Top five curious cocktail books

Whether a text dedicated to urine-based mocktails or a science fiction-inspired drinks book, here’s a selection of cocktail recipe guides to entice curious imbibers.

This is our selection of the top five curious cocktail books

Most keen amateur mixologists will own one or more of classic cocktail tomes – think The Savoy Cocktail Book or Salvatore Calabrese’s Classic Cocktails – but there are a few guides out there with an alluringly niche appeal.

Earlier this year, a book dedicated to urine-based mocktail recipes launched, offering drinkers a “healthy” alternative to alcohol, while another guide caused controversy by claiming home bars have no use for Tequila or Bourbon.

Click through the following pages to see our selection of curious cocktail books. If you think any have been missed off the list, let us know by leaving a comment below.

The Complete Urine Drinkers Cocktail Guide

Released in February, this guide offers a surprising alternative to base spirits for health conscious cocktail lovers – urine. Following a recent survey revealed that 3.8% of the UK population drink urine regularly in order to “benefit their health”, also referred to as urophagia or urine therapy, its authors predicted that 2016 will be “all about urine”.

Created by Plumbworld, The Complete Urine Drinkers Cocktail Guide includes serves such as the ‘Marga pee ta’, made using fresh urine, lime juice and simple syrup, and the Bloody Urine, made by mixing together fresh urine, tomato juice, lemon juice, dashes of Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, salt and pepper. It also includes a cocktail named in honour of adventurer Bear Grylls (who has consumed his own urine on television), the ‘Pee na Gryllada’, made using coconut juice, pineapple juice, fresh urine and fresh pineapple.

The 12 Bottle Bar

Authored by husband and wife team David and Lesley Solmonson, The 12 Bottle Bar caused quite a stir when it was released in 2014 due to its claim that Tequila and Bourbon are “not needed” for basic cocktails. It advises readers to stock seven spirits, one liqueur, two vermouths and two bitters to create the perfect home bar, however the book says Tequila “just isn’t called for in that many old-school cocktails” and includes rye as the only whisky variety because “it is far more old-school than Bourbon”.

Instead, the text calls for consumers to fill their home bar with a brandy, dry gin, genever, amber rum, white rum, rye whiskey, vodka, orange liqueur, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth aromatic bitters and orange bitters.

Blasphemous Cocktails

Authored by Steve Wollett, this ghoulish cocktail book claims to “give you the recipes to enjoy every single nightmare you have encountered”. The horror-inspired book contains recipes that allude to the works of Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft and Clive Barker and instructs readers how to create eery garnishes such as dripping blood and eyeballs.

Following the success of Blasphemous Cocktails, Wollett recently sought US$2,500 on crowd-funding website Kickstarter to launch Killer Cocktails from Outer Space, which contains more than 100 cocktail recipes inspired by works of science fiction, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Farscape, as well as a number of other television shows.

Tequila Mockingbird

Ideal for literary imbibers, Tequila Mockingbird is a collection of cocktails inspired by some of the world’s foremost wordsmiths. Written by Tim Federle, a broadway actor and self-confessed “word nerd and cocktail enthusiast”, the book contains 65 drinks recipes paired with amusing and enlightening comments on their literary inspirations. Also featuring creative illustrations, the book includes serves such as Brave New Swirled, Romeo and Julep, and Drankenstein.

Cocktails for Dingdongs

This satirical cocktail reference guide is the work of Chicago-based co-authors Dustin Drankiewicz, bar director of Chicago’s 16” On Center, and Alexandra Ensign, comic book artist and bartender at The Promontory. The comic book-style guide features recipes for six drinks, each accompanied by an amusing illustration.

Its recipes are found at 16” On Center establishments – including Dusek’s, The Promontory, Punch House and Tack Room – which detail recipes such as the Heath Manhattan, which uses charred vermouth, and the Chilean Sour, made with muddled fig, lemon, Saigon and chocolate bitters, and El Diablo, a Suerte Reposado Tequila cocktail.