Bottoms Up: The 7 Best Cocktail Books for Music Lovers & More
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It’s National Cocktail Day! The unofficial holiday, observed every year on March 24, was created in 2013 by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway, but you can celebrate your favorite adult beverages all year long.
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Awards season is in full swing, so if you’ve been thinking of throwing watch parties for the Oscars, Grammys and other occasions — or if you’ve been looking for affordable gift ideas — we put together a list of deliciously boozy cocktail books that you need to own.
Featured in our delectable lineup are recipe books that are perfect for music lovers, movie buffs, reality TV fans and anyone who enjoys a good cocktail. And don’t worry if you don’t drink alcohol: Many of the recipes can be substituted with non-alcoholic spirits, plus we added a selection for mocktail drinkers. See more below.
Booze & Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music and Mixed Drinks
It’s all in the name! Booze & Vinyl is the ultimate guide to a rich listening session coupled with tasty drink recipes. The book is organized for different types of music and moods. Each entry features linear notes with musical highlights from certain albums and “Side A” and “Side B” cocktail recipes that either complement the music’s mood and imagery in the lyrics, or connects the drink to the artist. Some of the 70 albums featured include Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Purple Rain, Sticky Fingers, Born to Run, License to Ill, Appetite for Destruction, Thriller, Like a Virgin, Low End Theory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Hotel California, Buena Vista Social Club, Back to Black, Pet Sounds and Vampire Weekend.
Buy: $18.41 on Amazon.com.
Can I Mix You a Drink?
T-Pain teamed up with mixologist Maxwell Britten for an epic cocktail book named after his 2007 hit single. Can I Mix You a Drink? features 50 shaken, stirred and mixed drink recipes that have been carefully curated to reflect a sentiment from one of T-Pain’s hits. Some of the drinks options include Shawty, a bourbon-based drink on the rocks and garnished with a lemon twist, and the vodka-based 1 Up cocktail, which is made with vodka, fresh lemon juice, pineapple juice, crushed ice and club soda.
Buy: $18.16 at Amazon.com.
Gone With the Gin: Cocktails With a Hollywood Twist
Gone With the Gin is a must-have cocktail book for movie buffs and cinephiles. Written by Tim Federle, this 152-page recipe book makes a great gift, and a perfect edition to movie night. The list of awesome movie-themed drinks includes Whiskey Business, Bonnie & Mudslide, Fight Club Soda, Ti-tonic, A Sidecar Named Desire, The Big Le-Brewski, Monty Python and the Stoli Grail and Bloody Mary Poppins.
Buy: $12.47 at Amazon.com.
Hip Hop Cocktail Book: Drink Like Your Favorite Rappers
Want to drink like your favorite rapper? Hip Hop Cocktail Book, by Blue Monday Press, is an illustrated drink recipe book that takes inspiration from the rap game. The book features cult-favorite cocktail recipes inspired by Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, The Beastie Boys, Ghostface Killah, Ludacris, Tone Loc, Kanye West, Lil’ Kim, Snoop Dogg, Diddy, Tech N9ne, Capone-N-Noreaga, Master P, E-40, Mobb Deep, Cypress Hill and more. Find drinks like named after Tone Loc’s “Funky Cold Medina,” The Beastie Boys’ “Brass Monkey” and Snoop’s “Gin & Juice.”
Buy: $16.62 on Etsy.com.
Fancy AF Cocktails: Drink Recipes From a Couple of Professional Drinkers
Vanderpump Rules stars and Ariana Maddox and Tom Sandoval released a cute cocktail book filled with drink recipes and tons of photos. Fancy AF: Drink Recipes from a Couple of Professional Drinkers is divided into “classy vs. trashy” drink recipes, along with chapters dedicated to shots and recovery. Many of the recipes can be made with everyday household items, while others outlined in the book require specific materials such as a cocktail shaker, a strainer, bar spoon and muddler and certain glassware.
Buy: $13.84 at Amazon.com.
The Drunk Botanist
Booze and botany go hand in hand. From agave to wheat, Amy Stewart’s The Drunk Botanist serves up a fascinating literary concoction of biology, chemistry, history, etymology and mixology. With 50 drink recipes and gardening tips, The Drunk Botanist is split into three sections and explores topics like fermentation and distillation, herbs, spices and flowers, and a seasonal array of botanical mixtures and garnishes that you can get from your garden (or grocery store). Find recipes for martinis, margaritas and mojitos along with specialized drink recipes.
Buy: $13.89 at Amazon.com.
Mocktails: Non-Alcoholic Cocktails With Taste and Style
Going alcohol free? Mocktails has a fun collection of more than 80 chic and colorful drinks that look as good as they taste. Indulge in citrusy concoctions, seasonal specialties and festive and chic cocktails made without alcohol. This visual guide to mocktails includes fun drinks names like Lychee-tini, Lavender Bubbly, Blueberry Cardamom Smash, Thai Daiquiri and Pomegranate Apple Spiced Cider. The book is also packed with beautiful photography and a list of tools and essential components to build a great drink. For more mocktail books check out Zen Proof: 90 Non-Alcoholic Recipes for Mindful Drinking and Dry: Delicious Handcrafted Cocktails and Other Clever Concoctions.
