Be Your Own Bartender

Travel Distilled reviews Be Your Own Bartender, a book described as A Surefire Guide to Finding (and Making) Your Perfect Cocktail.

On a recent visit to meet The Botanist gin people at the Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay, one of my fellow guests was an American bartender and writer, John McCarthy. John told me all about his new cocktail recipe book, written with his wife Carey Jones, and it sounded such a cool idea that I just had to get a copy.

Why is it cool? Because it uses flow charts to find the right cocktail for the mood you’re in, for whichever spirit you feel like drinking (or happen to have lying around), for a party, and taking other things into account, like how lazy or adventurous are you feeling?

A Simple Idea

It sounds simple, and that’s the joy of it. It is. It’s just that no-one seems to have done it before. It also helps you find cocktails to use up a bottle of anything that might need using up once the bottle is open. So many cocktail books have recipes that call for exotic ingredients, which the average person probably doesn’t have lying around at home. So, average person spends a bit of time and money tracking down the ingredient, only to find that it gets stuck at the back of the cupboard as you can’t find another cocktail recipe that uses it. Not with this book to hand.

Carey and John
Photo (c) Zofia & Co. Photography.

Be Your Own Bartender: The Authors

Carey Jones has been writing about food and spirits for over ten years, and has been published in such top places as Vogue, Food & Wine, Travel+Leisure, and The New York Times. She’s appeared as an expert on TV, and has written another cocktail book, Brooklyn Bartender.John McCarthy also writes about spirits and in addition is a consultant mixologist, creating bar programs for bars across the USA. He’s also appeared on TV, made cocktail videos for Saveur, and he and his wife Carey write the spirits column, Liquor Cabinet Roulette, for the Food & Wine website.

So, How Does It Work?

Each spirit gets its own section, so let’s take a look at my current favorites, agave spirits. Tequila and mezcal both get their own flow charts. The tequila chart begins with a straightforward question: How about a little spicy? If you say Yes, then you’re asked if you’re happy to do a little muddling. Each Yes/No answer leads you closer to the right cocktail recipe.

Some of the other questions that need answering before you drill down to the perfect cocktail choice are things like whether you’re throwing a party, whether you want to haul out the blender, and even whether you want to show off a bit! In the end, though, you’ll be led to one of fourteen different tequila cocktail recipes that follow on the next few pages.

Most recipes come with a note or two of advice, or further suggestions, and scattered through the book are some Pro Tips, like recommending a particular brand of spirit that really works well in the recipe.

And There’s More…

This is more than just a book of cocktail recipes, though. As the title says, it wants to show you how to be your own bartender. The book opens with helpful sections on what you need to know about, like glasses, ice, equipment, how to shake and stir, garnishes, bitters, syrups, and so on. The authors have a really relaxed writing style which not only makes you think ‘I can do that’ but actually makes you keen to try it.

Sample pages from the book Be Your Own Bartender by Carey Jones and John McCarthy — A Sample Cocktail Recipe

The bulk of the book is obviously the middle section with the flow charts and the cocktail recipes, with 10-20 different recipes for each spirit. Scattered through it, though, are other helpful flow charts, like how to plan for a party, how to throw a great brunch, and a chart of Hot Drinks for Cold Nights. This asks you things like: do you have any guests, and who are they, how boozy do you like your cocktails, and are you happy to make the syrups the night before?