The Recommended List

A good trainer, bartender or brand ambassador should have read all of the books listed
hereunder within six months or a year of starting, and should regularly visit the websites and
subscribe to the magazines listed. If you think you’re a professional, well, this is how
professionals (like doctors and lawyers and businessmen) stay professional – they keep up to
date on what’s going on in their industry.

If you're a brand owner or distributor, you can use the sources below to get up to speed and
(important, this) not piss off the bar- and cocktail-community before you even start.

In each list except that for Real World Events (which is chronological), if you can only read one
book/magazine/website/blog out of each category, then you should take the first one listed. This
doesn’t mean the first one is the “best”: it means it’s the single best all-round
book/magazine/websites/blog on the subject.

Things move fast these days. There are no doubt books/magazines/websites/blogs/real-world

events in your area that aren’t listed here: do buy/read/attend them, but use what’s here as your
basis.

Books: Bartending & Mixology

1. Diffordsguide to Cocktails, Simon Difford / Diffordsguides – good all-round guide +
recipes.
2. The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, David A. Embury – the definitive book on
mixology theory. The author’s preference is for very strong, very sour drinks.
3. The Joy of Mixology, Gary Regan – extensive all-round guide, mixology + recipes, the first
book to include modern-day advice on personal guest service.
4. The Bartender’s Guide, Jerry Thomas – first bartender guide ever, contains original
recipes. Read in tandem with Imbibe! by David Wondrich, which explains Thomas and his
historical and mixological context.
5. Esquire Drinks, David Wondrich – consumer-oriented fun, drinks production, making,
anecdotes + a reasonable amount of recipes.
6. The Craft of the Cocktail, Dale de Groff – consumer-oriented with drinks production,
tasting, drinkmaking, anecdotes and many recipes.
7. The Savoy Cocktail Book – another definitive recipe book, many recipes.
8. American Bar, Charles Schumann – very much influenced by Savoy Cocktail book, many
recipes, the most influential European book on cocktails since The Savoy Cocktail Book.
9. The Playboy Host & Bar Book, Thomas Mario – excellent lifestyle consumer-oriented
recipe and product guide.
10. Straight Up Or On The Rocks, William Grimes – well-written history of mixed drinks and
drinking by the food and drink editor of the New York Times. Some recipes.
11. Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails, Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh – in-depth exploration of
extinct and extant liquors and obscure cocktails. Get the second edition, enormously updated
and expanded.
12. Beachbum Berry Remixed, by Jeff “Beachbum”Berry, an updated anthology of his first two
masterpieces on Tiki, Grog Log and Intoxica.
13. Fix the Pumps by Darcy O'Neil. Utterly ground-breaking book detailing the rise and fall of the
soda jerk and soda fountain, which laid the groundwork for Prohibition cocktails, sweet drinks,
chick drinks, Tiki cocktails and much more. Includes hundreds of soda fountain recipes and a
step-by-step guide to creating your own in-house from-scratch soda program. Highly
recommended.
13. Cocktail, Heywood Gould (out of print) – brilliantly detailed novel about the rise and lifestyle
of the modern bartender and party bars, later adapted out of all recognition into that film.

©Liquid Solutions 2010, www.liquidsolutions.org

 The Recommended List

Books: The Business of Bars

1. Successful Beverage Management, Robert Plotkin – dull, very American, but VERY
detailed.
2. Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Guide – the first ever guide to bar management, and still one of
the very best.
3. Service That Sells, Jim Sullivan and Phil “Zoom” Roberts – very lively little tome all about
applying common sense, normal business practice and retail sales theory to the hospitality
business.
4. Every Bastard Says No – The Story of 42 Below Vodka, by Justine Troy & Geoff Ross (ISBN-
13#9781869792978) . The best book ever written, from a brand-owner's perspective, about
building a global premium brand in the on-trade, bar by bar and bottle by bottle.

