The Essential Bar Book, by Jennifer Fiedler

I’ve worked in the drink industry for almost a decade. Compared to my predecessors, I was lucky. Information on drinks, such as recipes, techniques, and stories are now readily available on the internet. If you want to know what a pisco is or are curious about the different variations of Martini, all you need to do is run a quick search on your smartphone, and the result is there. Top that off with AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini, and I don't think there is much out there that a bartender would have trouble finding.

Yet, I’ve always felt a particular fondness for books. There is a sense of exclusivity, of a secret knowledge that is not readily available to anyone but those who are willing to explore it. I’d always find myself buying random books related to drinks early on in my career. As the adage goes, "You don't know what you don't know". Without those books, I‘d have no idea what to search for on the internet.

One of these books I have come to find is a timeless keeper: "The Essential Bar Book" by Jennifer Fiedler is structured more like a dictionary than a book of history and recipes. That’s not to say you can't find some of those in it. The book, with its small size and bright orange cover, is unmistakably a keeper in a bar or at home. I often find myself choosing a random page of the book when I feel uninspired, hoping to find a topic that would start a journey into another rabbit hole of learning. 

True to its title, the book covers everything related to the bar. The content is arranged in alphabetical order, much like a dictionary. The language used is simple and approachable, while the topics covered range from beers and wines to cocktails and spirits. In it, you’ll find some terms and jargon used in the drinks industry.

The first entry in the book is about absinthe. It covers what exactly absinthe is, the different styles available, famous cocktails, and a bit of history and myth about the spirit. This is followed by the first cocktail of the book: the Absinthe Frappé, which starts with an extract of an ode from the 1904 musical "It Happened in Nordland". In the ode, Absinthe Frappé was touted as a morning pick-me-up, which is not far from the full context of the drink's popularity as a hangover cure of that era. Interestingly, this book was the reason I discovered this simple yet (dangerously) delicious drink.

The book covers a lot of the fundamentals of drinks and bar operations in general. If you’re a beer lover, you can learn about the distinctive styles of beers, such as milk stout and Scotch ale. Wine lovers will find terms like noble rot (related to sweet wine) and Sercial (a style of dry Madeira wine) to add to their wine vocabulary. If you’ve ever wondered about champagne sabering (sabrage), there’s an entry which includes some history of the practice.

Aspiring bartenders and mixologists will find numerous interesting entries too. This book chronicles 115 cocktail recipes, each given its own dedicated page covering measurements, methods, glassware, and a bit of story and history behind each drink. You can find the classic Gimlet here, but if you want to try something "lost," give the Alabazam a go. There are background stories for each cocktail, so you can impress your friends with the additional knowledge.

All in all, I find this is a great book to own. Whether as a drink enthusiast or a career bartender, you’ll find this book a timeless and valuable addition to your collection. Who knows, you might find something you've never drunk before in the book. As for me, I just passed my copy to the bartender in front of me to make the Queen's Park Swizzle, a cocktail that I’d forgotten for some time now.

by Chris Chai (The Drink Archivist)