So, for the past couple of years I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people who have visited this site, and many of them read something like this:

To: Jeffrey Morgenthaler

Subject: Web Form Submission

From: Some Loudmouth

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Message-Id: <20140412235755>

Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2013 16:57:55 -0700 (PDT)

Hey Asshole

When are you going to post more? I’m tired of not getting free shit on the regular.

Well, have I got news for you: I wrote a book, and now you can see what you’ve been missing over the past two-and-a-half years while I worked on it in my free time, between running two bars and writing a weekly column for Playboy. So let me tell you a little bit about what the book is about.

Whenever I train new bartenders, the first thing I tell them is that there are three things, in equal measure, that make a great cocktail:

The recipe you follow. The ingredients you select. The technique you employ.

Now, as I see it, there are a million books out there that have been written about recipes, and the history of recipes. Slightly less so, there are books out there about spirits, liqueurs, and other ingredients. But I couldn’t think of any books that really delved into the technique of making a great cocktail. So I set out to do just that.

This is a cocktail book that doesn’t talk about booze. There’s no chapter on rum, there isn’t a chapter of tequila cocktail recipes, and there definitely aren’t a hundred something recipes of my personal creations, with glossy photos of each one. This is a book that shows you exactly how a professional bartender does every last thing pertaining to the making of a quality cocktail, from handling citrus, to exploring simple and compound syrups, to shaking, stirring, infusing, garnishing, and even using a blender in the proper way.

Throughout the text, I’ve included tips, techniques, and recipes from some of the best bartenders in the country. Folks like Jennifer Colliau, Daniel Shoemaker, Jon Santer, Todd Thrasher, Murray Stenson, Joseph Brooke, and Dale DeGroff all contributed valuable information for me to share with my readers.

The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique is available now, wherever books are sold. I hope you’ll pick up a copy.