ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Shake Strain Done is full of easy and tasty drink recipes you can recreate in the comfort of your own home. There are so many different recipes to choose from. It's a bit of a cocktail bible.

A great guide to cocktails, Shake Strain Done makes it simple to mix up delicious drink action. It's filled with insight on the interplay of spirits and other ingredients and offers the reader plenty of options to meet any tastes. It's a great one for beginner or mixologist, with something for everyone. I recommend it to anyone looking to craft a great cocktail.

You will be able to find a cocktail for anyone with this book. Lots of variety and good instructions.

As a person fairly new to the world of craft cocktails, this book is a great introduction to cocktails as as well as spins on classics that are enjoyable. Easy to follow, and delivering results, I can absolutely picture myself purchasing this book for others who share my love of a craft cocktail and absolutely for someone who wants to explore creative cocktails that offer a big splash. I make a cocktail every week to celebrate the weekend and we enjoyed The Sweater Weather, Cinnamon Toast, Lemon Bush, and The Slice Cocktails to name a few. This book will definitely be on rotation.

This book allows you to create fun craft cocktails at home! Charming drink names and unique ingredients allow you to feel sophisticated and classy and impress guests with new drink ideas!

My husband (or resident bartender during quarantine) found some gems in the book! Approachable and easy to create from, it's a great addition to our home bar.

Although I'm not very much of a drinker my husband and I have recently enjoyed experimenting with some alcoholic cocktails at home. Since the holidays are approaching we thought this might be a little fun to try. Sadly, this is not the year to gather with friends and family for parties. So we figured this just might be the perfect time to practice and learn a thing or two about mixing drinks and impress our guests the next time we can gather together. Enter this perfect little book.

This is a must-have guide for any newbie bartender (as we most certainly are!) It lays out the basics perfectly from how to stock a bar to explaining all the different types of alcohol. It is organized in a very easy-to-read manner.

I can't wait to try the modern twist to the, Singapore Sling that Mr. Hirsch cleverly calls, "Singapore Slung."

I think this would be a great little Christmas present for the budding bartender on your list or just someone who enjoys a leisurely drink or two.

I'd like to kindly thank NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company with granting me access to this Advanced Reader Copy.

I didn’t mind this book but if I’m being honestly it really wasn’t much different to the other hundreds of cocktail books out there. If I’m being completely honest I’m on the hunt for a cocktail book that actually has a fruit tingle in it because they never do! And sadly this one did not. Still contained all the staples along with some other information about glasses and equipment to use which was helpful. I would possibly recommend this title to a customer however I’d easily pick up another book that is similar too. They’re all very much the same

I love a good cocktail and this baby delivered.

Lets start with the meh:

The photos are all drawn, which was a bit disappointing to me, I love to see my food/drinks in still photos that shows vibrant colors that make you drool and for that I'm giving this a solid 4 stars.
The good bit is that the drinks are easy enough to make, the recipes are simple and not too exclusive. You can find most of what's required in your local stores, I've checked. I also loved that the drinks are separated by the type of alcohol being used, so if you're looking for something with rum instead of vodka you'll have a lot to choose from.
One final good bit is that the drinks have some pretty cool names and if you need a drink for a specific occasion, I bet there's one in here for you
I Just wished the pictures were real but I've tried a couple of the drinks and they are delicious

I liked this cocktail book. The flavour notes are useful and help you decide which cocktail you want depending on taste as opposed to what spirits you have. It has a lot of recipes however I did think some of them were a bit complex

All the Thanks to netgalley for providing a Ebook version of the book. These are my thoughts and personal opinions.

As a casual drinker i sometimes find it a little difficult trying to figure out a drink to try or to sip on. As I started to read the book i got to learn that are more things to a drink than most people think. They way the book broke down the components and what goes into a cocktail. it definitely gave me some insight and some advice on what kind of cocktails to go for. It has a variety of different recipes for people t try and my friends I have have definitely enjoyed, being part of a indecisive group of friends it helps us figure out drinks. I recommend any person to purchase to have available to a friends night or if you ever decide you want to try something new.

I am always one to try a new cocktail recipe but I found this book just okay. It was not organized ideally. I don't know - I just didn't feel like it lived up to the blurb. I received this ARC for an honest recview.

Aptly scheduled to publish on Election Day 2020, let this be your guide to crafting a stress-relieving cocktail simple enough to make while also doomscrolling Twitter.

