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The Cocktail – 200 Fabulous Drinks

This is Sex in the City for cocktail sippers! It’s this year’s book for girls to give their girlfriends. It’s frilly, fluffy, gorgeous and a work of art!

Jane Rocca writes for the Age, Sydney Sun Herald, West Australian and NW. She has contributed to Harper’s Bazaar, HQ, Australian Style, The Face, Black + White, The Big Issue and Cream.

The start of each chapter has a few words from Jane that will make you either smile or laugh out loud... “Gin is for hopeless romantics, clinging to the ideal of Heathcliff waiting out yonder to take them away”......Not for me, it makes me morbid!

You gotta love a book that has chapters with names like Rum like You Stole Something and Vodka Vixens! All that said, it’s a book full of the classic cocktails like Singapore Sling but alongside a Beijing Fling. There’s Long Island Iced Tea paired with Baghdad Iced Tea!

If you are a lady that likes to launch with Tequila then this book will spoil you with choice. There are Margaritas for every occasion and taste: Passion fruit, Mango, Watermelon and Coriander, Peppered Strawberry and several others.

Perhaps you are a Martini type gal. There is a nice selection of them in this book. The Martini that Won the 1951 Martini Competition in Chicago is listed and sounds very nice: dry vermouth, gin, Cointreau and two anchovy-stuffed olives.

There is a definite Australian bias to this book with cocktails named for all things Oz. How about an Alice Springs or a Bush Tuckerman’s Sinus Cleaner?

Kat Macleod works as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer on fashion and publication projects. She loves drawing frivolous women in outrageous costumes. The Cocktail contains some examples of Kat’s typical style of work and complements the text so well. There are lovely illustrations on every page adding great colour, humour and sophistication.

I confess that I am not a great cocktail drinker as I once had a nasty encounter with one...or two. I have stuck to the uncomplicated Gimlet, but some of the others are very tempting! I’ll give this book to my girlfriends for Christmas as I know they will enjoy the combination of risqué fun and exotic drinks.

Jane has obviously made huge personal sacrifices on our behalf, so the polite thing to do would be to buy the book and .....well, er, drink the drinks!

The Cocktail – 200 Fabulous Drinks
Author: Jane Rocca, Illustrator: Kat Macleod
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £9.99
ISBN 978-1-84543-257-7