I loved this book, SO many awesome recipe ideas I'd not come across before. Friends and I pulled a few and did a cocktail tasting for a birthday party and every option got great reviews!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher ---Little Brown and Company, and J.M. Hirsch for the ARC of Shake Strain Done.

First and foremost I LOVED the illustrations in this book! Normally Forcookbooks and cocktail books I want photographs of each recipe, but I really enjoyed the illustrations, many are framable!

This book is a perfect combination of introductory to learning bar basics as well as providing more advanced information of flavor profiles and understanding of the steps of preparing cocktails and the purposes of the steps and ingredients.

I will be purchasing a print copy to add to my bar book collection!

This is marketed as an accessible cocktail recipe book. While it does well to explain the different alcohols and techniques, the actual recipes use mix-ins that aren't standard in a kitchen.

Shake Strain Done is a basic no-frills mixology book by J. M. Hirsch. Due out 3rd Nov 2020 from Little Brown & Co. on their Voracious imprint, it's 272 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a really solid bar book full of traditional recipes. The recipes are arranged thematically, by main alcoholic ingredient - brandy, gin, rum, tequila, vodka, whiskey (and analogues) and wine. The introduction includes some background, an overview of cocktails, bar equipment, and more.

Each of the recipes includes an introductory description and yields. Ingredients are listed in American standard (oz) only (no metric measurements) and step by step instructions. Variations and alternatives are provided at the end of the recipes. Each of the recipes is also accompanied by a signature note (warm, spicy, strong, and so forth) which can help when pairing drinks with hors d'oeuvres/snacks. There are no photographs, but it does have a nice art deco vibe with colored line drawings (also showing some bar-glass shapes and garnishes) along with cool evocative chapter headings and a deco graphic layout.

Many of the ingredients should be available at any well stocked grocery/liquor store although some might need to be sourced at specialists.

Cocktails are such a civilized interlude and this book includes a solid cross section of traditional libations to build mixology skills and impress one's friends at the next gathering. (Especially given that it really looks like the sensible segments of society aren't going to be packed into night-spots anytime soon).

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Over the last six months I've gotten more into mixology since I'm no longer able to get my fix of cocktails at bars, so I'm always on the hunt for great new cocktail recipes.

Unfortunately this book felt flat for me. I found the structure a little difficult to follow. Recipes are organized by liquor and then identified by taste profile which as a newbie to the world of mixology I found overwhelming – I don't know yet if I like my drinks to be Refreshing and Warm or Warm and Fruity. And the use of illustrations in this book and not photos made it hard to envision the various recipes.

This book might be a better fit for a more experienced mixologist or less amateur cocktail enthusiast, but it wasn't helpful to me.

This is a handy and informative guide to making cocktails but my ARC was very hard to read. I tried reading it on two devices and in both cases it had strange fonts that were all different sizes, some of which were very small, and the pages had large areas of white space with bits of text left over to the next page, all of which made it rather hard to read and not very enjoyable.

Basic graphics illustrate the drinks (I'm perplexed by the reviewer who said it had good photos -- are there two versions of ARCs out there?).

The best part of this book is that it categorizes drinks by their notes (sweet, strong, smoky, etc.) and then tells you what other drinks share those notes. I really like that concept and it should help you find new great drinks instead of being in a rut. I also appreciate that most of the cocktails are relatively straightforward without really elaborate lists of ingredients or expensive liqueurs.

All in all, it's a really informative book and I think I would have enjoyed it if it had been in a format more conducive to reading. Hopefully the paperback version will overcome these difficulties.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

I absolutely love that this cocktail book has flavor map keys to cocktails to illustrate the wide variety of drinks you can have if you prefer certain flavors. Despite having gone for a bartenders certificate (um, ask me if I've retained any information), I tend to just stick to a handful of cocktails that I'm familiar with. This book has nice illustrations (I'm more of a picture person), great information/recipes that are well organized with ingredients that are easy to find. As I read the book, all I could think of was 'how long would it take me to make each and every one?'. I'm excited to start.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was around 3.5 stars for me.

There are drawings of some of the drinks which is interesting. There's also a helpful chart breaking down drinks by flavor profile including things like spicy, refreshing, etc. Some of the drinks require some spirits that aren't super standard for a lot of home bars so they would require effort to find and make.

There's some helpful information like putting together garnishes and how to properly stir. It's an interesting mix of introductory information and more complicated steps.

Overall it's an interesting guide but wasn't quite for me.

A nicely presented drink mixing book, has a lot of favourite drinks and tips on making them correctly. Also Good photos of the drinks.

Although this isn't really anything particularly innovative or new, it IS a very comprehensive and well-laid out bar guide, one that will make anyone not terribly confident in their bartending skills at least a novice. I appreciated how thorough it is, I just wish there were more than the standard classic cocktail recipes. But for what it is intended to do, and for anyone who need the basics, this does the job very nicely.

A great book about simple cocktails. Looking forward to buying a physical copy to keep on hand to make some of these drinks.

I loved the illustrations and the easy “how tos” this would be a great book for someone’s 21st birthday or a house warming gift for their first house/own place! It has all the basics that most of us already know but it’s clean and fresh looking and provides some twists on bar favorites to make at home!

I’m inspired and ready to drink!