Best cocktail and wine books at a look
- Best cocktail bible: The Madrusan Cocktail Companion by Michael and Zara Madrusan, £25.85
- Best for tequila followers: Tequila by Millie Milliken, £16.36
- Best cocktail learn: The Cocktail Diaries by Sam Heughan, £14.79
- Best easy-use cocktail guide: The Spirits by Richard Godwin, £13.59
- Best for forgotten gems: The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock, £10.83
- Best for dwelling distilling: Booze (River Cottage Handbook No12) by John Wright, £14.19
- Best for gin lovers: The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart, £9.76
- Best for novice cocktail makers: The 12 Bottle Bar by David Solmonson & Lesley Jacobs Solmonson, £12.99
- Best for aperitif followers: Aperitif: A Spirited Guide to the Drinks, History and Culture of the Aperitif by Kate Hawkings, £3.69
- Best for wine followers: Red & White: An unquenchable thirst for wine by Oz Clarke, £10.54
- Best for straightforward gin cocktails: Sip: 100 gin cocktails with solely 3 elements, £12.65
- Best for beer followers: Brew by James Morton, £3.99
- Best for alcohol-free ingesting: How to Drink Without Drinking by Fiona Beckett, £15.99
Best cocktail and wine books to purchase 2025
The Madrusan Cocktail Companion by Michael and Zara Madrusan
Best cocktail bible
You’ll by no means want one other cocktail guide as soon as you’ve got acquired this in your palms. With over 500 pages, it is the final word complete information to each model of cocktail you may consider, together with steering on instruments, ice and mixing abilities. Recipes are divided into ‘branches’ that cowl every model, from martinis and manhattans to fizzes and flips. Expect the basic technique, then loads of spins and variations utilizing completely different spirits. A espresso desk guide to dip into every time you are craving a cocktail.
Available from:
Amazon (£25.85)
Waterstones (£35)
Tequila by Millie Milliken
Best for tequila followers
If you get pleasure from sipping a tequila neat or typically go for a tequila-based cocktail, then that is the guide for you. It’s a complete deep-dive into what makes this distinctive spirit so particular: explaining the completely different kinds, the historical past, the way it’s made and the tasting notes and flavours to look out for. Fun illustrations all through make it an entertaining learn. Once you are totally immersed on the earth of tequila, the ultimate part consists of basic cocktail recipes, from an ideal paloma to a margarita. It will provide you with a brand new appreciation for this advanced spirit.
Available from:
Amazon (£16.36)
Waterstones (£20)
The Cocktail Diaries by Sam Heughan
Best cocktail learn
Did you already know that actor Sam Heughan has a love of cocktails? Best-known for starring in Outlander, travelling all over the world for his work meant he skilled completely different drinks and native specialities. This guide kicks off together with his favorite and signature drinks, earlier than journeying by way of the classics, that includes a choice of cocktails from high bartenders all over the world. It’s a stylishly produced guide that makes an amazing present.
Available from:
Amazon (£14.79)
Waterstones (£16.99)
The Spirits by Richard Godwin
Best easy-use cocktail guide
This is full of sufficient info, historical past and recommendation to offer you an excellent understanding of the cocktail, however at its core it’s a straightforward to make use of recipe guide stuffed with all of the classics you’d anticipate (negroni, espresso martini, margaritas) up to date for the fashionable dwelling bar. Richard has additionally written new recipes, plus stacks of recommendation on easy methods to begin creating your individual liveners. This will shortly turn out to be a well-used, dog-eared, booze-stained staple of your cocktail cupboard.
Available from:
Amazon (£13.52)
Waterstones (£16.99)
The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock
Best for forgotten gems
A implausible place to begin if you wish to start at first. Specifically, 1930 – when the golden age of cocktails had but to fade. You could discover the odd ingredient right here and there that you could now not discover, however the 287 pages of this guide are completely teeming with recipes (over 700), so you’ll nonetheless have loads to select from. It’s fascinating to see which cocktails have stood the take a look at of time, such because the martini, moscow mule or bloody mary – alongside just a few forgotten treasures.
