Review: Vintage Cocktails: Authentic Recipes and Illustrations from 1920-1960

Vintage Cocktails: Authentic Recipes and Illustrations from 1920-1960, by Susan Waggoner and Robert Markel. Smithmark Publishers, NY, 1999.vintage.gif (16837 bytes)

For those looking for a recipe book nice enough to display on your coffee table, Vintage Cocktails does an admirable job at its admitted task.

Vintage Cocktails chronicles over 100 recipes from yesteryear, featuring historical details and vintage artwork. The authors have done a good job picking recipes of interest to modern readers while at the same time choosing some more obscure, but interesting, ones as well. Some of the featured recipes include the Zombie, Tequila Cocktail, Angel's Tit, Singapore Sling, Bacardi Cocktail, Pegu Club Cocktail, along with standards such as the Martini, Daiquiri, and Margarita. Oh, yeah, they also include the Mai Tai!

I did notice that some of the recipes differ slightly from what I've seen in some recent recipe books. So, it seems as though one of the goals of the book has been met. The extensive bibliography lists several vintage books, the most recent of which dates from 1956.

And how do Waggoner and Markel do with the Mai Tai? Pretty well, which bodes well for the rest of the book. They recount the standard Mai Tai origin story, with some small exception. Instead of claiming that "Mai Tai! Rao ae!" means "out of this world, the best", the authors instead use "the best damn thing we've ever drunk." We've yet to hear this version before, which gives us some doubt. More appealing is their "by the book" recipe which mirrors the Trader Vic version.

The book is filled with colorful vintage artwork which consists of "period" drawings and illustrations, old photos, and liquor labels. The design is clean and very attractive. Additionally, there are quotes from movies, and historical figures including "Trader Vic" Bergeron. There is also a short mixing tip section in the front of the book, although it is not extensive enough to be used as a sole resource.

The main gripe against this book is the lack of photographs or illustrations of the drinks. This is a big problem for several of the drinks, such as the Pousse-Café. Admittedly, the vintage illustrations might have clashed with 1999 photos, but perhaps there could have been a clever way to improve this shortcoming.

The book is a good value if you're looking for an attractive coffee table book or if you're looking for some different recipes to show off to your cocktail group. It is definitely worth checking out, and we give it a 4 out of 5.

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