Spirits of the Otherworld
Spirits of the Otherworld by Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett is A Grimoire of Occult Cocktails, where alcohol meets alchemy, and where spirits meet spirits!
However you describe it, Spirits of the Otherworld is a handsome and heavy coffee-table (or cocktail-bar) book that runs to 160 pages of not only cocktail recipes but much else besides.
Magic and Mixology
In an interesting introduction, the authors show how the worlds of magic and mixology, and of alcohol and the worship of deities (or devils), have always been closely connected.
In fact, sacred rituals and alcoholic tipples have always mixed. Among the earliest evidence of man-made alcohol are traces of a 10,000-year-old beer that were discovered at a prehistoric festival site in Upper Mesopotamia. Göbekli Tepe, situated in modern-day Turkey, is both one of the oldest known places of worship and possibly the oldest known site for brewing. The monument was built by groups of hunter-gatherers, pre-dating mankind’s first civilizations. Evidence suggests that nomadic people once gathered there to worship and participate in the tradition of social drinking. It turns out that our love of booze dates far back into history.
They explain that modern mixologists are in a way like the alchemists of old – curious about ingredients, not afraid to experiment and mix things together, and both looking to create something extraordinary from the ordinary.
Authors of Spirits of the Otherworld
Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett are collectors, researchers and absintheurs. They opened The Last Tuesday Society’s Cocktail Bar in east London in 2016, bringing with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of dark cocktails. In May 2019, the bar was crowned the Best Bar in London at the 7th annual Design My Night Awards.
Tools of the Trade
The first section is a fairly conventional few pages on the Tools of the Trade, the things you’ll need to make the cocktails in the book, from bar spoons to jiggers, from mason jars to shakers and strainers. There’s also information about the different kinds of glassware you’ll come across.
Photography
Even the simple Tools of the Trade section is enhanced by the book’s superb photography, like this:
Unfortunately there isn’t a specific photography credit in the book, apart from that the photos are © the authors. If they took the photos as well as writing the book, then I really take my hat off to them.
Tricks of the Trade
Well, not so much tricks as methods and advice on how to make the preparation of cocktails easier and more professional. The authors explain how to use raw eggs and citrus zests, how to build a cocktail, and how to use tools like a shaker or a mixing vessel.
Spirits of the Otherworld Cocktail Recipes
Then we get into the bulk of the book, which is several sections containing cocktail recipes (and one mocktail recipe in each), with a total of 50 recipes in all.
These are no ordinary recipes, though. Each takes up a two-page spread, one page of which is yet another stunning photograph. The recipes have also been created in keeping with the otherworld theme, including specific ingredients, like creating a magic potion – which is exactly what they are.
Take the entry for Devil’s Disciple, a gin and absinthe cocktail inspired by Aleister Crowley, famously described as ‘The Wickedest Man in the World’. A 400-word essay about Crowley introduces the cocktail, and the authors explain that as well as being a poet, painter and, most notoriously, an occultist, Crowley was also an absinthe drinker and a mixologist!
Devil’s Disciple, then, as well as being another of Crowley’s nicknames, is an absinthe and gin cocktail created for Crowley. Not any old gin and absinthe, though, as the authors have specifically chosen spirits from the Devil’s Botany Distillery, London’s first absinthe distillery, and dry vermouth from Belsazar. Finally each recipe has a list of Ingredients, and then the Method.
Other Cocktail Recipes
To give a flavour of the book, another cocktail is Hail Marie, inspired by the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau. Like all the recipes, this has a long and fascinating introduction of a few hundred words, followed by Ingredients and Method.
Buying Spirits of the Otherworld
This obviously isn’t a cocktail book for everyone. It helps if you have an interest in the occult and the supernatural, but it will also appeal to anyone who’s interested in the history of cocktails, and of spirits, and how they’ve been used over the centuries.
The book is published by Prestel and is available from their website. You can also find it in bookstores and online retailers like Amazon.
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