Let's Get Tropical

A decidedly helpful and informative guide to tropical drinks. I really appreciated the tips on mixing skills, types of glasses, presentation, etc. - they're going to be great help for a novice like me! The reinventions of some of the traditional drinks were also inspiring; it freed me to feel like I could experiment more instead of sticking rigidly to the recipes. Everything looked delicious, and I can't wait to get tropical!

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.

Very creative and delicious cocktails. The recipes are made or presented by Georgi. His is a bar owner and he shares his knowledge. The book contains sections about how the alcohol is made and a large selection of tropical blends. The tutorials are well explained and the results are professional. Ready for this summer!

#LetsGetTropical #NetGalley #Summer2018

I enjoyed the format of the companion volume - Let’s Get Fizzical - so much that I requested an advance reader copy of Let’s Get Tropical as soon as I saw it pop up on NetGalley. My hope was that all the winning aspects of the companion volume - the illustrated recipes, the simple variations, and the gorgeous photographs - would be duplicated in this volume. I was not disappointed!

The book is divided into two parts: roughly forty pages of introductory matter and roughly one hundred pages of classic and modern cocktail recipes. The introductory matter started with a history of tropical cocktails and a primer on rum, then progressed through seemingly standard sections on mixology tools and techniques, and finished with specific information on how to design, garnish, and serve tropical cocktails. My favorite pages in this section were the “Make Your Own Mix” pages, which explained the 1-2-3-4 formula to inventing your own tropical drink.

The recipes did not disappoint. They were well illustrated and gorgeously photographed. Many of the recipes had “reinventions,” some of which were even alcohol free. I was happy that I saw a lot of my favorites - Blue Lagoon, Mai Tai, Hurricane, Mojito - but with the authentic recipes (as opposed to the simplified recipes that I use). There were also a lot of fabulous traditional tiki drinks that I had heard of but never tasted. It was curious that the Pornstar Martini appeared both in this book and the previous sparkling cocktails book, but that was the only recipe to overlap between the two. Even curiouser was that the recipe in this book had a shot of champagne served on the side, whereas in the sparkling cocktails book the champagne was integral to the drink. Which way is the right way to prepare the drink? Both look good! After the classics, there were about a dozen recipes for “modern tropical” cocktails. These were also quite interesting, although more varied and exotic in the ingredients, so they would be lower on my list of the recipes to attempt.

I have yet to mix any of the cocktails from this book. When I do, I will update this review.