Killer Cocktails is a unique hands-free, stand-up guide with all the advice and guidelines you need to set up a home bar and learn the art of mixing cocktails the right way. The drinks you'll find in here avoid novelty products, artificial flavors, and colors not found in nature. They're heavy on tradition and light on trendiness. You also might learn a thing or two, from the origins of the John Collins (no Toms, Dicks, or Harrys here) to why the Daiquiri should be resurrected from its status as the wimp of all cocktails (it was JFK's fave, after all). And that's not all. While respecting the traditions of balance and simplicity that our mixological forefathers founded, Killer Cocktails also shows you how to be creative. First you master the basics and only then can you start substituting vanilla vodka for rum, or rhubarb for raspberry. But if you're simply in the mood for a Rye Old-Fashioned, the real recipe is right here.

Killer Cocktails
An Intoxicating Guide to Sophisticated Drinking

Mojito

This popular Cuban formula is perfectly adapted to the island's tropical weather conditions. Therefore, it's also an essential tool for combating the hideous humidity that sweeps across parts of the Northern Hemisphere every June. A Mojito should not be too sweet or it loses its cooling effect.

Ingredients:

Juice of ½ lime (reserve the squeezed-out shell)
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
8 to 20 mint leaves
2 ounces white Cuban-style rum
chilled fizz water

Instructions:

Squeeze the lime into a glass and drop in the shell. Add the sugar and muddle (see the Old-Fashioned, page 83); then add the mint leaves and lightly muddle them as well. Add enough cracked or crushed ice to fill the glass 2/3 of the way. Pour in the rum, stir, and fill with fizz water.

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Pompadour

Paris's Ritz hotel was the richest corner of the richest town on earth in the 1930s. Its barman, Frank Meier, concocted this cocktail -- and God bless him for it. The name comes from a long-defunct brand of Pineau des Charentes, a peculiar but tasty tipple made by casking up unfermented wine and new cognac and letting it sit for a few years. If you can't get the Martinique rum, a medium-weight Jamaican type will do, although your Pompadour will lack the peculiar tang a true rhum agricole imparts. For that, you could try a Brazilian cachaca.

Ingredients:

1½ ounces St. James Martinique Rum (or another amber, medium-weight rum)
1½ ounces Pineau des Charentes
½ ounce lemon juice

Instructions:

Shake and strain into a chilled glass.

Killer Cocktails
An Intoxicating Guide to Sophisticated Drinking. Copyright © by David Wondrich. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Killer Cocktails: An Intoxicating Guide to Sophisticated Drinking by David Wondrich
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.