donn Beach, Trader Vic, and Harry Yee as well as modern icons, including Dale DeGroff, Audrey Saunders, Julie Reiner, and Dave Arnold.

By equipping both home bartenders and professionals with the skills to forge their own paths to cocktail creativity, this groundbreaking compendium sets a new tropical standard.

50 photographs

Garret Richard is chief cocktail officer of Sunken Harbor Club in Brooklyn. He lives in New York City.

Ben Schaffer cowrote The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual, which won a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for best new cocktail book. He lives in New York City.

Dave Arnold is a food science writer, educator, and innovator. He hosts the radio show Cooking Issues and runs the high-tech cocktail bar Booker & Dax in New York’s East Village, part of the Momofuku restaurant group. He has taught at the French Culinary Institute and at Harvard University and has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Today show. In 2004 he founded the Museum of Food and Drink. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.