The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a classic cocktail

Cocktail

A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...

 book by David A. Embury

David A. Embury

David Augustus Embury was an American attorney and author of The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks , a classic encyclopedia of the 20th century cocktail....

, first published in 1948. The book is noteworthy for its witty, highly opinionated and conversational tone, as well as its categorization of cocktails into two main types: aromatic and sour; its categorization of ingredients into three categories: the base, modifying agents, and special flavorings and coloring agents; and its 1:2:8 ratio (1 part sweet, 2 parts sour, 8 parts base) for sour type cocktails.

Basic principles

Embury first outlines some basic principles for fashioning a quality cocktail:

• It should be made from good-quality, high-proof
  Proof (alcohol)
  Alcohol proof is a measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage. The term was originally used in the United Kingdom and was defined as 7/4 times the alcohol by volume . The UK now uses the abv standard instead of alcohol proof. In the United States, alcoholic proof is defined...
  
   liquors
  Distilled beverage
  A distilled beverage, liquor, or spirit is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables...
  
  .
• It should whet rather than dull the appetite
  Appetite
  The appetite is the desire to eat food, felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Decreased desire to eat is...
  
  . Thus, it should never be sweet
  Sweetness
  Sweetness is one of the five basic tastes and is almost universally regarded as a pleasurable experience. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates such as sugar are those most commonly associated with sweetness, although there are other natural and artificial compounds that are sweet at much lower...
  
   or syrupy, or contain too much fruit juice, egg
  Egg (food)
  Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
  
   or cream
  Cream
  Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...
  
  .
• It should be dry, with sufficient alcoholic flavor
  Flavor
  Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
  
  , yet smooth and pleasing to the palate.
• It should be pleasing to the eye.
• It should be well-iced.

Embury stresses frequently that the drink will never be any better than the quality of the cheapest ingredient in it, and hence he stresses constantly the need for the highest quality spirits, liqueur

Liqueur

A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry.The...

s, cordial

Cordial (medicine)

A cordial is any invigorating and stimulating preparation that is intended for a medicinal purpose. The term derives from an obsolete usage. Various concoctions were formerly created that were believed to be beneficial to one's health, especially for the heart .Some cordials, with their flecks of...

s, and modifiers (fresh squeezed lemons, etc.) He also repeatedly stresses that a cocktail, in the classic sense (a before-dinner drink) should have no more than the slightest touch of sweetness to it, and deplores the use of drinks like the Brandy Alexander

Brandy Alexander

Brandy Alexander is a sweet, brandy-based cocktail consisting of cognac and crème de cacao that became popular during the early 20th century.It was supposedly created at the time of the wedding of Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles, in London, in 1922...

 as pre-prandial cocktails, as they dull rather than sharpen the appetite. He does not denigrate sweet drinks per se, pointing out that they are excellent after dinner or mid-afternoon drinks "in place of a half-pound of chocolate cookies", but they are anathema as a "cocktail" before a large meal.

In terms of IBA Official Cocktail

IBA Official Cocktail

An IBA Official Cocktail is one of many cocktails selected by the International Bartenders Association for use in the annual World Cocktail Competition in bartending...

s, Embury describes classic Before-Dinner Cocktails, which whet the appetite, not other categories.

Components of a cocktail

Embury breaks all cocktail ingredients down into three categories:

The base is the principal ingredient of the cocktail. It is typically a single spirituous liquor, such as rum

Rum

Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...

, gin

Gin

Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...

 or whiskey, and typically makes up 75 percent or more of the total volume

Volume

Volume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by some closed boundary, for example, the space that a substance or shape occupies or contains....

 of the cocktail before icing

Ice

Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...

.

The modifying agent is the ingredient that gives the cocktail its character. Its function is to soften the raw alcohol taste of the base, while at the same time to enhance its natural flavor. Typical modifying agents are aromatic wines

Fortified wine

Fortified wine is wine to which a distilled beverage has been added. Fortified wine is distinguished from spirits made from wine in that spirits are produced by means of distillation, while fortified wine is simply wine that has had a spirit added to it...

 (such as vermouth

Vermouth

Vermouth is a fortified wine flavored with various dry ingredients. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced around the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Italy and France...

) and spirits (such as Fernet Branca

Fernet Branca

Fernet is a type of amaro, a bitter, aromatic spirit. Fernet is made from a number of herbs and spices which vary according to the brand, but usually include myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, and especially saffron, with a base of grape distilled spirits, and coloured with caramel colouring...

 or Amer Picon

Sirop de Picon

Picon is a caramel-coloured, flavoured bitters drunk as an apéritif, which traditionally accompanies beer in the east and north of France....

