Jerry Thomas (1) (1830–1885)

This 150 year old cocktail guide is an amusing historical artifact. The drinks are old fashioned varieties that are seldom seen and not suitable to today’s tastes. However, it’s a fun history to have around for those interested in mixology.

Wow that was indeed a guide on how to mix all kinds of drinks! I can't wait to try some of these!
I would love if there were some pictures in-between the text though.

The original cocktail book, so it's got some very old fashioned drinks in there. The punches for 20 are awesome to read about, as are the sly comments in some of the drink descriptions. A lot of the recipes are variations on each other (make that drink with this other alcohol), but it's a useful resource (if occasionally in need of translation for the amounts, the glossary in the back helps).

This is a fun little book of cocktail history. It may not be the most practical book, but it's neat to see the historical recipes for classic drinks. I especially love the punch section, which involves mixing gallons of ingredients into massive concoctions. There are many non-standard measures used, but those are also fun to look up in order to figure them out. Probably more of a conversation piece than anything else, but definitely also contains some useable recipes.