ARTISANAL COCKTAILS

This book is fun to read, and full of inspiring photographs, and I have no doubt that Cyrus's bar is wonderful; I want to go. But as someone who makes many home-infused vodkas and has half a dozen cocktail books, I don't find the book as useful as I'd expected. The takes on classics like the mint julep and the negroni don't add much. Other recipes call for blood orange-infused vodka and lemon-infused vodka, and then include blood orange juice and lemon juice. There's duplication of effort that's fine when you have all the infused vodkas handy, but there's no need for them most of the time. The organization of the book is also unhelpful, put together like something you're supposed to read like a book rather than refer to. Grouping simple syrups, foam techniques, and other basics instead of scattering them through the text would have made it more user friendly over time. All in all, there aren't that many recipes. If breadth had been added to take this beyond a reproduction of Cyrus's cocktail menu and make it an expansive playbook and playground of fanciful libations, it could have been a classic. I hope he'll revise this into that book.

If you want to read about inventive, beautiful cocktails made from fresh, local, in-season ingredients this will be a great book for you. We have an incredibly well-stocked bar, have made some of our own infused liquers from time to time, and have a large library of cocktail books but have found very few cocktails in here that we can just whip up. Most take lots of special preparations or the procurement of unusual flowers or herbs. I am hoping we'll be able to make a few this summer--I planted a few varieties of flowers with this book in mind.

The book is really pretty and has lots of yummy drinks, but most will be impossible to make due to unavailability of specialized ingredients. I like that they have the instructions for those homemade ones, maybe I'll be able to make more than I thought. Made a great gift though for the cocktail lover friend!

Informative and imaginative. Scott Beattie does an excellent job of bringing the garden to the glass. If you are in an area that fresh produce is readily available and you'd like to try something different, I'd highly recommend using this as a guide to do so.

I haven't tried many of the cocktails in the book, but have used it more as an inspiration for ingredients and themes in my own cocktails. Beautifully written and photographed.