), bitters

Bitters

A bitters is an alcoholic beverage that is flavored with herbal essences and has a bitter or bittersweet flavor. There are numerous brands of bitters that were formerly marketed as patent medicines but are now considered to be digestifs, rather than medicines...

, fruit juices and "smoothing agents" such as sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, eggs, and cream.

Special flavoring and coloring agents include liqueurs

Liqueur

A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry.The...

 (such as Grand Marnier

Grand Marnier

Grand Marnier is a liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from a blend of true cognacs and distilled essence of bitter orange. Grand Marnier is 40% alcohol . It is produced in several varieties, most of which can be consumed "neat" as a digestif and can be used in...

 or Chartreuse

Chartreuse (liqueur)

Chartreuse is a French liqueur made by the Carthusian Monks since the 1740s. It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbal extracts. The liqueur is named after the Monks' Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains in the general region of Grenoble in France...

), Cordials, and non-alcoholic flavored syrup

Syrup

In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...

s (such as Grenadine

Grenadine

Grenadine is traditionally a red syrup. It is used as an ingredient in cocktails, both for its flavor and to give a reddish/pink tinge to mixed drinks. "Grenadines" are also made by mixing the syrup with cold water in a glass or pitcher, sometimes with ice....

 or Orgeat syrup

Orgeat syrup

Orgeat syrup is a sweet syrup made from almonds, sugar and rose water or orange flower water. It was, however, originally made with a barley-almond blend...

). These are typically used in place of simple syrup, and are to be used sparingly.

Categories of cocktails

Embury breaks all cocktails down into two categories:

Cocktails of the Aromatic Type use as modifying agents bitters or aromatic wines or spirits.

Cocktails of the Sour Type use as modifying agents a fruit juice (typically, lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

 or lime

Lime (fruit)

Lime is a term referring to a number of different citrus fruits, both species and hybrids, which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are a good source of vitamin C. Limes are often used to accent the flavors of foods and...

) and sugar. For these a ratio of 1 part sweet to 2 parts sour to 8 parts base is generally recommended. However, Embury makes it very clear that he thinks the idea that a drink must be made according to one exact recipe preposterous, and that the final arbiter is always your taste. He suggests trying different ratios, finding the one that is most pleasing to you, and sticking with it.

Once one understands the basic components of each type of drink, new cocktails can be created by substituting a different base or modifying agent or by adding a special flavoring or coloring agent. A daiquiri

Daiquiri

Daiquiri is a family of cocktails whose main ingredients are rum, lime juice, and sugar or other sweetener. There are several versions, but those that gained international fame are the ones made in the El Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba....

, for example, is nothing more than a whiskey sour

Whiskey sour

The whiskey sour is a mixed drink containing whiskey , lemon juice, sugar, and optionally, a dash of egg white to make it a Boston Sour...

 with rum substituted for whiskey as the base and lime juice substituted for lemon juice as a modifying agent. An entire chapter of the book ("Roll Your Own") is dedicated to this premise.

Six basic drinks

Embury's six basic drinks are the Martini

Martini (cocktail)

The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet" and E. B...

, the Manhattan

Manhattan (cocktail)

A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. Commonly used whiskeys include rye , Canadian whisky , bourbon, blended whiskey and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is often stirred with ice and strained into a cocktail glass, where it is garnished with a Maraschino cherry...

, the Old Fashioned

Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned is a type of cocktail made by muddling dissolved sugar with bitters then adding alcohol, such as jenever, whiskey, or brandy, and a twist of citrus rind. The name references the combination's age: it is possibly the first drink to be called a cocktail...

, the Daiquiri

Daiquiri

Daiquiri is a family of cocktails whose main ingredients are rum, lime juice, and sugar or other sweetener. There are several versions, but those that gained international fame are the ones made in the El Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba....

, the Sidecar, and the Jack Rose

Jack Rose (cocktail)

Jack Rose is the name of a classic cocktail, popular in the 1920s and 1930s, containing applejack, grenadine, and lemon or lime juice. It notably appeared in a scene in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 classic, The Sun Also Rises, in which Jake Barnes, the narrator, drinks a Jack Rose in a Paris hotel bar...

. Embury's preferred recipe for each:

Martini

• 7 parts English gin
• 1 part French (dry) vermouth
  Vermouth
  Vermouth is a fortified wine flavored with various dry ingredients. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced around the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Italy and France...
  
