My Little Black Book

In the past that would mean something a bit different from todays question......

How many of you Mix Monkeys out there have a Little Black Book?

I am not asking you to share what secrets are inside of your books, I am just trying to figure out how big of a drink-geek I really am. And, yes, keeping a list in your Palm Pilot counts....

Thats probably a better idea than my word document file of drink recipes. You reminded me of a few years ago when my hard drive crashed and I lost all of my food and drink recipes some of which I have been able to replace but others lost forever. Now I have a backup but a book or notebook with printed docs is a good idea. Thanks

Yup - I've got a book of spiral bound index cards with drink recipes that I can easily carry to parties in a pocket. The only problem is that I write down drinks as I come across them, so my book is a jumble of tiki, vintage, and contemporary cocktails, requiring me to flip through the cards to find a particular drink. Would be nice to have something that's sortable.

I just write in my Berry books. I have extra recipes on the end pages. I used to have post-it notes on my Grog Log, but I scribbled them on the inside. I also transcribed the Word docs to the book, cuz who can go turn on the computer when you need Basement Kahuna's Black Magic at 1 AM on New Year's Eve?

Chip, we're geeks of a different feather. The Grogalizer wasn't something I did for all to swarm on my site. I did it just for me. Then I realized other people would want to use it.

I have been called "anal retentive" before. I just tell them it is a lot better than "anal expulsive."

No black book here. I grade all recipes I've tried from my various books and write that on the recipe page in the book. All A and B grades go in a Word doc I print out for reference. As for those recipes and articles not in my books, they're in a large stack of papers behind my bar waiting to get put into a 3 ring binder. If I had more time to spend behind the bar concocting original creations, I'd probably use a little black book (does it have to be black?) to store my secret experiments. And I'd get an assistant named Igor (oh, sorry, that's EYE-gor).

I have a Filemaker pro data base I keep my drinks in.
By barguide is a printout of my database in a 3-ring binder.

Click here and you can download a copy of my Tiki Bar Guide and while you are at it download the Cover I use on my 3-ring binder.

I've got a red one that I use for all recipes that I've worked with including drinks. I started this last year after I couldn't figured what I did to a brownie recipe to get it just right. And it beats having scores of printed pages from the internet with my notes on those.

On 2007-01-08 12:37, sporkboyofjustice wrote:
I've got a red one that I use for all recipes that I've worked with including drinks. I started this last year after I couldn't figured what I did to a brownie recipe to get it just right. And it beats having scores of printed pages from the internet with my notes on those.

I invite you to use The Grogalizer and share your notes on drinks with everyone.

On 2007-01-08 09:51, GatorRob wrote:
... I'd probably use a little black book (does it have to be black?) to store my secret experiments. And I'd get an assistant named Igor.

No, it doesn't have to actually be black.... But I think you are obligated to call it a 'black book' regardless of the actual color. Sporkboy uses Red, Beachbum Berry has somthing that looks metallic (aluminum case?) in something close to gunmetal grey..... who else wants to fess-up to your drink geek-ness? Come on, you know who you are.......

And as for assistants, I'll take Inga over Igor any day!

At first,I didn't write down recipes. As it turns out, though, people really seem to dig my drinks, so now I'm going back and writing my more promising experiments down and then transferring to The Lund Manor Black Book when they play to rave reviews.

On 2007-01-08 14:09, Chip and Andy wrote:
And as for assistants, I'll take Inga over Igor any day!

Yes, what knockers! :D

I was going to go there, but figured the reference was too obscure for most normal people. But, as you are probably aware, most of us on TC are Abby Normal...

I guess I would fall into the Abby Normal category myself as that quote made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that.

I decided I needed to keep track of some drink recipes I'd scribbled down here and there. I went to our local Bookstar (owned by Barnes & Noble) and picked up the perfect journal -- spiral bound and the cover front and back is a beautiful photo of a tropical beach scene.

I have this weird ass fantasy that someday many moons from now after I'm dead and gone, someone will be poking around in a thrift store and find my book and I'll be the source of some great tiki bar in the 2090s.

I knew I was getting serious with my lab experiments when I started keeping notes and writing down recipes with grades.

My "black book" is a Zip-Lock bag with 4x6 index cards. I write BIG so I can just glance over from my work area to see what to add next. Eventually these will all end up in a database and then I'll print them any size I want, as needed. But for now I enjoy feeling like a sorceress as I sit down to carefully inscribe new potions into my grimoire...

Since I'm a relative newbie to the mixology scene, I haven't arrived at a full-on system yet. I have a small collection of various-sized scraps of paper tucked into assorted bar guides. Someday I'll get on the stick and put everything in a binder, notebook, etc.

Yeah, someday...maybe tomorrow...right after a nice Mai Tai or two. I'll get to it then :wink:

I have cocktail napkins with recipes all over the place; This Christmas I got a little black book so I could use it instead (and transcribe all the previous scrawls).

It's perfect - It has little monkeys on it. :)

Just curious, all you guys with the black books. Do you have the recipes in any particular order or what? I too have a lot of recipes all over the place but don't know quiet how to do it right.

On 2007-02-06 23:57, hiltiki wrote:
Just curious, all you guys with the black books. Do you have the recipes in any particular order or what? I too have a lot of recipes all over the place but don't know quiet how to do it right.

Don't know about the rest of the Mix-monkeys here...... I have my little book broken down into catagories (classic, tropical, etc...) and then I just add them as I get them. I took a highlighter and marked the page edges for each 'chapter' so I can open to the catagory and just go from there. Maybe not the most organized, but it makes it way easier to add recipes.

OK, now that we have all fessed up to our little black books, anyone willing to share anything from the INSIDE of your treasures? I'll go first.....

Modified Margarita:
1/2 oz fresh lime (a bit more is OK)
1 oz Parfait Amour (lavendar colored orange liquor)
1 1/2 oz Silver Agave Tequilia (I like Milagro)

Shake like hell and strain into cocktail glass. For best presentation salt one-third of the rim, colored sugar on one-third and nothing on the last third.

The Parfair Amour gives the cocktail an odd color but the taste more than makes up for it.

On 2007-02-06 23:57, hiltiki wrote:
Just curious, all you guys with the black books. Do you have the recipes in any particular order or what? I too have a lot of recipes all over the place but don't know quiet how to do it right.

That's where a binder, instead of a journal, would come in really handy. Mine's a journal and I just jot down recipes as I find or create them. And since I cannot interchange the pages, they're in the order that I write them in.

O used to keep my drink recipes in a small spiral notebook but about 4 years ago I downloaded a free recipe database ("Cooking Aficionado" by Lime Peak) and created a category called "THE BAR IS OPEN" where I transposed all my old recipes and have been adding new ones ever since. When I joined TC, I set up a category simply called "TIKI" where I keep recipes (drinks as well) that I've discovered in this forum. I back it up on a CD. I can Edit, Remove, Include pictures, print and email directly from this program. It works well for my needs.

Here's the website for Lime Peak's free "Cooking Aficionado" recipe database: http://www.limepeak.com/ca/
I downloaded it yesterday and I like what I see so far.

I'm sorry . . . I should have included the site. Thank you for doing so Rum Balls.

I have no organization scheme at all. Mine isn't focused, everything is in there: drinks, soups, baked goods. One after the other in the order that I work on them. I know it's a bad idea but that's how I roll when in the kitchen, fast and loose (except the pages are bound...).

Thanks for all the info everyone.