I’m not new to cocktails at home, but I’m also no mixologist. I have read a few good beginner cocktail books and am down with the introductory lingo already, and even so this book taught me a few tips I didn’t know (forming a lemon twist with the spiraled handle of your stirring spoon?! Of course! I’m so glad I know that now!) The actual mixing instructions are easy to follow and will only be made easier in a print format instead of the ebook galley form I read. J.M. Hirsch does a good job making the beginner information approachable and setting a casual mood so you’re not overwhelmed before you start.
That said, I do think it over-promises and under-delivers a little bit on the “you already have all this stuff in your kitchen!” front. These recipes are pared down and approachable compared to what you’d get crafted at a cocktail lounge, yet there’s still ingredients like cynar, lychees, or fresh herbs that your average American isn’t likely to have just lying around. It’s all stuff that is accessible to me in Chicago, but my Kentucky family isn’t going to go to the Piggly Wiggly for a handful of lychees. It’s all still very doable for me, but I’d consider myself a mid-range home cocktail connoisseur and not a beginner.
I’m very excited to try some of these gin cocktails - I appreciate SO much that this book is arranged by spirit and gives tasting notes. Other books make it so hard to search for a good recipe when I’ve got a bottle of gin and some friends over, who has time to pore over an index to find the gin cocktails?! And the simple sensory language of the tasting notes will hopefully help people find new recipes based on old favorites. I’d definitely give this book to a beginner home mixologist, or anyone looking to make their election night drinking far tastier!

This book boasts that it is full of simple cocktail recipes that anyone can make at home. After going through the recipes, nothing sounded that simple or even that delicious. I didn’t try anything. It also seriously lacked photos.

***Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Expected release date is November 3, 2020.***

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This was a fun read. Each section was broken down by the base of each drink (vodka, scotch, gin, etc.) with a brief history of each item. Every recipe also seems fairly straightforward without too many "exotic" items that would be difficult to find. The only thing extra that I would have liked to see would be an actual picture of the drinks listed, but that may be in the final copy.

I'm looking forward to trying out several of the recipes. 😊

"Are you done with generic gin and tonics, mediocre Manhattans and basic martinis? You can use pantry staples and basic liquors to produce more than 200 game-changing craft cocktails worthy of a seat at the bar."

This is a must have for any new mixologist or anyone missing the ability to go out to the bar for someone else to mix a fancy drink. The author skillfully addresses cocktail characteristics, breaking them down to 11 categories, and addresses the probability that most readers will not have hundreds of tequilas at their immediate disposal to craft specialty drinks. By organizing the drinks by alcohol and by characteristic, the author provides a quick and easy way to navigate the book and find your perfect drink quickly. I highly recommend.

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Shake Strain Done by J. M. Hirsch

If you’re looking to start making your own cocktails at home, this is your book! Hirsch provides easy directions for cocktails that you can make at home with basic items.

The beginning of the book includes basic knowledge and tools you’ll need to start crafting cocktails at home. Each chapter after that begins with basic information about the base alcohol (ex: brandy) and even suggestions on brands to buy that serve well for cocktails but won’t break the bank.

I really enjoyed the cocktail cartography section of the book. It breaks down different drinks by attributes so you can branch out and find other, similar drinks you might like. I really enjoyed finding a “warm” drink to help get me in the mood for the cooler weather!

I was given an ARC by Little, Brown, and Company and NetGalley. This is one I will be buying when it comes out on November 3rd to have a hard copy in my kitchen!

This cocktail book is genius. I love the idea of having flavour notes as guidelines so you can choose your cocktail recipe based on whether you want smoky or sour or sweet rather than just the liquor you would like to use. I really loved how this book explains in detail how the mixology works so you can adapt cocktails one way or the other and there were some really interesting mix ideas as well. Lots of ways to create bar worthy drinks at home and Shake Strain Done will certainly be on my Christmas list this year!

I really appreciated the overarching theme of this book, which highlights that cocktail making at home doesn't have to be ridiculously expensive. The book is divided into sections based on the primary liquor used, which is helpful for narrowing down which drinks you may like. Techniques for making syrups, infusions, and other skills are also introduced throughout the book, and Hirsch also offers suggestions for substitutions, which vastly increases the utility of the book, as the recipes can be customized in an almost infinite number of ways. The drink illustrations also provide a super classy touch, and as someone new to making drink, it was helpful to see what kind of glassware is typically used to serve different types of drinks. I appreciated that Hirsch incorporated takes on well known drinks, like the old fashioned, as well as offering up updated twists on classic flavors. In some ways, this book feels like it's geared towards a masculine audience, and the reader may get a sense that they're entering a guys world of drinks, which may be appealing to some readers more than others. Overall, Shake Strain Done has a lot to offer, the recipes are easy to follow, and are engagingly written, and I think anyone who is an aspiring mixologist should consider giving it a read!

This book was received as an ARC from Little, Brown and Company - Voracious in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Watching John Taffer in Bar Rescue I knew a little Bar Mixology but this book broke it down to a science and why these drinks work with their process. I loved all the types of glasses, cups, tools, ingredients, garnishes displayed throughout the book and the diagrams. When reading some of the recipes, I noticed some of them had a "skinny" version and now when I go to my local bar, I know to order that. Also, thanks to this book, I now know the official names of some of the drinks so I won't look like someone who doesn't visit a bar for the first time. I know our community will find use of this book and will enjoy it very much.

We will consider adding this title to our TX Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.