{"id":1848,"date":"2011-05-31T22:25:33","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T05:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2011-05-31T22:26:48","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T05:26:48","slug":"review-cosmos-official-cocktail-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=1848","title":{"rendered":"Review &#8211; Cosmo&#8217;s Official Cocktail Book"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1850\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" title=\"Cosmo's Official Cocktail Book\" src=\"http:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Cosmo150.jpg\" alt=\"Cosmo's Official Cocktail Book\" width=\"150\" height=\"187\" \/>Let&#8217;s get something very clear.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m not a reader of Cosmo.\u00c2\u00a0 But, that said, I did have a subscription to Maxim for a couple years and, let&#8217;s face it, you remove the gender slant and they&#8217;re really the same thing.\u00c2\u00a0 So, when my review copy of <a title=\"Cosmo's Official Cocktail Book\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cosmos-Official-Cocktail-Book-Occasion\/dp\/1588168875\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Cosmo&#8217;s Official Cocktail Book<\/span><\/a> arrived I tore into it in search of the lost secrets of how to please my man and get him liquored up in the process (wait a sec&#8230;).\u00c2\u00a0 What I found was a pretty good collection of cocktails and some fun stuff thrown in for kicks.<\/p>\n<p>The recipes in Cosmo&#8217;s book, not surprisingly, lean toward the sweet side, but they do add some fun ingredient twists and they&#8217;re actually not half bad cocktails.\u00c2\u00a0 In addition, throughout the book you get little quizzes, tips, facts, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 On top of all that there are a pair of features that I really like.\u00c2\u00a0 First, the recipes are all fairly simple with easily accessible ingredients.\u00c2\u00a0 And, on that note, if there is an ingredient you&#8217;re not familiar with you can look it up in the back of the book to get an idea of the flavor, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 Second, there is a &#8220;Cocktail Crash Course&#8221; section at the end of the book that introduces the tools, spirits and some pointers from a bartender.\u00c2\u00a0 These features make the book accessible to cocktail mixers of all skill levels, which I think is exactly how books like this should be.\u00c2\u00a0 I do have one complaint, which was pointed out by my loyal test subject, the cocktail pictures don&#8217;t always show the true look and color of the cocktails.\u00c2\u00a0 While this is likely not a problem for a guy, it was pointed out that some ladies out there might pick cocktails to match a color palate.\u00c2\u00a0 So, knowing that, make sure you mix up a sample cocktail to see if the colors work and, bonus, you get to drink the sample.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Blood Orange Bonanza by ReeseCLloyd, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/reeselloyd\/5785100466\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2447\/5785100466_47c54a339c.jpg\" alt=\"Blood Orange Bonanza\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre><strong>Blood Orange Bonanza (Cosmo's Official Cocktail Book)<\/strong><\/pre>\n<pre style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>3 oz X-Rated Fusion Liqueur\r\n1 oz Light Rum\r\n1\/2 oz Grenadine<\/strong><\/pre>\n<pre style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>1) Combine ingredients in a blender\r\n2) Add a handful of ice and blend until smooth\r\n3) Garnish with a slice of blood orange<\/strong><\/pre>\n<p>First, let me say 70&#8217;s blenders are rarely going to get you a picture perfect frozen drink.\u00c2\u00a0 Mine sure as hell didn&#8217;t, but enough whining.\u00c2\u00a0 Like a number of cocktails in this book, the Blood Orange Bonanza is very pink.\u00c2\u00a0 But, like cocktails in the past, I&#8217;m going to let that slide.\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s all about the flavor, right?\u00c2\u00a0 This drink was a little too sweet for me at first, but it was well received by Elisabeth.\u00c2\u00a0 And, as the ice melted a bit the sweetness was cut and the overall flavor is quite nice.\u00c2\u00a0 The liqueur offers some bright fruit flavors and the rum rounds it all out.\u00c2\u00a0 I could have used a bit more sourness in this for my taste, I&#8217;d say a touch of lime juice or even blood orange juice would do some great things.<\/p>\n<p>I added about 2 oz of prosecco once I&#8217;d had my initial sips and was really pleased.\u00c2\u00a0 The prosecco cut the sweetness and gave the drink a really pleasant effervescence.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;d definitely suggest giving that twist a try if you mix up this cocktail.\u00c2\u00a0 We also mixed up a few others from the book so keep an eye out for the recipes and my thoughts.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a0 The product reviewed here was provided to me as a free sample.  If you&#8217;re wondering what that means check out my <a title=\"CH - Sample Policy\" href=\"http:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?page_id=1173\" target=\"_blank\">sample policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s get something very clear.\u00c2\u00a0 I&#8217;m not a reader of Cosmo.\u00c2\u00a0 But, that said, I did have a subscription to Maxim for a couple years and, let&#8217;s face it, you remove the gender slant and they&#8217;re really the same thing.\u00c2\u00a0 So, when my review copy of Cosmo&#8217;s Official Cocktail Book arrived I tore into it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,36],"tags":[204,10,207],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-recipes","category-review","tag-books","tag-recipe","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1854,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/1854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}