Deep gratitude to our editor, Cindy De La Hoz, as well as our agent, Amy Williams, for their guidance and support. A huge thanks to photographer Jason Varney and to designer Joshua McDonnell for bringing these cocktails so vividly to life.
Our heartfelt thanks to friends and professionals who offered their time, talents, and valuable feedback: to consummate reader Jeff Jahnke of Cocktaildudes.com; to Kevin Liu, who gave just the right advice when we needed it; to Ed Hamilton for the excellent rum info and illuminating conversations; to Warren Bobrow, whose gnome knows no bounds; to Chad Vogel, JR Mocanu, and Grant Hurless for their skill, knowledge, and help recipe testing; to Jessica Wohlers for suggesting Raoul’s when we needed a lift; and to the many bartenders who have mixed us incredible cocktails over the years, especially Chris Bostick, Micah Melton, Charles Joly, Freddie Sarkis, Phoebe Esmon, and Christian Gaal. Also, hats off to the gents at Bittercube, Nick Kosevich and Ira Klopowitz, as well as the awesome Little Wisco crew in New York.
We’re also indebted to the many cocktail writers before us, whose books and articles slaked our thirst for knowledge and fed our imaginations: William Grimes, Kingsley Amis, Lowell Edmunds, Bernard DeVoto, Charles H. Baker, Dale DeGroff, David Embury, Craig Claiborne, Gary Regan, Jeff “Beach-bum” Berry, Ted Haigh, Paul Clarke, Paul Harrington, Caroline Pardilla, Lauren Viera, Philip Collins, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Jim Meehan, Camper English, Tony Conigliaro, Steven Raichlen, Amy Stewart, David Wondrich, William Schmidt, Jason Wilson, Robert Simonson, Darcy O’Neil, François Chartier, Greg Seider, Katie Loeb, Matt Robold, Robert Hess, Erik Ellestad, Jamie Boudreau, Dinah Sanders, Maggie Savarino, Andrew F. Smith, Philip Greene, Wayne Curtis, Jeff Masson, Greg Boehm, and Paul Pacult.
For their support of our writerly endeavors, thanks to Dean Robbins and Linda Falkenstein of Isthmus Newspaper, the artists’ community at Yaddo, and colleagues at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
To our friends and family, thank you for enduring countless drink trials, sticky kitchens, and broken glassware, especially our partners, Patricia Davis and Todd Stregiel.