How to Mix Drinks (Jerry Thomas)

Published in New York in 1862, this volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection was the first cocktail book published in the United States, and it was written by a “celebrity bartender” famous throughout the country. This seminal work is probably the most famous bartender’s guide and cocktail book of all time—nostalgic and delicious homage to a drinking era that is gone but not forgotten. Containing hundreds of drink recipes, the book collected and codified the oral tradition of mixed drinks from the early days of cocktails and included Thomas’s own creations as well. The guide laid down the principles for formulating mixed drinks in all categories, and it includes the first written directions for cocktails such as the Brandy Daisy, Fizz, Flip, Sour, and variations of the first form of mixed drink, Punch. There are also famous recipes like the Eye-Opener, the Locomotive, the Pick-Me-Up, the Corpse-Reviver, Chain-Lightning, and the Blue Blazer (Thomas’s signature drink invol