Books: General Product Knowledge

1. The Connoisseur’s Guide to Spirits & Cocktails, Dave Broom (possibly out of print). The
book if you only have one.
2. Appreciating Whisky, Phillip Hills. Extraordinarily detailed and humorously written, this is
the definitive book on whisky and arguably on most spirits.
3. Whiskey, A Connoisseur’s Guide, Dave Broom. Less detailed than Hills’, more readable.
4. Cognac, A Liquid History, Salvatore Calabrese. Excellent book about the entire industry,
with extensive tasting notes.
5. Rum, Dave Broom. Everything you’ll ever need to know about rum and cane distillates:
beautiful glossy coffee table book.
6. The Tequila Lover's Guide to Mexico by Lance Cutler. Somewhat out of date in the details and
legislation, but the core information is the best out there, plus it includes a realistic travel guide
for actually visiting tequila distilleries.

English-language Magazines / Periodicals

1. CLASS magazine (bi-monthly) www.classbar.com. UK based, always inspiring.

2. Australian Bartender (monthly), www.polargroup.com.au. Australasian, shows what you
can do in a logistically difficult cocktail market with an abundance of fresh fruit and herbs.
3. Drinks International (monthly), www.drinksint.com website is also useful for global drinks
statistics. Very much a magazine for marketing executives in the drinks industry.
4. Mixologist, periodic journal of the Museum of the American Cocktail, www.mixellany.com .
Quarterly tome of MOTAC, usually with very well written, interesting topics.
5. Imbibe magazine, published in both the UK (http://www.imbibemagazine.co.uk/) and US
(http://www.imbibemagazine.com). Similar but apparently not related to each other. Very much
consumer-oriented but with excellent focus on drinks in general.
6. Nightclub & Bar magazine, (monthly), www.nightclub.com. Magazine of the US Nightclub
& Bar association, which also organizes very large barshows in Las Vegas and other
locations each year. Now has free online edition.
7. Bar & Beverage magazine, www.barandbeverage.com. Magazine of the Canadian bar
industry.

Newsletters

1. www.just-drinks.com very industry-executives-oriented newsletter, but free and good

2. www.ardentspirits.com - sign up for weekly newsletters from Gary Regan.
3. www.drinksint.com – sign up for the Drinks International weekly newsletter, also industry-
oriented but close to the world of bars and mixology. Publishes (as free download) the
annual Millionaires Club report of all the world's brands selling one million nine-liter case
quivalents or more, widely seen as the industry standard.

©Liquid Solutions 2010, www.liquidsolutions.org

 The Recommended List

Online Resources
Many of the websites listed now have relatively static websites but frequently updated Twitter and
Facebook presence. Others have RSS feeds which you can subscribe to and place in your
browser's toolbar: just by clicking along it for a few seconds a day, you can immediately see if
anything has been updated.

Bartenders
1. www.chanticleersociety.org.Replaces the much-respected Drinkboy messageboard. The
destination for serious discussions on mixology. Low volume of discussions compared to the old
Drinkboy: maybe everyone now knows everything?
2. www.egullet.com, in the Fine Spirits & Cocktails subforum. The cocktail section of the famous
foodie website. Active and useful.
4. www.barflair.orgThe Flair Bartenders’ Association (FBA). The FBA organises and endorses the
biggest and best flair bartending contests worldwide, and keeps track of the global rankings of
competitive flair bartenders. Active messageboard.
6. www.iba-world.comThe IBA (International Bartenders'Association). The IBA is the ultimate
organisation to which national guilds (USBG in the US, UKBG in UK, DBU in Germany, etc)
affiliate themselves. No messageboard, information usually out of date.

Media
1. www.liquor.com – US-oriented online site, blog and newsletter about bars, cocktails,
drinks and lifestyle with real professional writers and everything.
2. www.liqurious.com – website that aggregates other worldwide online entries about
cocktails, bar and bartenders. Always has news you'd never otherwise have found.
3. www.barlifeuk.com UK-based online magazine, covers UK scene superbly.
4. www.mixology.eu/en/blog English-language blog of the excellent German-language
magazine Mixology, which also organises the annual Bar Convent show in Berlin. Covers
global bar and mixology news as well as German, Swiss and Austrian news.
5. www.4bars.com.au Blog of the excellent Australian Bartender magazine, which also
organises the annual Sydney Bar Show. Covers global bar and mixology news as well as
Australasian news.
6. www.alcademics.com, Blog of San Francisco-based drinks writer Camper English
7. www.slowcocktails.com, Hilarious blog of New Orleans-based drinks writer Wayne Curtis.
(not that you're not very funny too, Camper, if you're reading this).
8. www.artofdrink.com The most widely-read cocktail blog in the world, from Canadian
bartender, scientist, author and blogger Darcy O'Neil.
9. www.thedrinksreport.com Drinks business-oriented website with packaging-skewed news.
10. www.barbore.com Scotland-based forum (the Speakeasy) for bartenders, well visited and
participated in by the great and good north of the border.

