A book about women and cocktail history
The Cocktail Parlor will be released by Countryman Press on April 23rd, 2024
A Google search of the ten most iconic books in cocktail history will lead you to a well recited list of bar manuals from the 19th and early 20th centuries by famous white, male bartenders about the drinks served in mostly male-only taverns. But what if this were only half the story? In my new book, The Cocktail Parlor: How women brought the cocktail home, I introduce over 100 alternative books from cocktail history and the stories of their pioneering authors, that I have uncovered over more than a decade of research. Across the chapters, you’ll meet a diverse and unexpected set of women writers over the last century and a half whose previously unrecognized books and recipes have reached wide audiences of men and women, and who i argue, have been highly influential in propelling the cocktail out of the bar into mainstream popular culture, and back again.
It is often assumed that men are the primary drivers of alcohol purchases in the United States. However, data shows that in fact women today control 70% of household spending on liquor and that one in three female drinkers is more interested in spirits and cocktails than they are in wine or beer. In addition, about two-thirds of the total cocktails we consume in the U.S. are in the home, where women have forever been the chief entertainers and chief mixologists. Whether it is creating a signature recipe to mark a special occasion or remembering the favorite serve of a friend or loved one, women across the generations have been mixing drinks, not only for their own pleasure and the delight of their guests, but also to make a powerful social statement.
In The Cocktail Parlor, I explore the cultural history of the cocktail as it has been served in the home through the eyes of the hosts – or more significantly, the hostesses – who mixed them. Referencing culinary guides, household encyclopedias, home entertaining handbooks, and etiquette manuals written by women from the nineteenth century to today, I reveal how the home bar has become an extension of the pantry, and how the ingredients we use in our drinks everyday have long held roots in the home. Tracing the story from the punches and cups of the early Victorian era, to the Gimlets, Fizzes, and Manhattans that were all the rage up to and throughout Prohibition, the book reveals how the changes in drink style served by women at home have mirrored changes in the social order and the corresponding waves of female empowerment.
You’ll find the chapters are helpfully organized by era and by cocktail style with modern, and where appropriate, simplified adaptations of classic recipes included in each. In each era, I dive into the social and cultural changes that have influenced the customs of the cocktail, and the role that women have played as the chief mixologists. Each chapter goes on to introduce a number of prominent female writers whose works have been overlooked in the contemporary narrative of the cocktail, but who I believe have had an enormous impact on the female audiences of their time, either through the sheer number of books they have sold or the rank and prominence of the guests they have served.
Readers will surely It recognize their own hosting style in the styles of these women – from the casual apartment bartender to the grand dames of hosting – and I hope be inspired by many of their tips and tricks for entertaining that I believe are just as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago.