The Complete Book Of Spirits

An indispensable follow-up to his classic Complete Book of Mixed Drinks, Anthony Dias Blue presents The Complete Book of Spirits, a comprehensive collection of history, lore, and tasting tips, along with recipes for select cocktails. Here, in one concise and easy-to-use volume, is all the information a consumer needs to shop, mix, and sip like a spirits expert. From bathtub gin to mojito madness, Blue brings the dynamic history of the spirits industry alive, demonstrating that spirit making is not only one of mankind's oldest pursuits but also perhaps its most colorful. In ten captivating chapters, readers are treated to everything they ever wanted to know about their favorite liquors, including vodka, aquavit, tequila, and whiskey. Blue also provides step-by-step instructions on how to host spirit tastings to educate your palate and to help you and your friends discover your favorite brands and blends. For every chapter and every spirit, there is also a handy tasting-notes section, with Blue's expert comments and his favorites, along with price points. If you've ever wondered about the difference between potato and wheat vodkas, or between mescal and tequila or American and Irish whiskeys, or what makes single malt Scotch so desirable, look no further. With Anthony Dias Blue, America's leading wine and spirits expert, and The Complete Book of Spirits as your guides, you will take your enjoyment to a new level.

A James Beard Award-nominated bartender explores the history and culture of Latin American spirits in this stunningly photographed travelogue—with 100+ irresistible cocktails featuring tequila, rum, pisco, and more. TALES OF THE COCKTAIL SPIRITED AWARD® WINNER • IACP AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY POPMATTERS “Ivy’s unique combination of taste, talent, and tenacity make her the ideal ‘spirit’ guide.”—Steven Soderbergh, filmmaker, professional drinker, and owner of Singani 63 Through its in-depth look at drinking culture throughout Latin America, this gorgeous book offers a rich cultural and historical context for understanding Latin spirits. Ivy Mix has dedicated years to traveling south, getting to know Latin culture, in part through what the locals drink. What she details in this book is the discovery that Latin spirits echo the Latin palate, which echoes Latin life, emphasizing spiciness, vivaciousness, strength, and variation. After digging into tequila and Mexico's other traditional spirits, Ivy Mix follows the sugar trail through the Caribbean and beyond, winding up in Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, where grape-based spirits like pisco and singani have been made for generations. With more than 100 recipes that have garnered acclaim at her Brooklyn bar, Leyenda, including fun spins on traditional cocktails such as the Pisco Sour, Margarita, and Mojito, plus drinks inspired by Ivy's travels, like the Tia Mia (which combines mezcal, rum, and orange curacao, with a splash of lime and almond orgeat) or the Sonambula (which features jalapeño-infused tequila, lemon juice, chamomile syrup, and a dash of Peychaud's bitters), along with mouthwatering photos and gorgeous travel images, this is the ultimate book on Latin American spirits.

The BC Spirits Cocktail book is the combination of a province wide guide book to the burgeoning distillery culture as well as an indepth and creative cocktail book. Showcasing the stories behind the distilleries, the people that run them and the spirits they make and how to use them in inventive and tasty cocktails.

