The Tippling Bros. - Tad Carducci & Paul Tanguay
The Tippling Bros. - A Lime and a Shaker: Discovering Mexican-Inspired Cocktails
Tad Carducci & Paul Tanguay / 256 Pages / April 2015
Today we are looking at a very interesting and comprehensive book on agave spirits and the drinks made with them. While we've already looked at "Mezcal + Tequila Cocktails" by Simsonson, for example, which was a good collection of drink recipes but focused on really just that, here you get a slightly different approach.
The eponymous "Tippling Bros" have over 50 years of combined experience in the hospitality industry at the time of the book publication, from their humble beginnings to a later, quite successful, drinks consulting business in the 2000s. Big names vouch for them, Jim Meehan and Dale DeGroff, among others, recommended the book and praised the two for their strong and early commitment to craft cocktails in Mexican restaurants in the USA. In the early days of the cocktail renaissance, they were involved in bringing good, simple drinks, made from high-quality, fresh ingredients, even on tap, to high-volume restaurants in the USA. Later, they took direct responsibility for the cocktail programs of several high-end establishments and then decided to write this book to share their experiences and drinks.
A typical recipe
When you open the book, it quickly becomes clear that it is about more than just drinks and cocktail recipes. There are several additional chapters not dedicated to pure recipe collections. The writing style is direct, always with a little humor (almost too much in some places for my taste), simple and easy to read.
The recipes are not simply packed into one large chapter, but rather divided into thematically and culturally abstract sections. There are "Tradition", "Craft", "Spice", "Celebration" and "Hold The Booze". The first, logically, stands for the more classic recipes with agave spirits, "Craft" for drinks that are based in particular on the freshest ingredients such as herbs and fruit other than lime. "Spice" of course for the spicier drinks, "Celebration" for larger recipes for bowls and other types of party/group drinks. The non-alcoholic recipes form the final section.
The great added value apart from the recipes comes primarily from the dozens of inserts in each chapter, on special subtopics or other important aspects of Mexican or Mexican-American drinking culture. These are usually 1–2 pages, starting in "Tradition" with the origin of the Margarita as one of THE basic drinks of cocktail culture worldwide. In addition, there is of course a Tequila 101 with explanations of production, categories, etc. Furthermore, Mexican spirits apart from tequila and mezcal are briefly explained, general thoughts on muddling (which is used more frequently than average in Mexican drinks), chili varieties are of course mentioned, etc.
Speaking of "chili", there are of course plenty of spicy ingredients, whether freshly muddled, prepared in various syrups or cordials (the preparation of which is the only chapter after the cocktail recipes), as well as in ready-made sauces from specialists. On average, this makes the recipes somewhat more difficult to prepare than in other "beginner" collections, but this is only due to the chili ingredients and anyone who buys a book like this should of course expect it. Apart from these specifically Central American parts, the recipes are kept quite simple in terms of techniques and other ingredients (e.g., fruit, herbs, spirits).
Examples of drinks on LT include the Pera Te and the Del Rio cocktail, both of which are examples of simple drinks that do not use any special chili ingredients. Apart from cocktails and group drinks such as the Sangrita, there are also a few recipes for Mexican food here and there. But you shouldn't expect too much, we're essentially talking about 3-4 individual, more BBQ-like recipes, so no small bar snacks, tacos or similar.
Conclusion:
Anyone buying the Tippling Bros. book should be particularly aware of the more specialized ingredients. Although around 50% of the drinks do not require anything beyond other relatively beginner-friendly books, the rest require (ready-made) sauces, special types of chili or other spices of Mexican origin, which will be rather difficult to find, especially in Germany. Thanks to the internet, of course, this is no longer the biggest obstacle these days. Apart from that, the book offers a lot of added value across a wide range of topics, as listed above. At the same time, the drinks are not high-end art, but, as is usual in Mexican culture, rather fresh and tasty combinations with often a lot of spices. The sour and also the long drink formula clearly dominate here. If you consider these factors before buying, however, I can give a recommendation if you are interested.
