The Ultimate Bar Book: The Comprehensive Guide to Over 1,000 Cocktails (Cocktail Book, Bartender Book, Mixology Book, Mixed Drinks Recipe Book) Hardcover – Illustrated, June 23, 2006

Great book definitely learned some tricks

Great resource book

I bought this book with three other "Mixology" and "Home Bartender" style books. This one is easily the best of the bunch. It explains the tools, what they do, and which one you need to get started. It goes into detail on the bare bones essentials to start mixing, and what you need if you want to expand into a moderate and even a fully stocked bar.The book breaks down each alcohol and explains the history, labeling (so you know what to look for), and what glass to serve each drinks in. It even gives tips on garnishing, and explains the terminology.Aside from the astonishing detail and information, the book is weighty, but reasonably so given its size and appears to be of great quality. I've seen other comments mention receiving damaged and/or sticky books, mine arrived clean and unscathed.All in all, this is a great starting book that will guide you through being a beginner, and continue to aid you as your mixing skills progress to Advanced.

Yep, microprint. The book puts a hotel bible to shame size-wise. It is positively TINY. I don't wear glasses and still need a magnifying glass to read some parts due to dark font on a dark page. That's my only gripe: they need to print this book about 15% bigger.When the author says "comprehensive" they are not kidding. From what you need in a dead-basic bar to mixology, glasses, tools, naming a drink, making syrups... everything is here in tiny tiny print. Likely the best one-stop bar book you'll ever need. The index pulls double-duty: you can look up drinks by name, or go a bit further back and look them up by spirit/liqueur. Remember though, you can sub certain liqueurs for others like Cointreau/Triple Sec so look em up both ways (and adjust the Simple; Triple Sec is sweeter than Cointreau.) Happy to recommend to anyone who wants to learn about bars or needing a good generic bar reference!

I love this book! Ended up buying after my brother in law showed it to me. It’s had every drink recipe I’ve ever looked for, cute to leave out as a decoration, and the book organization is smart. You can look up drinks by their name and by alcohol type. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who has a home bar and appreciates making their own drinks.

After setting up a home bar, I needed a reliable resource for drink recipes. Everything else was rather light on the overall coverage or just very restricted to one type of liquor or another and what I needed was more a standard reference for (almost) everything. True to its title, there are 1,000+ recipes in this, and it's organized in an easy to find manner. Moreover, there are two indexes: One accounts for the drink recipes by drink, the other is organized by major liquor ingredient (say, Bourbon), so finding what I might like to make is simple and quick.There is occasional background on liquor or drink types at the beginning of sections, but unlike other books it doesn't dwell on the history lessons and focuses more on "what will you need", "how to choose", "what should be in my standard bar stock", and other topics like that. The focus is more on providing the ready-reference and necessary background and taking you right into getting the ingredients, measurements, and activities aligned.I wanted just one book that would serve the purpose of "how do I make..." and this for me was it. I'd highly recommend this if that's also your goal in finding that single reference guide. My only complaint is that the actual book is on the small side with a lot of information in smaller type. Keep that in mind and for those needing reading glasses, break those out to review this one.

This book came on time and as described. Ordered a used, hard cover bar guide. The book is in good condition. A few notes handwritten in the book, but nothing to keep me from following the directions. Pleased with this purchase.

I needed some drink recipes to get my grandma drunk at her husband's funeral. Of course I ended up pouring her straight shots of vodka. She puked in a houseplant and didn't remember anything the next day. Mission accomplished!