The Cocktail Companion: A guide to cocktail history, culture, trivia and favourite drinks

Cheryl Charming has been collecting snippets of cocktail trivia for almost 40 years which has now birthed The Cocktail Companion, Cheryl’s latest tome rich with information and facts.

Crammed with clear-cut timelines, trivia and histories, The Cocktail Companion begins by introducing the early beginnings of cocktails, followed by a detailed 28-page timeline. We then move on to other notable histories, from prohibition to spirits including tequila, gin, vodka and rum. Then straight through to beer, bitters and absinthe.

Chapters vary, exploring the broad world of cocktails including sections covering bar etiquette, glassware, garnishes and terminology. Cheryl offers definitions on cocktail types and includes some 68 recipes. We even dip into entertaining sections on cocktails in film, literature and television, not to mention celebrities’ drink of choice in a chapter titled Name Your Poison. Drinks writer, gaz regan, supplies the foreword, and neat photography is peppered throughout but kept to a minimal, the focus held on the writing.

The Cocktail Companion is an encyclopaedia on cocktails, made all the more interesting by numerous timelines, including:

• A Cocktail Timeline
• Distilled Alcohol Timeline
• An American Prohibition Timeline
• Changing the Way We Drink: Craft Bars
• Trending: What Influences Our Imbibing
• Cocktails in Film: The 1930s to the 2010s
• Cocktails in Literature: From Shakespeare to Today
• Cocktails in Television: The 1950s to the 2010s

If you’ve a question that’s gone long unanswered, it’ll likely be unravelled in this book as Cheryl takes role of guide and shares all the details she’s collected over the years whilst behind the stick.

Order on Amazon here.