I did not read this cookbook through an educator's lens.

The Japanese Art of the Cocktail by Masahiro Urushido and Michael Anstendig was very interesting. I liked the history and beginning chapters. The photographs were stunning. The recipes themselves may be delicious based on the pictures. However, where I live, most of the ingredients would be difficult to find. I was very distracted by the red additional recipes. The format of the recipe pages were hard to focus on.

This is a beautiful and unique coffee table book. It has a wealth of information as to how cocktails are done differently in Japan and also all the ingredients and tools that you will require to create your own versions of some iconic Japanese cocktails.

This was a nice look into the art of Japanse bartending. What I learned is that I know nothing. Most of the recipes seemed incredibly intimidating to me, but I will definitely ask for some of them while dining out sometime. I love that the author included recipes created by his bartender friends in addition to his own. I also loved the section on bar food recipes at the end. Those I will likely attempt at home. Beautiful book.

The book is full of stunning photography that is as much a coffee table book as a guide to make cocktails perfected at the Katana Kitchen in New York. This is not your ordinary cocktail book with a list of ingredients and a few vague instructions.

A great amount of detail is put into each recipe, describing the each step, why it works, and ways to change up the recipe. Masahiro has accomplished weaving a narrative into his first time experiencing the drink and it's place in Japanese and American pop culture, while not taking away from the fact that it's a cocktail book.

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

This is a beautiful and thorough book!

There's a lot about the history of alcohol in Japan, the authors experience, and the restaurant. There is a lot of precision and specifics to making these cocktails at home. There's also food recipes from the restaurant menu. The pictures of the drinks are beautiful. The recipes in this book are incredible, but are also more time consuming than standard drinks.

It's an interesting look at unique Japanese food and drinks and what makes them so good.

This is more than just a cocktail recipe book. Get this if you want a history of the Katana Kitten restaurant as well as a lot about Japanese cocktails. An interesting read with some tasty looking cocktails that I'm way too lazy to ever attempt. But it does make me want to visit the restaurant.

The formatting on this digitally in its current state is a bit rough, but I imagine this will be cleaned up for publication. The recipes are amazing and reasonably doable from home, and I’m definitely looking at seeing what I can do up myself. Gorgeous photography, straightforward instructions.

The Japanese Art of the Cocktail is such a gorgeous book that almost any page could be framed. The authors provide great historical context for some of the drinks and even some more personal stories as well. This cocktail book is not one I would recommend for all home-bartenders though. Most of the drinks are extremely complicated and require ingredients that many would not have on hand, and even some that most would not have access to. There are, of course, methods to alter the recipes should one want to try an edited version of the drink. Even if I can't make all of these drinks at home this book is absolutely wonderful, and now I just want to grab a drink at Katana Kitten.

5/5 Stars!

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book doesn't fool around when it titles itself "The Japanese Art of the Cocktail" every photograph in the book is gorgeous I found myself staring wide eyed at the pictures, with the pandemic I had let my love of a beautiful cocktail fall to the side, as I don't really keep a large amount or variety of alcohol in my house it's not something that has been part of my quarantine.
Masahiro Urushido and Michael Anstendig's work makes me feel like this is something that I should be considering, taking time for myself and working to craft these beautiful masterpieces.

But even if finding some of the ingredients in these is impossible their are things that I learned about in here that I will be taking with me into the future, such as infusing alcohol with tea. There are some really mindblowing things in here.