The One-Bottle Cocktail: More than 80 Recipes with Fresh Ingredients and a Single Spirit

I bought this book after receiving a cocktail shaker for Christmas. One of the best cookbooks I’ve bought to date! It’s so much fun, the way the author writes and talks about these drinks is just a blast to read. The recipes themselves are easy and fun and make use of lots of fresh ingredients, which I love. Tons of fruit and herbs, all well worth the small amount of effort to prepare. I didn’t want to fill my “liquor cupboard” with lots of expensive ingredients that I’d only use a handful of times. I’d much rather buy a really good bottle of gin or tequila, a bag of lemons, and a bunch of fresh herbs! Our favorites have been My My My Tai, a very unique take on a Mai Tai that is so fun and less sweet, and Midnight in the Garden (strawberries and rum, plus some balsamic vinegar, such a unique combo!). One of my favorite things about the book is her suggestions for subs, swapping this alcohol for that one. A few recipes are for larger amounts (think a pitcher or a punch bowl), so those are on the menu for whenever we start entertaining again, but we’ve thoroughly enjoyed working our way one at a time through the single cocktail recipes! Buy this book, it will become a staple for your home bar!

I don't make a ton of cocktails at home. I have a few that I rotate through (Manhattan, Negroni, Division Bell), but that's about it. The main reason is that keeping a bar stocked with all the vermouths, tinctures, and liqueurs necessary to make a much wider array of drinks is unrealistic--my collection of spirits takes up enough space as it is. This book opens up a whole world of new flavors for me to experience--it takes the half-drunk bottles of spirits I already keep around and ups their utility big time, using ingredients I either already have in my fridge or that I can acquire at the grocery store around the corner. The photos are beautiful, the writing is clear and approachable, and there's a nice array of drinks that run the gamut from very simple and quick to make, to more complex and impressive options that are still easily achievable for everyone. This is a gem!

This is a great addition to any home bar. Just as the name suggests, the recipes allow you to make delicious cocktails relying on just a single base spirit. Most of the other ingredients in the recipes are pantry items that you probably already have—e.g., salt, vinegar, honey, maple syrup, etc. We are cocktail nerds and already had an extensive selection of spirits, liqueurs, bitters, and cocktail books at home prior to buying this. We have found this book to be a refreshing change from the often complex recipes that are typical of craft cocktails these days. It has opened our eyes to the possibilities of making incredibly tasty drinks without much fuss. One of our favorites so far is the Tango Nuevo which is pictured in "Look Inside" photo spread here. As described in the recipe notes, this drink tastes like a cocktail version of a salted caramel affogato. And we loved that we had all of the ingredients on hand to try it out. We have made it a couple times already and know that our friends would enjoy it too. The photography is stunning and seeing all the beautiful creations inspire us to want to try many more recipes from this book.

I’ve been wanting to start making drinks for a while now and thought this book would be perfect. However, I was slightly disappointed that a lot of recipes call for a very random or hard to find ingredient. There’s a few recipes Im very excited to try but, have things I can’t just find around the house. I may just have to tweak some recipes. Excited to try some drinks!

I’ve had this book for a few months and probably made 20 or so recipes from it... I started drinking cocktails in Philly about 15 years ago with the cocktail renaissance, BUT I don’t always have a lot of time or money. (And would prefer to buy ingredients at the grocery store versus trying to find specialized ingredients in a state-controlled liquor store!) These recipes are delightful, ranging to any taste - easy to procure most ingredients (e.g. some you may have to pick up a grapefruit at the grocery store, some you may already have vinegars and maple syrup in your pantry), easy to prepare (e.g. at most you may need to infuse a syrup for half an hour, but most can just be mixed up in a shaker), and affordable but fun. Plus practically-speaking, the book is relatively thin and easy to position on the counters of a small apartment, so all told, I am incredibly happy with the purchase.

