Mezcal + Tequila Cocktails - Robert Simonson
Mezcal + Tequila Cocktails:
Mixed Drinks for the Golden Age of Agave
Robert Simonson / 176 Pages / April 2021
Simonson, who has published various cocktail books with quite different topics and designs, presents here - to spoil the conclusion - an appealing and easy-to-read cocktail book, which is a typical example for the category "recipe collection".
Small, handy and with 176 pages also rather on the narrower side, there is not a lot of waffling around at the beginning. 15 pages short introduction, which focuses only on the modern resurgence of the popularity of agave spirits since the beginning of the 2000s and not at all about any real history before, Simonson writes himself as a conclusion:
"The recipes that follow are some of the best the agave bars and agave wizards in the world have to offer, including a dozen or so that have archieved the status of modern classics. Most are easy to assemble. I’ve tried to keep the special syrups and infusions needed to a minimum.”
And he keeps his word, the few pages until you reach the recipes made me almost chuckle, knowing how detailed these topics get stretched out in other bar books:
2 pages "Equipment", this really simply means jigger, shaker and the most important 3-4 glasses for exactly this book. After that 2 pages "Ingredients", even more amusing. Because the 2 pages already contain bitters, where he actually just says Aromatic, Orange and ideally Mole/Chocolate would be good for the book, tells you Bittermen's is a nice brand by the way (no joke), "Garnishes" (citrus fruits as fresh as possible) and "Ice" (as good as possible), all packed into these one and a half pages.
Then on the last 3 pages before the recipe section you get a really rough summary, telling you the most important facts about what defines tequila vs. mezcal including the production process.
I showed you the very tasty Augie March already here
So then 90% of the book remains for the most important thing in a classic recipe collection (and the book by no means wants to be more): The recipes, of course.
There are 62 of them, about half with mezcal as the main ingredient, the other half again divided into tequila and mezcal + tequila, so for drinks that use both agave categories. Meaning mezcal clearly takes the lead overall, which I think is good. Many drinks are pictured, minimalist & appealing, but not winning any photography awards either; only some get by without photos, mostly the simpler ones. The ratio of picture/no picture here is quite good and you never have the feeling that they should have put more effort into it.
Another positive ratio is that of rather simple "riffs" on drinks you already know (see below, e.g. simply a Mezcal Margarita) to rather 85-90% interesting signatures, which, as Simonson was quoted above, require not too much effort beforehand. If I were to invent a difficulty scale here, I'd say this is a 2 out of 5 on a scale of 5, in terms of "difficulty" to prepare the drinks with a slightly advanced home bar. Almost no exotic fruits that are only available in the Asia market or not at all in some countries, even almost no infusions, maybe 5-6 in the whole book and these also not needing any technical gadgets.
The two most simple riffs, the rest is more interesting and unique
Something that is hard to grasp fully with cocktail books: Understanding which recipes do you get here "exclusively" at all? Unlike books such as "TIKI" by Shannon Mustipher, let alone foundational works of well-known bartenders, or even books that are brought out by bars themselves with many of their exclusive house recipes, here we have 99% (with 2-3 exceptions) simply by Simonson collected recipes from bars and known bartenders (aka his friends), which one could find in most cases elsewhere by chance. I immediately recognized two of them for example from the Death & Co book, the Augie March (see above) and the Spaghetti Western.
This sounds harsher and more critical than it should. In times of the internet, it is generally rarely the case that you can find those recipes really only in this or that book at home, a few months after release.
What I always find important: each recipe gets a small text, at least 4-5 lines, sometimes more. Sometimes simply describing the drink and its origin, sometimes great, funny anecdotes, especially if the bartender is an acquaintance/friend of Simonson's.
Also important: In about half of the cases brands are cited in the recipes. This in itself is a pleasant ratio, in another later to be reviewed mezcal book every single drink (as e.g. in the Death & Co books) is basically focused on one brand each and since it is not stated as simply a "recommendation" (in the other book), you immediately get a bad feeling making it with another brand and not the intended one.
Here on the other hand, you rather get the feeling that a) it is paid attention to the fact that especially with drinks which have many flavourful players anyway and are not spirit-focused, the brand is not important and is therefore not cited and b) it is explained rather nicely in the enclosed text. So for example you are told, which notes are important in the mezcal used in this drink, if he tells you the specific brand. With these facts one can find a substitute product rather easily, which is great.
The book closes with two nice pages, a reference guide, so to speak, in which the drinks are categorized with the page numbers coherent to their cocktail "families". So basically "If you're looking for a Negroni: Drink XY page Z", with about a dozen categories and drink families, in each of which the drinks are listed.
Then at the end follows a short page with recommendations of works for further education regarding tradition & production of agave spirits, knowing fully well that this book here is the opposite of those works (a simple recipe collection), as well as a solid index with the ingredients & drink names.
Conclusion:
Simonson succeeded in creating a nice, simple recipe collection as a pocket guide, modern and solid pictures and a nice layout. The drinks are the focus and every home bartender, with just a little bit of effort and no special gadgets or rare ingredients, should be able to prepare all of them without problems. The selection is wide and there is something for every taste, just as the sources of the drinks varying widely. For the already low price and even more if you get it used cheaper, as a small reference book and expansion of your printed recipe library at home (but nothing more) a clear recommendation.
