The Joy of Mixology and The Craft of the Cocktail

I've seen these quoted once on TC, but is anyone familiar with these, and are they worth purchasing?

Sure, they are worth picking up.

A couple of other nice newer ones are:

"Complete Home Bartenders Guide" by Salvatore Calabrese

and

"The Cocktail Handbook" by Maria Constantino

Both have a lot of variety and a lot of recipes. Both cover the basics as well as some new ground, and both have decent amounts of pictures (some of Salvatores garnishes are inspiring in their simplicity), and if I recall correctly, the "Handbook" has an image for all 250 drinks.

They both have some things I disagree with too, but.. every manual does.

Ahu

I would recommend the Joy of Mixology for every serious Home Bartender. Actually, with a few of the bars I have been in around here, I would recommend it for every bartender, home or otherwise......

And, just for the entertainment value, I would add Tad Haigh's Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails. Having tried about half of the recipes in this book, I am impressed. But, I also figured out that I don't like drinks with egg in them.

And, I want to add the following to all of your research....

Drink what you like and like what you drink. All of these books contain recipes, and recipes are a guide. For every drink you have never tried, you should mix the first drink according to the recipe and as exactly as you can to the recipe. Then, adjust it to your taste or the tastes of those you are serving. For example: I like my Mai-Tais with less lime and a dash more Curacao than Beachbum Berry. It is still a Mai-Tai, but I altered it to my tastes and when I mix for guests I add a wee bit more syrup for two of my guests that I know have a sweet tooth. I didn't know about all of those little tweaks before I started mixing, but I tried it and found what I liked, and then when serving guests I asked what they liked.

The moral of the story: Follow the directions, learn the rules, then break them. If you venture to far from the original, make a new original! And then share with us the results!

Ditto on Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails. A very fun read. I just picked up Hollywood Cocktails by Tobias Steed on a whim when I was in Williams-Sonoma the other day. It was on sale for 10 bucks. I didn't buy it for a recipe book as much as for the beautiful b&w pictures of cocktail scenes from classic movies. A really fun book if you like your cocktails mixed with a classic movie.

I have found several treasures at used book stores and very cheap. There are also dozens of online used book search services too. Of course you HAVE to have the originals too. I found a Trader Vics first edition 1947 at my local store for $3 a few years ago.

Dean