A New Book Chronicles The Stirring History Of 200 ‘Signature Cocktails’

29.09.2023 - 19:59 / forbes.com

There are cocktail books. And then there are Cocktail Books.

I like to call the former “picture bombs.” You’ve seen them around: They’re typically the kind of volumes that rely on high-impact design and deliver endless pages of glamorous cocktail shots without a hint of profundity—deserving pride of place on your coffee table, where it will be perused by exactly zero guests.

The latter, on the other hand, read like deftly written reference books: heavy on the research, rich in detail and history, and packed with the kind of handy facts you can break out at the next dull party you attend. These are the books worthy of passing down. They’re the ones you want in your library; the ones serious cocktailheads and spirits nerds (like myself) will leaf through time and again.

And Amanda Schuster’s latest book—Signature Cocktails (Phaidon, 2023)—falls squarely in the second camp, joining the ranks of The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, Meehan’s Bartender’s Manual, Cocktail Codex, and Robert Simonson’s forthcoming The Encyclopedia of Cocktails, which will be released in mid-October.

As Schuster’s 431-page tome’s title implies, Signature Cocktails highlights 200 of the world’s most iconic drinks and details their rich backstories, geographical origins, and inventor—among other particulars. Case in point: Did you know that the Irish Coffee was first made in County Limerick’s Foynes Airport in the 1940s—and was served to passengers deplaning Pan Am flying boats (a.k.a Boeing 314 Clippers)? Or that egg whites were not in Victor Morris’ original Pisco Sour recipe, but rather an addition that came about much later, toward the end of the 1920s? I certainly did not.

“What intrigued me about tackling this book was the chance to travel outside of New York City and explore the history of cocktails from a global perspective. Also, the chance to not merely think geographically, but also do some time traveling between the centuries,” Schuster says. “A ton of these recipes have been published before, of course, but it’s the first time they’ve been in the same volume as other more recent ones, some as recent as just this year.”

And much like proper reference material, the book was designed for ease of use and is equipped with a glossary that’s broken down into four categories: bar equipment, kitchen basics, glassware, and techniques. It’s also comprehensively indexed by alcohol type and ingredients, cocktail name, bartender, bar, and country. Beyond that, the recipes are arranged not in alphabetical order, but chronologically—starting with Atholl Brose, which was attributed to John Stewart, the first Earl of Atholl, in the late 1400s.

Schuster, who completed the manuscript in only six months, had to undertake a