Make Mine Vodka (Hardcover) by Waggoner, Susan

It’s like the difference between Pravda and Prada. Vodka—once the liquor favored by beet-faced Soviet bureaucrats—has undergone a complete makeover, becoming the spirit of choice for fashion-forward cocktail aficionados worldwide. With more than 200 different vodkas now on the market—including a burgeoning, international array of top-shelf and flavored varieties—it’s high time for a book devoted solely to vodka’s distinctive, sometimes sublime pleasures.

Susan Waggoner and Robert Markel—the authors of two of STC’s most popular mixology guides, Vintage Cocktails and Cocktail Hour—have teamed up again to create a book especially for the contemporary vodka drinker. In Make Mine Vodka, the authors evaluate a wide range of today’s vodkas, comparing them by origin, key ingredients, and available flavors. Designed in a beautiful retro style and illustrated with vintage art, the book offers 250 vodka-based recipes, from irresistible classics to today’s cutting-edge cocktails, and advises readers on making their own flavored vodkas, including coffee, honey, peach, and key lime infusions. Tips on expert drink-making—when to shake and when to stir, how to create stunning garnishes—abound, as do suggestions for vodka-friendly dips, canapés, and other cocktail party fare.