Potions of the Caribbean!

Bring out your bar tools people! the long awaited new book from Jeff  “Beachbum” Berry is here! And the book cover is as sunny as the Caribbean sun!

“POTIONS OF THE CARIBBEAN:

500 YEARS OF TROPICAL DRINKS AND THE PEOPLE BEHIND THEM,”

BY JEFF BERRY

For the Conquistadors, the Caribbean was “New Spain.” For Victorian England, Jamaica was “The New Riviera.” Chicago mobsters transformed Havana into “The Las Vegas Of The Caribbean,” while Tiki-crazed tourists remade Puerto Rico into “Hawaii In The Atlantic.”  Since Columbus first stumbled on the Caribbean, invading hordes have continually tried to turn it into something else — and with every reinvention of the region came a reinvention of its drinks.

Potions of the Caribbean strains five centuries of this fascinating history through a cocktail shaker, serving up 77 vintage Caribbean drink recipes — 16 of them “lost” recipes that have never before been published anywhere in any form, and another 19 that have never been published in book form.

Even more delicious are the stories of the people who created, or served, or simply drank these drinks.  People like William Dampier, the 17th-century “pirate of exquisite mind” who plundered native cities but collected native recipes … José “Sloppy Joe” Abeal, who became an overnight celebrity when Prohibition brought millions of thirsty Americans to his sleepy Havana saloon …

Conrad Hilton, the bible-thumping tycoon who used drinking and gambling to kickstart modern Caribbean tourism … mysterious Egyptian mixologist Joe Scialom, who escaped a Cairo prison to bring a new style of cocktail to the islands … restaurateur “Trader Vic” Bergeron, whose faux-Polynesian Tiki drinks turned the West Indies into a surrogate South Pacific … and hard-drinking novelists Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, who hated each other almost as much as they loved frozen Daiquiris.

 

And the Bum and his outstanding work is loved…

As “a hybrid of street-smart gumshoe, anthropologist and mixologist” (The Los Angeles Times) and “the Indiana Jones of Tiki drinks” (The New York Times), Jeff “Beachbum” Berry is uniquely qualified to tell this epic story-with-recipes, lavishly illustrated with vintage graphics and rare historical photos.

Praise for Beachbum Berry’s five previous books about tropical drinks (The Grog Log, Intoxica!, Taboo Table, Sippin’ Safari and Beachbum Berry Remixed):

“ Mr. Berry’s lasting contribution may be in salvaging tropical drinks from decades of bad bartending.” — Steven Kurutz, The New York Times

“Without Berry many cocktail recipes and bartender secrets might be lost to history, but his relentless research has paid off in spades, so we still can take a glimpse into the past and sip the drinks of our forefathers … I raise my coconut to Beachbum Berry.”
– Gary Regan, author of The Bartender’s Bible and The Joy of Mixology

“Jeff uncovers lost artefacts and recipes like no other … his books are an exact extension of his own personality, as all good books should be.” — Ian Cameron, Class magazine

“I wish I had either the depth of understanding (or the taste buds) of Jeff Berry when it comes to these tropical punches. As it is, I just follow him around and happily drink what he tells me to.” — Ted Haigh, author of Vintage Spirits And Forgotten Cocktails

And i wanna add: Without Jeff Berry and his books i wouldn`t know what i know today about exotic cocktails and the tiki era. He is a great inspiration to us all and every time i`m looking for inspiration for a drink to create or just looking for a good tiki drink to mix up i pick up either one of his books or the iphone app. (which comes out so handy when not at home)

The work he have done with digging out all these lost and forgotten recipes is priceless.

This new book “Potions of the Caribbean” is the result of five years work!

I for one i cannot wait to read it! you can now pre-order your copy at the Cocktail Kingdom and the books will be shipped out on dec 10th.