Disclosure: This is an honest review written based on my experience using this book to make cocktails. Although I was not compensated to write this review, this post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure policy here.
About The Book
The Artisanal Kitchen: Holiday Cocktails, written by Nick Mautone, is a 128-page recipe book that’s filled with about forty holiday-inspired cocktails. In addition to lots of original cocktails created by the author who has over thirty-five years of experience in hospitality, it includes a few classic cocktails with holiday-themed twists that make them more appropriate for the season.
The recipes included in this book are divided into chapters by type of cocktail—Punches, Bubblies, Classic Cocktails & a Twist, Nogs, Grogs, & Holiday Warmers, and After-Dinner Drinks—so you get to taste a wide variety of recipes that are all great choices for the holidays.
Features:
• Forty original and classic cocktail recipes with ingredient lists, methods, and brief descriptions of or stories about each cocktail
• Photos of most cocktail recipes
• Descriptions of the different types of cocktails at the beginning of each chapter
• An introduction from the author
• A chapter listing recommended equipment, ingredients, and techniques with descriptions of each
• An illustrated glassware guide
• A table of contents that includes each cocktail’s name listed numerically under the types of cocktails
• An index with cocktail names and ingredients for easy navigating
Pros
Here’s what I liked about this cocktail recipe book:
The recipes are very unique.
I really liked how interesting all of the recipes were and that there were recipes for several different holidays, including fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day. Trying them during the seasons for which they were intended made me feel like I was making the most of each season’s flavors.
The recipes are all tasty.
Every recipe from this book was delicious. There wasn’t a single one that I didn’t like.
The book is educational.
This book is very educational, and it’s obvious that the author is an expert on making great cocktails. I learned a lot from his recipes. Reading through them made me wish I could attend one of his holiday parties, especially if he’s serving drinks like the ones in this book.
The introduction is very informative.
The first chapter of this book focuses on explaining the importance of balancing flavors and shares techniques for making syrups, butters, and other mixers. I referenced this section often when making the recipes.
The photography and design of the book are top notch.
This is another cocktail recipe book that’s beautifully designed and includes gorgeous photos of most of the drinks. This was especially helpful when making them for the first time.
Cons
Here’s what I didn’t like as much about this cocktail recipe book:
Most of the recipes are for batch-sized cocktails.
Almost all of the recipes included in this book were batch cocktails that served 10+ people. That makes it a great resource for anyone prepping drinks for holiday parties, but not so much for me who just wanted to try some holiday-themed cocktails at home. I had to pare all of the recipes down quite a bit; that isn’t easy to do if you’re inexperienced.
There are a lot of ingredients in most recipes.
Most of the recipes called for a lot of ingredients to make them, which was expensive and could be less accessible if you’re on a tighter budget.
Many recipes take more time to make than the average craft cocktail.
The majority of these cocktail recipes were also very labor intensive, and many called for homemade syrups, all of them different from one another and typically not reused in other recipes.
The recipes are not categorized by holiday.
I used this book to find recipes for each specific holiday, and that isn’t how the book is categorized. It would’ve been more helpful if they had been so I could quickly find fall cocktails, for example, instead of having to page through each section to find them.
Who Should Buy This Book
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In my opinion, The Artisanal Kitchen: Holiday Cocktails is best for readers who:
• Want to make unique batch cocktails for their holiday parties
• Love trying delicious holiday-themed recipes
• Are at the intermediate or advanced skill level in home bartending and know how to make cocktail syrups themselves
• Don’t mind trying recipes that take longer to make than the average shaken or stirred cocktail
This book is a very informative collection of complex original cocktail recipes. I enjoyed working my way through it during the holiday season, but if you are new to home bartending, don’t have a reason to make cocktails in large batches, and don’t want to have to pare them down to smaller sizes, this book may not be for you. Every single recipe I tried from it was incredibly delicious, but I ultimately felt most required too much work or too many ingredients to make again, as much as I really enjoyed trying them.
Cocktails From This Book
These are the recipes I liked most from this cocktail book:
Chocolate-Covered Cherry: A brandy cocktail made with dark crème de cacao, cherry liqueur, and a cherry
Apple Crush: An apply brandy and vodka cocktail made with apple cider, lemon juice, simple syrup, maple sugar, honeycrisp apple, and a cinnamon stick
Chestnut Hot Chocolate: A brandy cocktail made with milk, frangelico liqueur, chestnut spread, saline solution, cocoa powder, cinnamon, whipped cream, and a chestnut
Thanksgiving Nog: A dark rum cocktail made with water, heavy cream, pumpkin purée, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground allspice, ground nutmeg, ground mace, whipped cream, and a cinnamon stick