Discover the Ways of the Spirits And Master the Art of Command and Influence Profound spiritual insights and powers await beyond the material world. In The Witch's Book of Spirits, Devin Hunter invites you to perform rituals and magic with spirit guides, familiars, angels, the deceased, faeries, and demons. Develop and enhance your relationships to your allies in spirit through soul flight, mediumship, and conjuration. Explore the inner workings of the Witch's Tree as well as the planes and peoples who dwell in its many layers. Expand the scope of your magic with the 33 Spirits, a system transmitted to the author by a special priesthood of spirits, his familiar, Malach, and the goddess Hecate. Working with spirits is the cornerstone of the witch's art. This book shows you how to stay in control as you increase your witch power and deepen your connection to forces seen and unseen. Praise: "Devin covers in depth an elusive side of witchcraft that few have explored in great practical detail...Devin presents the material in a very grounded, no-nonsense approach paired with an inherent sense of responsibility. His understanding of mediumship, conjuring, flying, and working with the spirit world displays the truth that he not only talks the talk, but also walks the walk."—Laura Tempest Zakroff, author of Sigil Witchery "The Witch's Book of Spirits is the most complete book on working with the dead ever written for Witches, but it's more than a manual for communicating with souls of the departed. It's also a guide to the worlds which generally lay just outside of our grasp and a thorough look at the beings that live there. I'd also like to add that it's just a damn fine book about witchcraft, filled with advice and some much-needed common sense."—Jason Mankey, author of The Witch's Book of Shadows "Teaching an art requires a delicate brew of guidance, cautions, and encouragement; Devin Hunter's book hits the right recipe. The Witch's Book of Spirits is a book that captures the author's personal vision and process while providing systems and frameworks that can serve the reader in developing their own way with the spirits."—Ivo Dominguez, Jr., author of Practical Astrology for Witches and Pagans "In this book Devin gives not just the rituals necessary to conjure and communicate with spirits, but the tools for building life with them. He uses a method of teaching that alternates between supplying theory and principals that can be applied by almost anyone, with very specific rituals that he has received from the spirits himself. The result is a text that you will return to over and over again whether you are working his rites or developing your own."—Jason Miller, author of The Sorcerer's Secrets

The author of the bestselling "Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft" writes a handbook for anyone who wishes to communicate with spirits, as well as for the less adventurous who simply want to satisfy their curiosity about the subject.

A handsome and comprehensive bartending guide for professional and home bartenders that includes history, lore, and 115 recipes. The Essential Bar Book is full of indispensable information about everything boozy that’s good to drink. This easy-to-navigate A-to-Z guide covers it all, from the tools of the trade to the history and mythology behind classic and modern drinks, and features 115 recipes for the world’s most important cocktails.

While some may wonder, “Does the world really need another flavored vodka?” no one answers this question quite so memorably as spirits writer and raconteur Jason Wilson does in Boozehound. (By the way, the short answer is no.) A unique blend of travelogue, spirits history, and recipe collection, Boozehound explores the origins of what we drink and the often surprising reasons behind our choices. In lieu of odorless, colorless, tasteless spirits, Wilson champions Old World liquors with hard-to-define flavors—a bitter and complex Italian amari, or the ancient, aromatic herbs of Chartreuse, as well as distinctive New World offerings like lively Peruvian pisco. With an eye for adventure, Wilson seeks out visceral experiences at the source of production—visiting fields of spiky agave in Jalisco, entering the heavily and reverently-guarded Jägermeister herb room in Wolfenbüttel, and journeying to the French Alps to determine if mustachioed men in berets really handpick blossoms to make elderflower liqueur. In addition, Boozehound offers more than fifty drink recipes, from three riffs on the Manhattan to cocktail-geek favorites like the Aviation and the Last Word. These recipes are presented alongside a host of opinionated essays that cherish the rare, uncover the obscure, dethrone the overrated, and unravel the mysteries of taste, trends, and terroir. Through his far-flung, intrepid traveling and tasting, Wilson shows us that perhaps nothing else as entwined with the history of human culture is quite as much fun as booze.

You’re no idiot, of course. You know life is a journey and that physical birth and death are its points of transition. Many people, across cultures and faiths, believe the spirit lives on—and have experienced contact with the spirits of loved ones who have passed to the higher side. This contact is joyous, comforting, and healing—but you wonder if it’s really real and whether you can share in it, too. Don’t give up the spirit! The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Communicating with Spirits will show you exactly how to uncover your own mediumistic capabilities and connect with those no longer on the earth plane. In this Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get: --Tips on how to connect with your personal divine energy through prayer, meditation, and dreams. --Information on the birth of the human soul—as perceived through theological, metaphysical, and spiritual viewpoints. --Exercises to help you develop your mediumistic abilities. --Tangible evidence of the continuity of life as presented through the experiences and spirit drawings of medium Rita S. Berkowitz.