Historical Cocktails

When it comes to drinking culture, very often people ignore the deeper meaning that characterizes this branch of beverage, in Italy and around the world. We are used to the usual cocktails, simple and quick; every now and then we are tempted by something innovative, attracted by the seductive complexity of its ingredients, by the letter format with which it is listed on the list of a fashionable bar in a big city.

Rarely do we really think about tradition, the meticulousness that over the years goes into characterizing and improving very often unique and special drinks with their own history behind them. Some of them even date back to the beginning of the last century, and perhaps they have been forgotten today, or perhaps not entirely. It is in Ezio Falconi's outstanding book, "Historical cocktails. Harry Craddock 85 years after," that the author, a bartender and expert in the field, reintroduces some of the most historic mixes, unfortunately forgotten, but fortunately revived today, reinterpreted in a modern and personal key and included in this exceptional volume.

There are 250 cocktail recipes in the book, carefully selected from the 500 that the author had found in an old book, all reinterpreted in his small bar, meticulously and with the help of customers for those small changes that can really make a glass special. After a list of the ingredients used, all of high quality, after the index to scrutinize step by step the names of the curious and interesting recipes, a real world opens up.

Each cocktail has its own name, its own ingredients, quantities precisely stated, and the process for making it. What is really striking is the introductory part to each drink, full of details, rich in history and knowledge, memories that should not be forgotten: its origin, where and on what occasion it was first served. And of course, to complete the picture, a photograph, strictly on a bar counter, of the cocktail in the foreground, and in the background the bottles representing its ingredients.

Opening it at random... A Marmalade cocktail, in the foreground, in the center between a bottle of Tangerine Filliers Dry Gin 28 and a jar of Breakfast Orange Marmalade The Macallan, above the photograph the process, further up the ingredients, and at the beginning, below the name, the note: cited by Harry MacElhone in the 1922 edition of his "Harry's ABC of Mixing cocktails." A unique work, combining history and curiosity, usefulness and freshness in one book.