Ten spirit and cocktail books for autumn 2024
Long nights call for reading a good book in front of a fire, and these new releases and updated editions also pair exceptionally well with good cocktail.
With the festive season making its rapid advance, these 10 new books would make the perfect gift for the cocktail connoisseur in your life, or if you’re just looking to brush up on your own booze knowledge, these pages offer everything you need.The Martini
By Alice Lascelles
For those that think there can't be much to be written about this classic two-ingredient cocktail, think again. In this book, Financial Times columnist and cocktail expert Alice Lascelles goes on a deep-dive into the iconic cocktail, sharing 60 recipes while charting the Martini's journey from conception to the modern day.
Discover the best Martini to pair with oysters; explore variations infused with olive oil, shiso and jasmine tea; find out why your most important tool is your freezer; and the real reason James Bond liked a shaken, not stirred, Martini.
Publication date: 26 September 2024
Rum, A Tasting Course
By Ian Burrell
There is probably no-one more qualified to speak on the topic of rum than Ian Burrell, the official global ambassador for the entire category.
In this comprehensive tasting course, readers can discover the variety, complex history, and distinct flavours that rum has to offer. Learn who is to thank for inventing the spirit, how it is created from sugarcane, and how best to enjoy it, with help from Burrell's tasting notes for 100 global rums, and recipes for 12 cocktails – both classic favourites and those with a modern twist.
Publication date: 5 September 2024
Love & Whiskey
By Fawn Weaver
From the woman behind Uncle Nearest Tennessee whiskey, Love & Whiskey explores the life of the world’s first known African-American master distiller, Nearest Green, and his unique legacy that includes a link to Jack Daniel and being credited with helping perfect the globally recognised Lincoln County Process.
In this 380-page book, Weaver includes more than 30 pages of notes and references, chronicling her journey from finding the story of Nearest Green through a piece in The New York Times: 'Jack Daniel's Embraces a Secret Ingredient: Help From a Slave', to her assembling more than 30 historians, archivists, genealogists, researchers, and conservators; interviewing and spending time with more than 100 of Nearest Green's descendants, as well as many of the surviving descendants of Jack Daniel; pulling thousands of documents from more than six states over the course of more than seven years; and leading to the founding and building of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey; the US$1 billion company and the 'fastest-growing' American whiskey brand in US history.
Publication date: 5 September 2024
Lessons From Gin – Business the Four Pillars Way
By Matt Jones
Charting the journey of Australian gin Four Pillars from a small cult favourite to a household name, brand founder Matt Jones shares his experiences as a creative brand strategist during the rise of social media.
Described as an ‘insider’s guide to business success’, with chapters on brand design and storytelling, product excellence, building loyalty and a community and more, Lessons From Gin is not a memoir, and “certainly not the definitive story of Four Pillars Gin," Jones said. "It’s my take on the decisions we made that helped grow Four Pillars into the world’s leading craft gin business in less than a decade.
"As the person who contributed nothing (literally) to making the gin taste as good as it does, I think my perspective might be the most relatable to others who also don’t have any gin-making talent, but who do have an extraordinary product and business they want to put on display and make sure it gets the credit (and growth) it deserves."
Publication date: 17 November 2024
Bubbles — A Guide to Carbonated Cocktails
By Bart Miedeksza and Valentino Girotto
The pair behind London’s now closed Crossroads bar, Bart Miedeksza and Valentino Girotto, co-authored this book centred around carbonation.
Bubbles: A Guide to Carbonated Cocktails, is a 300-page comprehensive guide on mastering the art of crafting carbonated cocktails. Within its pages, topics such as pressure, time, sugars, alcohol content, glass impact and bubble shape are addressed, drawn from Crossroads owner Miedeksza and bar manager Girotto’s years of research and practical knowledge of the subject.
The book aims to equip bartenders with the knowhow to perfect carbonation, so they can apply it in their bars.
Publication date: 11 August 2024
The World Atlas of Whisky, 3rd Edition
By Dave Broom
Ten years after the last edition, whisky writer Dave Broom has released a fully updated and revised third edition of The World Atlas of Whisky, which feature the profiles of more than 500 distilleries around the world, region by region, and in excess of 480 whiskies.
In each section of the book, Broom offers a little history of the distillery and the place in which it's located, the types of equipment that each might have, factors that make them unique, general tasting notes for the type of whisky that comes out of the distillery, before finishing it off with some tasting notes on specific bottlings.
Navy Rum Compendium – Exploring 300 years of Royal Navy Rum and its Techniques
By Alexandre Gabriel and Matt Pietrek
Planteray rum owner Maison Ferrand launched the Navy Rum Compendium – Exploring 300 years of Royal Navy Rum and its Techniques, at this year’s global trade show, Bar Convent Berlin.
Co-authored by the firm's owner and master blender Alexandre Gabriel and writer Matt Pietrek, the 256-page book delves into the significance of this type of rum, including the evolution of its production and the cultural practices surrounding its consumption.
Highlighting the seven pillars of navy rum – blending of rums from different countries, double ageing, the use of used barrels, dynamic ageing, navy active vatting, issuing proof and burnt sugar browning – Gabriel and Pietrek provide a comprehensive and fascinating narrative that will captivate rum enthusiasts and historians alike.
Publication date: October 2024
Drink Pink!: Cocktails Inspired by Barbie, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, and More
By Rhiannon Lee and Georgie Glass
For fans of 'girl power' films and romcoms, this book of 75 cocktail recipes is inspired by Barbie, Mean Girls, Clueless, Bridget Jones, Sex and the City, Legally Blonde, and more, is the perfect gift.
In this 'totally fetch' cocktail book, readers will find easy-to-follow cocktail recipes, complete with glamorous garnishes and tips for flawless presentation to create the perfect instagram-friendly serve.
Cocktails include the Dirty Dancing Martini, the Carrie Me Away Cosmo, and the Bend and Schnapps Shots.
Publication date: 18 December 2024
Malt Whisky Yearbook 2025
By Ingvar Ronde
When it comes to annual releases, this is the one that many in the whisky industry look forward to the most.
In the 20th edition, readers will find new and up-to-date information on more than 900 whisky distilleries from all over the world, with contributions from many distinguished whisky experts who have exclusively written new features for this new edition alongside details of hundreds of whisky shops, whisky sites and new bottlings.
In addition, the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2025 includes more than 250 tasting notes of single malts from all working distilleries in Scotland, plus hundreds of colour photographs.
Publication date: 15 October 2024
Spirited Women
By Sammi Katz and Olivia McGiff
While this colourful release won't hit shelves until the spring, this is definitely a vibrant book to keep on your radar. Throughout, Katz and McGiff unveil the world of spirits and cocktails exclusively through the lens of women makers, shakers, and trailblazers of the drinks world by way of 55 profiles and accompanying recipes – all whimsically illustrated in colour.
Together they celebrate the influence of diverse women in beverage teaching the 'why' behind the sexism that exists in the industry and debunking stereotypes through the process.
Each profile, written by the likes of bartender, educator, and co-founder of Speed Rack, Lynnette Marrero, and founder of Yola Mezcal, Yola Jimenez, is said to be penned with wit, integrity, and curiosity, and all have been complemented by an original cocktail recipe that echoes the woman’s story and showcases their spirit, inclusive of easy-to-follow steps for at-home bartenders to execute to the nines and broaden their knowledge behind the bar.
Publication date: 4 March 2025
