Like any good barroom discourse, Oh’s beguiling work happily dives into arcane trivia. Readers meet him drinking mojitos at La Bodeguita, daiquiris at El Floridita, and Bellinis at Harry’s Bar in Venice and composing his own cocktail, the Death in the Afternoon, from absinthe and Champagne. Hemingway, of course, is the book’s presiding spirit. Each alphabetical entry gives simple recipes for making the drink and its major variants along with deep drafts of backstory on its origins and naming quirks-the Alaska was invented in South Carolina, it seems, and the coffee cocktail has no coffee-as well as the bartender(s) who developed it and famous barflies who imbibed it. The author tackles icons like the Manhattan and the margarita along with obscure gems like the monkey gland, which was inspired, it is averred, by a Russian doctor who pioneered primate-to-human testicle transplants. Oh, a London bartender, offers an encyclopedic overview of noted drinks, from the absinthe frappé (concocted of absinthe, sugar syrup, and soda water) to the zombie (a symphony of gold rum, Jamaican rum, Demarra rum, lime juice, falernum, absinthe, angostura bitters, grenadine, white grapefruit juice, and cinnamon syrup). Readers can bone up on the lore of iconic cocktails while they learn how to make them with this mixological primer.
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