In the decades since the dark ages of the 70s and 80s, cocktail culture has made giant strides into the greater pop culture arena. Nowhere is this more evident than the proliferation of themed cocktail books. Popular television shows and movies, such as Game of Thrones (Game of Thrones Cocktail Recipes by Dan Babel), Downton Abby (The Official Downton Abby Cocktail Book published by Weldon Owen), and Star Wars (The Unofficial Star Wars-Inspired Book of Cocktails by Rhiannon Lee) capitalize on both fan and cocktail enthusiast interest. Cocktail books that homage the literary world, such as Tim Federle’s Tequila Mockingbird and Mike Slater’s Lovecraft Cocktails, are also readily available.
Jennifer Croll’s Art Boozel is a themed cocktail book, but it differentiates itself from the crowd by focusing not on artistic end products, but on the creators of art: painters, photographers, film directors, and so on. The recipes in Art Boozel are not of cocktails favoured/created by artists, but instead are brand new, unique creations that pay homage to their personalities, crafts, and legacies.
What Art Boozel accomplishes can be best exemplified by its entry on Banksy. The base cocktail recipe is fairly simple: Campari, lemon juice, Cherry Heering, and egg white. How it honours Banksy is that after the drink is poured/strained and has developed a nice egg foam on top, the next step is to place a stencil over the cocktail and mist bitters through it, mimicking Banksy’s distinctive street art style. Paired with this interactive libation is a rendition of Banksy, hooded and completely silhouetted in black. This isn’t just a cocktail, it is an experience, an act of creating and consuming art.
There are fifty-eight other cocktail recipes in Art Boozel, all celebrating different visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers from the past century. Some choice recipes include the Gerhard Richter, a drink that balances a few unusual pairings – blue curacao, apple brandy, gin and green chartreuse – into a rather smooth, robust libation that conceals a maraschino cherry.
The Jeff Wall goes all in on orange with mandarin juice (and garnish), orange blossom water with gin and honey. The end result is a Tom Collins variant that is tangy and refreshing.
The Miranda July follows a similar path with gin, orange juice, orange Fanta soda, and Campari. The bitterness of the Campari is tempered down from the sweetness of the one-two orange combo.
A final example, the Roy Lichtenstein, challenges conventions with its vodka-margarita riff: vodka, simple syrup, Cointreau, lime and lemon juices. The formula works, the vodka allows the Cointreau to be the star of this show, and it is a must see.
Each recipe is accompanied by a portrait created by Kelly Shami whose style is perfect at representing each artist in a fun, unique way. Every portrait also contains a rendition of the cocktail, which is extremely helpful and a huge step above cocktail books that lack photos to help guide folks along.
The majority of cocktails in Art Boozel are not aimed at beginners, as some have fairly esoteric or unusual ingredients. This is by design as Art Boozel aims to experiment and advance mixology while at the same time appreciating and honouring a variety of influential artists – some household names, others underground. With this in mind, Art Boozel is a stand out tome in a sea of themed cocktail books, inviting readers to check out interesting artists via inventive cocktails.
If you’re interested in checking out Art Boozel, the book can be found for purchase in the below links: