The 10 Best Home Bartending Books

The 10 best home bartending books I have ever come across! I keep these on my bookshelf for cocktail inspiration. 

The 10 best home bartending books! These are my favorite cocktail cookbooks for both decorating your bar cart and for learning more about mixology! You need all of these drink books for your bookshelf! (via feastandwest.com)

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People are always asking me how I come up with my cocktails for F+W. The answer is a complicated mixture of inspiration and innovation, plus just plain trial and error. (I’m looking at you, Negroni.) I went to bartending school after college — though I never became an official bartender — so I have a bit of that background as well.

I would also say that cookbooks are a big source of ideas for me. I love looking through them for recipes to try at home, for photo-styling inspiration and sometimes just for reference or comparison. They’re also a good place to go to brush up on my knowledge!

Last month I unveiled my new and updated guide to home bartending, The Ultimate Home Bar Guide. I’m so grateful to those of you who have already signed up for the free mini version and/or bought the full version! Thank you so much for supporting me and F+W! It was so fun to work on this book, and I hope you’ll consider purchasing a copy for your home bar, too. (It’s only $10! That’s probably less than a drink at the fanciest cocktail bar you go to.)

Of course, I think my bar guide is a pretty comprehensive guide to get you started with mixing drinks at home, but I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without a little inspiration. So, without further ado, here are my favorite books for both decorating your bar and learning more about cocktails! I can honestly say that each of these books has been a big inspiration to me, so I hope you enjoy them too! // susannah 

The 10 best home bartending books! These are my favorite cocktail cookbooks for both decorating your bar cart and for learning more about mixology! You need all of these drink books for your bookshelf! (via feastandwest.com)

My favorite cocktail cookbooks:

  1. The Essential Bar Book: An A-to-Z Guide to Spirits, Cocktails, and Wine by Jennifer Fielder
  2. The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique by Jeffrey Morgenthaler
  3. The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks by Amy Stewart
  4. The Modern Mixologist: Contemporary Classic Cocktails by Tony Abou-Ganim
  5. Punch Bowls and Pitcher Drinks by Jeanne Kelley and Sarah Tenaglia
  6. The Curious Bartender: The artistry and alchemy of creating the perfect cocktail by Tristan Stephenson
  7. Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine by Madeline Puckette
  8. The Complete Beer Course: Boot Camp for Beer Geeks by Joshua M. Bernstein
  9. Summer Cocktails: Margaritas, Mint Juleps, Punches, Party Snacks, and More by Maria del Mar Sacasa
  10. Infuse: Oil, Spirit, Water by Eric Prum and Josh Williams

Photo // Sara Logan Photography 

decorative icon of a beer stein.

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Mix the perfect cocktail, every time

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