I started off doing the cocktail thing basically off of Wikipedia, but I soon got The Essential Bartender’s Guide. It’s not a guide to essential bartenders, as you might have guessed, but a guide to making cocktails.
I really like it. It’s very opinionated. It describes frozen margaritas as an “abomination”, if I remember correctly. It might be wrong, it might be right, but it’s more entertaining reading a recipe book that has opinions than something that’s a “neutral” guide.
The only problem is that it doesn’t shy away from using obscure types of booze for delicious-sounding cocktails, so you end up with an excessive collection of bottles:
When this project is completed, I’m going to have somewhat of an excess of … stuff.
I sense a cocktail party coming sometime this summer to get rid of all this alcohol.
I forgot to mention that the author is crazy for lemon and lime, so you have to adjust those ingredients downwards. For instance, he has Champs-Elysées at 1 part Chartreuse, 4 parts lemon and 4 parts brandy. While a more sensible recipe is a half part simple syrup, 1 part lemon, 1 part Chartreuse, and 3 parts brandy. So beware!