Cocktails can be as much of an adventure as fine cooking but much of the time require a huge investment in bottles that might sit in your cabinet for many years barely used. This book is a perfect way around that. Every cocktail I've tried in this book has a phenomenal depth of flavor, even if the ingredients are simple. Not everything will necessarily be in your pantry, but anything you might buy for a cocktail--white miso, hibiscus tea, etc.--can also be used for cooking and is far cheaper than a $40 bottle of Benedicitine. My favorite so far is the Sassy Flower, with a hibiscus rosemary syrup complementing mezcal: smoky, floral, earthy, sweet, sour, and very easy to drink. Hoffman sometimes gives you alternative ingredients--fennel seed vs. pollen, cognac instead of aged rum--but, ideally, you don't want to do your own substituting. I used sugar syrup instead of agave in a strawberry-tequila-fennel drink and thought "This extremely tasty but a little cloying." That wouldn't have happened if I'd followed the directions, since agave is an invert sugar and less noticeably sweet. Bottom line: If you enjoy cocktails, buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

At long last there a cocktail book that gives me what I want: the ability to make flavorful drinks at home without needing to buy loads of custom spirits that sit around unused once I've become enamored different drinks. Perhaps you're like me and shy away from cocktails made with a dizzying array of tinctures & hard-to-find liqueurs. While they may be delicious, the cost both in terms of ingredients and time can be daunting. One Bottle Cocktail combines gorgeous photography, easy-to-follow instructions, with an ethos that I can really get behind - one spirit per drink with ingredients one can find at any grocery store. It also does a fine job introducing the neophyte bartender some core concepts and how to get the most flavor out of various ingredients. I'm certain I'll be buying more copies to gift to other cocktail-loving friends, but my copy can't wander off as there's still more recipes I've got to try :-)

Back in the late 90’s, I tumbled like Alice down down NYC’s emerging craft-cocktail underworld. The theatrics, the obsession with flavor “architecture” and seasonality, the explosion of new sensations—I was turned upside down. Since then, I estimate I’ve spent tens and tens of thousands of dollars in search of arcane bottles to replicate the experience at home….. And then my wife gets me this unsuspecting cocktail book a few months ago, and it changes the game. Since then, I’ve spent some $30ish bucks on fresh ingredients and my hobby has gained a whole new life. Thank you! A few things that have helped me as I interact with the book: -- The juicing is worth it. But to cut down on mid-week labor, I juice en masse on Sundays (or just buy fresh juice at my supermarket's juice bar) and then freeze it in silicon ice-cube trays; throughout the week, I thaw the one-ounce juice cubes and use as needed. -- Experimentation. I keep four different bottles of mezcal, each with contrasting flavor emphasis, so the same mezcal cocktail recipe has near-infinite variations as I mix-and-match mezcals. (I could say the same for olive oils I have here and the “Olivia Flip” recipe, etc.) -- A recipe calls for *smoked* Maldon salt, say, I only had the regular Maldon salt…..In moments like these, I’ve been rewarded when I’ve gone the extra mile to follow the mixologists’ careful arrangement of subtle, beautiful flavors. Thanks again for this gem!

It's an absolutely beautiful book, and I love the idea of being able to make interesting cocktails without having to track down obscure kinds of booze. And the drinks look mouth-watering!

Love this book! Cocktail recipes are simple, but creative and fun.

It's such a great Idea, and a solid concept, but unfortunately the recipes are more likely to turn you off the idea than onto it. All the recipes are by current top mixologist, but it's all Emperor's new clothes. Sure, olive oil and tequila works, kind of, but it's not going to beat (even a mediocre) Margarita in any competition judged by people with taste buds. I bought this book mainly for cocktail inspiration but it's been more a lesson in what doesn't work - and I never want to try again - than what does (and I like some pretty out-there flavour combinations). These are mostly just yucky and banal rather than exciting. Plus you're going to be required to engage in all sorts of time-draining, not-worth-the-effort, infusions and other sorts of finickety techniques way more complicated than just buying another bottle of way-better-tasting booze to make a simpler and better tasting cocktail with. So there's that to bear in mind too. There are more straightforward and inspirational cocktail books out there for you I'm sure, keep looking.