  

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass

Cocktail glass

A cocktail glass is a stemmed glass which has a cone-shaped bowl placed upon a stem above a flat base. It is mainly used to serve cocktails. Its form derives from the fact that all cocktails are traditionally served chilled and contain an aromatic element...

, twist lemon peel over the top and serve garnished

Cocktail garnish

Cocktail garnishes are decorative ornaments that add character or style to a mixed drink, most notably to cocktails.A large variety of cocktail garnishes are used. Many rum-based cocktails, especially those with fruit flavors, tend to be decorated with tropical-themed garnishes or slices of fruit....

 with an olive, preferably one stuffed with any kind of nut

Nut (fruit)

A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

.

Manhattan

• 5 parts American whiskey
  American whiskey
  American whiskey is a distilled beverage produced in the United States from a fermented mash of cereal grain.The production and labeling of American whiskey are governed by Title 27 of the U.S...
  
  
• 1 part Italian (sweet) vermouth
  Vermouth
  Vermouth is a fortified wine flavored with various dry ingredients. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced around the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Italy and France...
  
  
• dash of Angostura bitters
  Angostura bitters
  Angostura bitters, often simply referred to as angostura, is a concentrated bitters made of water, 44.7% alcohol, gentian root, and vegetable flavoring extracts by House of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago. They are typically used for flavoring beverages, or food...
  
   to each drink

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass and serve garnished with a maraschino cherry

Maraschino cherry

A maraschino cherry is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainier, or Gold varieties...

.

Old Fashioned

• 12 parts American whiskey
• 1 part simple syrup
• 1-3 dashes Angostura bitters to each drink

In an old-fashioned glass, add bitters to simple syrup and stir. Add about 1 ounce of whiskey and stir again. Add two cubes of cracked, but not crushed, ice and top off with the rest of the whiskey. Twist lemon peel over the top and serve garnished with the lemon peel and a maraschino cherry.

Daiquiri

• 8 parts white Cuban rum
• 2 parts lime juice
  Juice
  Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
  
  
• 1 part simple syrup

Shake with lots of finely crushed ice and strain well into a chilled cocktail glass.

Sidecar

• 8 parts Cognac
  Cognac (drink)
  Cognac , named after the town of Cognac in France, is a variety of brandy. It is produced in the wine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departements of Charente and Charente-Maritime....
  
   or Armagnac
  Armagnac (drink)
  Armagnac is a distinctive kind of brandy or eau de vie produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of Armagnac grapes, including Baco 22A, Colombard, and Ugni Blanc, using column stills rather than the pot stills used in the...
  
  
• 2 parts lemon juice
• 1 part Cointreau
  Cointreau
  Cointreau is a brand of triple sec produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is drunk as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known cocktails. It was originally called "Curaçao Blanco Triple Sec".-Production:...
  
   or triple sec
  Triple sec
  Triple sec, originally Curaçao triple sec, is a variety of Curaçao liqueur, an orange-flavoured liqueur made from the dried peels of bitter and sweet orange....
  
  

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish

Cocktail garnish

Cocktail garnishes are decorative ornaments that add character or style to a mixed drink, most notably to cocktails.A large variety of cocktail garnishes are used. Many rum-based cocktails, especially those with fruit flavors, tend to be decorated with tropical-themed garnishes or slices of fruit....

 with a twist of lemon if desired.

Jack Rose

• 8 parts Applejack
  Applejack (beverage)
  Applejack is a strong alcoholic beverage produced from apples, popular in the American colonial period.Applejack was historically made by concentrating hard cider, either by the traditional method of freeze distillation or by true evaporative distillation. The term applejack derives from jacking, a...
  
  
• 2 parts lemon juice
• 1 part Grenadine
  Grenadine
  Grenadine is traditionally a red syrup. It is used as an ingredient in cocktails, both for its flavor and to give a reddish/pink tinge to mixed drinks. "Grenadines" are also made by mixing the syrup with cold water in a glass or pitcher, sometimes with ice....
  
  

Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon if desired.

Chapters

From the 1958 edition:

1. Basic Principles
2. Glassware, Gimmicks, and Gadgets
3. Lemons, Limes and Liquors
4. Pertinent Pointers
5. Six Basic Cocktails
6. Roll Your Own
7. Liqueurs
8. The Use and Abuse of Liquor
9. Bureaucratic and Other Idiosyncrasies
10. Vodka Drinks
11. Short Drinks, Including More Cocktails
12. Tall Drinks
13. Party Drinks
14. Hot Drinks
15. Picker-Uppers
16. Food and Drink
17. Conclusion

Editions

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Today, copies of the 1958 and earlier editions of book are quite expensive, typically costing hundreds of dollars.