The cocktail seemed an unlikely candidate to start either a revolution or a renaissance, but somehow over the past decade it has managed to become the center of both. After being off the radar for half a century, the crafted cocktail is now celebrated everywhere from the corner bar to week-long festivals that draw thousands. As fascinating as today’s artisan-driven or tech-savvy craft-cocktail bars can be, there’s also a need for cocktail comfort food—exciting drinks easily prepared by non-professionals that have the benefit of being delicious. Written by Paul Clarke, the executive editor of Imbibe, with a foreword by Jim Meehan, The Cocktail Chronicles is an enlightening field guide to the cocktail renaissance. It’s not a lab manual for taking the cocktail experience to a molecular level; nor is it an historical thesis tracing the forebears who mixed the drinks we enjoy today. Instead, The Cocktail Chronicles is mixology for the masses. It’s a collection of approachable and easily replicable drinks that all share the same thing: a common deliciousness and a key role—fully explained in Clarke’s engaging manner—in the ongoing and thriving cocktail renaissance.
