The Most Anticipated Drinks Books for Spring 2024

Like April Showers, there is a sudden sprinkle of new cocktail books hitting the market to keep your whistle wet. Here is a preview of some of the most anticipated tomes.

A Quick Drink: The Speed Rack Guide to Winning Cocktails for Any Mood by Lynnette Marrero and Ivy Mix with Megan Krigbaum (Abrams Books, April 30, 2024)

Speed Rack is an all-woman+ quality-versus-speed bartending competition that raises money for breast cancer charities while also being the most loud and fun bartending event you’ve ever seen. I’ve lost my voice screaming at nearly all of them. Founders Marrero and Mix are behind this new book that features over 100 recipes from more than 80 international bartender competitors (as well as some from judges and the founders) from the past 11 seasons, written with the home bartender in mind.

The drinks are divided into sections for low-ABV cocktails, fizzy drinks, highballs, tropical drinks, spicy ones, Martini variations, boozy drinks, and desserts. In between recipes there are tips on things like batching cocktails, infusions, building rounds of drinks, creating new drinks, etc. The cocktails are not necessarily ones that scored big points in the competition – many of these include homemade syrups and infusions and there’s no time for that in at Speed Rack! The book is better for it, with a wide range of original drinks that show of the skill and palate of talented bartenders.

Let’s Do Drinks: Inspirational Tips, Personal Secrets, and 75+ Recipes for a Fancy Night Out Without Leaving the House By Elliott Clark (Media Labs Books, April 16, 2024)

From Instagrammer Elliott Clark (@apartment_bartender) comes this new book of entry-level cocktails for the newbie home bartender. There are nearly one hundred pages of introduction information about bar tools and glassware and even decorating a bar cart, then 33 classic cocktails (with a photo for each), and the rest simple variations that add ingredients like elderflower liqueur, grapefruit juice, honey syrup, tea, and sometimes spicy chilies. The recipes are balanced and should be easy to execute. Let’s Do Drinks is not deep, but it is pretty and would make a nice gift as a first cocktail book for someone new to making drinks at home.

The Connaught Bar: Cocktail Recipes and Iconic Creations by Agostino Perrone with Giorgio Bargiani and Maura Milia (Phaidon Press, April 3, 2024)

The Connaught is one of London’s most iconic hotel cocktail bars, along with the American Bar at the Savoy and Duke’s. And like Duke’s, the Connaught is most famous for its Martini. The drink is served from a cart that is rolled to the guest and includes not just a choice of vodka or gin, but a choice of garnish and a range of bitters as well. If you’re lucky that cart will be pushed by Agostino Perrone, the hotel’s Director of Mixology since 2008 and book’s main author.

Beyond the signature Martini, the book includes 100 cocktails that appear to be mostly nuanced spins on classics with homemade ingredients and infusions. The first drink, the 21rst Century, is a spin on the Twentieth Century and the Corpse Reviver No 2. It includes cacao nib-infused genever among its ingredients. The second drink includes coconut and coffee-infused cachaca, korerima pod-infused mastiha, and Riesling verjus cordial. Clearly, the drinks require a good deal of preparation and shopping to make – there are 120 additional recipes for homemade syrups, infusions, and garnishes in order to make the 100 cocktails.

The book reminds me most of The Maison Premiere Almanac in that it functions both as a souvenir from a visit and a recipe book that you’re not likely to work your way through cover to cover, but to recreate a favorite cocktail or two you enjoyed on your visit back at home.

The Philosophy of Cocktails by Jane Peyton (British Library Publishing, April 16, 2024)

This book is one in a series published by the British Library that also includes The Philosophy of whisky, coffee, gin, tea, and tattoos. The book is not, as you’d reasonably guess, a philosophy book, but a 57-page historical overview. It covers drink history over topics that include how distilled spirits were created as medicine, theories on the name “cocktail” and “punch” and “julep,” the impact of Jerry Thomas, the question of who invented the Martini, how the American cocktail traveled the world, the introduction of ice into drinks, the history of Prohibition, cocktails in The Thin Man and other movies, and tiki drinks.

There are just a handful of recipes and a few listicles, plus a few prints of vintage drawings or ads. I think the book might be better named something like a Concise History of Cocktails. For students of drink history there is nothing earth shatteringly new here, but perhaps it would make a nice gift book for someone you think needs to get up to speed on cocktail history quickly.

How to Drink Whiskey: From Grains to Glasses, Everything You Need to Know by Carlo DeVito (Cider Mill Press, April 2, 2024)

DeVito is the author of the epic, 650+ page The Spirit of Rye: Over 300 Expressions to Celebrate the Rye Revival, while this book comes in at a mere 160 pages. The book advertises on its cover that it will include information about whiskey history, notable distilleries, elegant cocktails, and tastings – a big promise for such a small text.

The most tempting material (to me anyway) is the promised information on “the world of flavor profiling with valuable tips on identifying the unique flavors and aromas of different whiskeys. From the smoky richness of peated Scotch to the sweet caramel notes of bourbon, you’ll learn how to savor each sip and fully appreciate the complexity of this celebrated spirit.”

The Cocktail Parlor: How Women Brought the Cocktail Home by Nicola Nice (Countryman Press, April 23, 2024)

Rather than looking at the bartending and cocktail manuals written by men to instruct them on how to make drinks for (other male) customers at the bar, The Cocktail Parlor looks at books written by and for women instructing them on how to make drinks for both men and women in the home. This viewpoint allows the author to show us the changing drinks served over the decades, but more importantly the changing role of women and how they entertained – from tea parties of old to BYOB apartment parties of the modern era. Along the way we meet dozens of extraordinary women who were authors and celebrities of their day.