©Liquid Solutions 2010, www.liquidsolutions.org

 The Recommended List

Real World Events (in chronological order)

1. Venuez Bar Show, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 5 & 6 April 2011, www.venuez.nl . Bar
show of the eponymous Dutch on-trade magazine, since 2010 held in Rotterdam,
previously held in Amsterdam. Venuez Awards held separately in November opf each
year. Show will also have it's first ever edition in Belgium in February 2011; there is a
bilingual (Dutch/French) edition of the magazine for Belgium also.
2. Cocktail Spirits Paris, France, usually May: www.cocktailspirits.com As for Bar Convent.
Top bar showcases are the very best in the world. Consistently hosts unique speakers
you won't see at any other bar show.
3. Manhattan Cocktail Classic, NY, May 13-17 2011, www.manhattancocktailclassic.com . No
trade show element: the MCC consists of seminars and an open bar at Astor Center,
Tales from the Bar (top-bar showcases given in the bar itself), opening and closing gala
parties and independent events. Many similarities to Tales of the Cocktail. Attendees pay
to attend all events, seminars, etc.
4. Tales of the Cocktail, New Orleans, USA, July 20 – 24 2011:
www.talesofthecocktail.com . No trade show element. The most serious seminar program
in the industry, Spirited Dinners (liquor pairings), Spirit Awards, attendees pay to attend
all events. Huge, overwhelming amount of branded activities. The most important event
on the calendar.
5. Sydney Bar Show, Australia, usually September: www.barshow.com.au . As for Bar
Convent. Bar show of Australian Bartender magazine, includes Bar Awards.
6. San Francisco Cocktail Week, usually September, www.sfcocktailweek.com . Very much a
scaled-down version of Tales organised by a not-for-profit group in San Francisco, the
most important city in America after NY in cocktail- and liquor-marketing terms.
7. Bar Convent Berlin, Germany, 10 & 11 October 2011: www.barconvent.com .Small trade
show, very well-respected seminar program, excellent networking possibilities with
bartenders, very well-regarded. Includes Mixology Bar Awards.
8. London Cocktail Week, UK, October 2011, www.londoncocktailweek.com . No trade show
element. Organised by CLASS magazine / Diffordsguide. LCW consists of seminars and
events across London, loosely coordinated by LCW themselves, a la the Edinburgh
Fringe. Since the demise of the London Bar Show, currently the pre-eminent UK event.
Inaugural year (2010) included Restaurant Week, a trade-show element, Bar Awards,
and concluded with RumFest at the weekend.
9. Art of the Cocktail, Victoria, B.C., (Canada), usually October, www.artofthecocktail.ca .
Small-scale event organised as fundraiser for Victoria Film Festival. Includes trade show,
seminars and parties. Well-run and well-attended by Canadians and Pacific Northwest
Americans. Segues seamlessly into Portland Cocktail Week.
10. Portland Cocktail Week, usually October (right after Art of the Cocktail),
www.portlandcocktailweek.com . Well-run and attended event including seminars, parties
etc. Because Art of the Cocktail is Sat-Mon and Portland Cocktail Week Mon-Fri, a week
allows you to visit both, in the Pacific Northwest of the US and BC, both important liquor
and influential cocktail markets.
11. Bar Forum, Barcelona, Spain, usually November, www.barforum.es . Trade show and
seminar program. Collegial atmosphere and well-run.
12. Bar Academy Show, Athens, Greece, www.baracademy.gr . Trade show and seminar
program, organised by major Greek bar school. Inaugural year 2010, but big-name
speakers and quality attendance. One to watch for 2011.

©Liquid Solutions 2010, www.liquidsolutions.org