Mud Puddle Books

HJohnsons200Okay, I have another imagination experiment for you.  Think of nearly any adventure movie.  You know, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, pick your favorite.  Good, now that we’re on the same page, I want you to think about what happens when the hero needs more information to reach their goal.  They go to an expert who undoubtedly has a giant library of ancient tomes upon which to draw.

In the case of cocktails Greg Boehm is that giant library having expert.  I was introduced to Greg and his work when Aaron and I first started Cocktail Hacker.  Our first six cocktails were David Embury’s six essential cocktails.  I thought it would awesome to have a copy of Embury’s book for my collection.  Slight problem, good copies of the early versions of The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks go for hundreds of dollars.  Then I heard about Mud Puddle Books.

Greg Boehm not only has the giant cocktail library from which to pull knowledge, but he also makes incredible reprints of these classics for the rest of us to enjoy as well.  Shortly after I heard about the books that the folks at Mud Puddle books create, I was participating in a TDN over at the Mixoloseum and Greg gave away a book for answering his trivia question correctly.  I won and subsequently received my first Mud Puddle printed cocktail book, Harry Johnson’s Bartender’s Manual.

I really had no idea what to expect.  When the book arrived, I was stunned, to say the least.  The cover of the book is an exact replica of the original down to the binding style.  Each page is as it first appeared in the original book.  All of the engraved plates are crisp, clear and, well, damn near perfect.  Even down to the original advertisements, the book is perfectly reproduced.  Suffice to say I was in love.

In addition to the books from Harry Johnson and David Embury, Mud Puddle also prints books from other legends including William  Boothby and Jerry Thomas.  In all, they now offer 13 reprints of cocktail classics and two new books from contemporary cocktail masters.  All of them reproduced to as closely match the originals as possible.  If you’d like  a bit more info about Greg and how his work started, I’d highly suggest you take a look at this article from the New York Times.

So, now that I’ve gushed for over 250 words, let me get to the point.  If you have a cocktail fan in your life and you’re looking for a great gift, the books from Mud Puddle would certainly make their day.  Head over to Cocktail Kingdom and you can check out their entire line.  In addition, they’re now offering hard to find barware and bitters.  If you decide to pick up a book or two, I certainly hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy mine.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

3 responses to “Mud Puddle Books”

  1. Michael Dietsch Avatar

    several years ago, for Valentine’s Day, my wife bought me a copy of Embury, first edition, which she found online for, I shit you not, $50. I think the seller didn’t know what he or she had.

  2. Reese Avatar

    Holy crap!

    1) Does your wife know she’s awesome?
    2) I’ll give you $75. Come on…50% profit! ;)

    -R

  3. dietsch Avatar

    As often as she makes me tell her so, she’d better know!