How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well - Softcover

Felten, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 157284101X ISBN 13: 9781572841017

Publisher: Agate Surrey, 2009

Synopsis

Based on the popular feature in the Saturday Wall Street Journal, How's Your Drink illuminates the culture of the cocktail. John F. Kennedy played nuclear brinksmanship with a gin and tonic in his hand. Teddy Roosevelt took the witness stand to testify that six mint juleps over the course of his presidency did not make him a drunk. Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Chandler both did their part to promote the gimlet. Eric Felten tells all of these stories and many more, and also offers exhaustively researched cocktail recipes.

About this title

Review:

In these desperate times of apple-tinis, Red Bull and vodka, and low-carb beer, Hows Your Drink? is a welcome and bracing tonic, a triumphant manifesto on cocktailing with style packed with more yarns and lore than a battalion of bartenders. Salut!Ted Allen from Top Chef, Iron Chef America, and Uncorked: Wine Made Simple

"This brand new book is fun, engaging read and a must-have for any cocktail fan."

--Jimmy Patrick"mixographer.com" (12/03/2007)

"Felten is like those legendary barflies who always have a good story on hand: He has a casual yet authoritative voice, a relaxing lilt to his sentences, and he always knows where to put the punch line."

--David Tamarkin"TimeOut Chicago" (11/29/2007)

"The book is a fascinating profile of a few select drinks and a great read for anyone interested in the Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well (a most appropriate subtitle)."--Colleen Graham"About.com: Cocktails" (10/01/2007)

"Not only does it supply a wonderful palette of cocktail recipes, but great stories to go with them and clues for research after it - be it the book or a party, is all over."--Chris Carlsson"Spirits Review" (11/01/2007)

"It is a cultural study rather than a technical one, packed with great trivia and hilarious observations..."--Camper English"San Francisco Chronicle" (11/09/2007)

From Publishers Weekly:

With authority and just a hint of snobbery, Wall Street Journal columnist Felten indulges the dedicated drinker with this unwavering, well-informed appreciation of the "secular communion" of a good drink. Chock-full of obscure and fascinating anecdotes, Felten's guide covers cocktail history, culture and craft, featuring appearances by the likes of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway (who "ranked 'dry' martini drinking somewhere between bullfighting and big-game hunting in his hierarchy of the manly arts"), Queen Elizabeth II and James Bond, along with a long list of notable bartenders and drink experts. Felten seamlessly interweaves drink recipes with their respective histories, detailing for instance the "culture wars" over the Bronx's paternity before divulging instructions for this near-forgotten gem, "robust enough to have spawned a slew of other solid cocktails" like the Income Tax Cocktail, the Maurice and the Smiler. Felden's wry, almost lyrical writing style is quickly absorbing, like bellying up next to a funny, friendly, knowledgeable career drinker. Quoting the New York Times, Felten asserts that "we should know mixed drinks if we care to be thought cultured"; if that's so, this fun read should turn any unrefined boozehound into a class act.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Agate Surrey
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 157284101X
• ISBN 13: 9781572841017
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 207