Available from:
Amazon (£10.83)
Waterstones (£20.77)
Booze (River Cottage Handbook No12) by John Wright
Best for dwelling distilling
Where do you go when you’ve mastered cocktails at dwelling? Start making your individual booze to make use of in them, in fact. This guide is a superb place to begin for those who’d prefer to have a go at making your individual beer, wine, cider and fruit liqueurs. Imagine: it is summertime and also you’re serving up a few cosmopolitans with your individual orange liqueur, or a spherical of french 75s made with home made elderflower champagne – the Good Life dream!
Available from:
Amazon (£14.19)
Waterstones (16.99)
The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart
Best for gin lovers
Ever checked out a listing of gin botanicals and never recognized what all of them are? This guide will educate, inform and entertain, plus offer you heaps of information to impress your visitors at your subsequent drinks occasion. It could not be extra totally loaded, with layers of data on drinks and their elements. Land on the web page for a sloe gin fizz, for instance, and easily look both facet of the recipe to find easy methods to develop your individual sloes, the Latin plant title and why we make sloe gin within the first place.
Available from:
Amazon (£9.76)
Waterstones (£22)
The 12 Bottle Bar by David Solmonson & Lesley Jacobs Solmonson
Best for novice cocktail makers
For critical cocktail followers actually wanting to have the ability to make every kind of drinks at dwelling on the drop of a hat, this guide is for you. It guides you thru the acquisition of 12 bottles to inventory your booze cabinets or trolley, then offers over 200 recipes utilizing these spirits. Don’t fear – you don’t have to purchase all 12 without delay! The guide will assist you construct up from a one-bottle bar formed by your private desire – you would possibly even be stunned by simply what number of cocktails you may make from one spirit. Peppered with information, suggestions and shopping for recommendation, it is a great reference guide in your dwelling bar.
Available from:
Amazon (£12.99)
Waterstones (£14.99)
Aperitif: A Spirited Guide to the Drinks, History and Culture of the Aperitif by Kate Hawkings
Best for aperitif followers
The excellent present for booze aficionados, this guide will educate you easy methods to infuse your individual spirits and blend the right negroni. Kate begins with a witty, participating tackle the historical past of aperitifs (it makes nice bedtime studying), then presents 33 recipes with recommendation on serving, from a basic martini to rose petal vodka.
Available from:
Amazon (£3.69)
Waterstones (£16.99)
Red & White: An unquenchable thirst for wine by Oz Clarke
Best for wine followers
Wise, humorous, skilled and an inveterate storyteller, Oz Clarke is likely one of the wine greats. Part memoir, half distillation of all you have to learn about fermented grape juice, that is ok to learn in mattress. Buy it for everybody you already know.
Available from:
Amazon (£10.54)
Waterstones (£25)
Sip: 100 gin cocktails with solely 3 elements
Best for straightforward gin cocktails
Gin specialists Sipsmith will increase your cocktail repertoire with this useful guide. It does because the title says (with solely a tiny little bit of dishonest), so you may study to make french 75s, gimlets, negronis and plenty of extra.
Available from:
Amazon (£12.65)
Waterstones (£15.99)
Brew by James Morton
Best for beer followers
Walking you thru each single step of the method, James writes with data, wit and fervour, drawing on every little thing from conventional brewing strategies to shop-bought kits and tips about the newest brewing software program. Pictures are used to obviously spotlight any element that might be ambiguous within the wording – nice for a newbie brewer. We’re off to order some hops and malt.
Available from:
Amazon (£13.49)
How to Drink Without Drinking by Fiona Beckett
Best for alcohol-free ingesting
This guide will persuade anybody to go dry for January, and even perhaps past! It’s stuffed with non-alcoholic drinks, plus recipes (we love the rhubarb cordial) and a assessment of 0.5% and under beers. There are additionally drinks to swimsuit pink and white wine drinkers.
Available from:
Amazon (£8.50)
Waterstones (£15.99)
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