Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: Prohibition Centennial Edition, by Ted Haigh

"Forgotten Cocktails" – those were the words that grabbed my attention while I was looking through some new books to add to my reading list. The hardcover book was interesting. Unlike most cocktail books, where the cover is plain or features some cocktails, this one has a background similar to leather-bound books of the 1920s, framing a picture of a bar scene of the same era: a few top hat-wearing gentlemen standing over a bar counter tended by (what I assume to be) the bartender with a bowtie.

Just like a carnival poster, words of various fonts covered the cover: "Deluxe Edition," "Revised and Expanded," and most attractive to me: "From Alamagoozlum to the Zombie and Beyond". I grabbed it without hesitation.

A couple of years later, when the Prohibition Centennial Edition came out in 2020, I went out of my way to look for it. For context, "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails" by Ted Haigh (a.k.a. Dr Cocktail) has been revised twice since its 2004 publication. The first one I got my hands on was the second edition (revised in 2009 to include 20 new recipes and their stories). The latest edition compiled 150 cocktail recipes from the previous century, almost double the amount of the first edition (which had 80).

And instead of some dapper gentlemen enjoying drinks by the bar, the photo featured three uniformed men posing in a bar alongside what I assume are confiscated alcohol bottles and barrels. As a side note, a mini version of this book was published in 2014, covering 52 recipes and brief summaries of each drink.

The book starts off with a greeting to the reader, referring to them as "Cocktail Archaelogists". An interesting choice of words, but it sets the tone of the book, being both playful and informative. Haigh goes on to mention the abundance of classics like Old-Fashioned and Negroni, and how easily a drinker can walk up to any bartender and get those. He was more intrigued by cocktails that are (nearly) forgotten, hidden between old handwritten cocktail manuals or scraps of paper stuck to a wall somewhere.

His curiosity sees him start collecting old and obscure cocktail books, some dating back to the late 19th century. He then moved on to collecting vintage spirits and liqueurs, driven by the curiosity to recreate these forgotten concoctions of the bygone era.

Before the recipe sections, Haigh tells the stories of the Prohibition (1920 to 1933). Details of the Temperance movement leading up to the Prohibition, the bootleggers, and the rise of speakeasies are all told in a compact and informative manner. If anything, it reads more like a story than a history segment. This storytelling method, peppered with vibrant vintage photos, drawings, and posters, extends throughout the books, with individual cocktail recipes.

The 150+ cocktail recipes are given their own pages, each with their own story and background. Haigh would mention the sources where he discovered the original recipes. These could be books, newspaper articles, or remarks by other bartenders. In some cases, he would explain the inspiration behind the naming of the drinks.

He also highlights some key figures of the era. The list usually includes bartenders (or bartender-writers), though some actually feature the people who inspired or are involved in the drinks' creation. What makes it more interesting are the accompanying pictures, which range from vintage bottles and bar tools of the era to recreations of posters of bars, brands, or drinks.

Haigh also gives a lot of personal context within the cocktail's stories. Some of these stories detail how he felt about the drinks when he first had them, along with his own quips and qualms. It felt like I was discovering the drinks alongside him. Haigh tries to keep the recipes as faithful as possible to the original. In some cases, he'd adjust them based on practicalities and modern palates (to a degree).

Personally, I think the most intriguing update to the Prohibition Centennial Edition book was the Non-Alcoholic Prohibition Cocktails section. The section provides valuable insights into the drinking culture during Prohibition. A few of the recipes, especially the punches, provide glimpses into how socialites partied and entertained guests during America's dry era. While the recipes are simple, the thought behind them makes for an interesting read.

For me, while the recipes are valuable, the book is an insightful read into the evolution of drinks around the Prohibition era and Haigh's endeavor to bring them into the modern day. Reading it feels like an archaeological expedition, digging up recipes from nooks and crannies of dusty notebooks and forgotten back-bar corners.