Month: November 2022

It’s hard to pick out the most exciting part of releasing a new book but it’s easy to name the most dreadful part. That’s discovering the little errors that made it into print despite the many rounds of editing and proofreading that any good book goes through. We’ve picked up a few in our advance copies of Raising the Bar, most of them thankfully very minor, but there is one that’s significant enough to be worth noting.

In our bourbon chapter we include a wonderful cocktail from Lauren Schell and Vito Dieterle called the Expat. Due to a misreading and miscommunication on my part, we ended up omitting an ingredient. The book calls for just a mint leaf garnish on the cocktail. In fact, mint leaves are also supposed to be shaken with the drink, imparting flavor and aroma. (I’d thought that using a mint leaf as a garnish was a little random, and if I’d tugged on that thread I would have caught the mistake sooner. It makes more sense with mint in the drink!)

When we ask creators for permission to share their drinks in our book, they trust us to represent them correctly. I messed up on this one and so want to take the opportunity to apologize for the error and set the record straight. The next printings of the book will go out with the corrected recipe. Anyone getting an early copy, feel free to mark it up.

Hopefully by writing about the Expat here readers will catch the correction and more people will be introduced to this drink, which deserves wider recognition. It’s one of the few really good bourbon cocktails that calls for lime juice, which along with the mint and the spice notes of Angostura bitters gives it a slightly tropical slant. Do yourself a favor and make yourself an Expat. Here’s how to do it:

• 2 oz bourbon
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz rich simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water)
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• small handful of mint leaves
• mint leaf, for garnish

Shake all ingredients (including the mint!) with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a mint leaf.

(Fortunately, the recipe as erroneously printed still makes a balanced cocktail, but one that’s missing the added dimensionality of the correct version. We didn’t call for an absurd amount of any single ingredient, as I’ve seen happen before. And our recipe won’t make anyone sick, like the editors of a magazine in Sweden did by accidentally calling for twenty whole nutmegs instead of two pinches for a single cake. So things could definitely be worse. But still, we regret the error.)

Raising the Bar is officially released tomorrow and if you pre-ordered a copy it may have already arrived in your mailbox. We have a few events lined up, including a talk and signing at Powell’s, a party at Teardrop Lounge, and a virtual class with Milk Street. Get the details on those here. And if you’d like a copy for yourself or as a gift, order now from your favorite bookstore.

It’s a week to publication day, so I should probably mention on my blog that I have a new book coming out? It’s true! Back in late 2019, my friend Brett Adams and I mapped out a proposal for a book on home bartending. Three years later, it’s finally coming into print from Chronicle. Here’s the cover:

The book is intended for home bartenders but with more than 200 cocktail recipes, we’re confident there’s something in it for everyone. We’ve also organized it in a unique way, guiding the reader through stocking their home bar one bottle at a time. This means that rather than calling for one-off ingredients that will end up gathering dust on the shelf, every bottle we feature gets an entire chapter dedicated to putting it to use. I wrote a longer post on Substack about what to expect from the book, so check that out for more detail. It was a really fun project to work on and we’re excited to have it out in the world!

If you pre-order the book now, you’ll have it by publication day. Find it wherever good books are sold, including: Powell’s, Amazon, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Bookshop.

We also have a few promotional events lined up with more to come. On release day, November 29th, Brett and I will be at the legendary Powell’s City of Books for a talk and signing at 7:00 pm. Following that, we’ve arranged for a celebratory cocktail party at Teardrop Lounge with a special menu of drinks from the book. We also have a members-only signing lined up at the Multnomah Whiskey Library on December 8th; currently just nine seats left!

For those not in Portland, we’ll be doing a virtual class with Milk Street on December 7th. Get your tickets for that here with code “THEBAR15” for 15% off.