Tropical Standard (book)

Tropical Standard, by Garret Richard and Ben Schaffer is hitting the shelves. You can—and should—order it from the usual places. I am excited to have my advance copy, and I was one of the draft readers telling @ben everything he was doing wrong and generally driving him to question his life choices. (That’s the extent of my skin in the game, beyond being a fan, and Ben still seems to be talking to me, which is gracious of him.)

This book is interesting because:

  • it focuses on new techniques for elevating mixed drinks that have been proven over the last decade of Garret Richard’s career
  • these techniques are quite exciting, because they’re all accessible and broadly applicable
  • it documents a big pile of Garret’s highly refined recipes that some of us have the pleasure of indulging in over the last decade—now others can make them, too!
  • the book is kind of the sequel to Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence and documents some of the techniques developed at Existing Conditions
  • it’s one of the rare intermediate-level cocktail books

I believe this is an important book, one of the most important of the year.

Topics explored:

  • managing dilution, texture and aeration
  • flash blending
  • different ways 0f shaking drinks
  • blending drinks (“frozen” drinks)
  • did I mention managing dilution?
  • use of shaved ice, creating using ice molds (ice shells and cones), lining glasses with ice
  • tropicalizing stirred drinks
  • infusions
  • emulsification
  • aromatics
  • acid adjusting juices to perform like lemon and lime
  • sugar adjusting ingredients (perhaps the most demanding topic in the book) to optimize sweetness, and yes, manage dilution
  • creating useful syrups and cordials that build on the above
  • applying all the above (example recipes)
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I preordered it some time ago, both hardcover & electronic, so I always have it at my fingertips! Can’t Wait!

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Pre-ordered! You had me at “intermediate level.” This looks great.

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Martin, thanks for your succinct explanation of what it’s all about. And thanks to all for the support. We’d love to have everyone’s feedback when they’ve had a read.

Today Garret and I were the subject of the Imbibe podcast, where we also attempted to justify our existence. Paul, like Martin, managed to summarize it better than I’ve been doing.

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Really looking forward to seeing this on my home screen of my iPhone & my coffee table! This book is long overdue, not more than a couple weeks away from May so I can finally dive in!

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