NCH 10th Anniversary Edition!

The New Cocktail Hour: Revised and Expanded; Oscar-Themed Cocktail

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Cocktail Lovers -

It’s been a big February. I eloped to St. Martin. I’ll spare you the honeymoon photos, but rest assured we had an amazing time in the French West Indies. It was a return trip for us, and this time we stayed in a little beach shack steps from the ocean in Grand Case - the perfect mix of azure waves by day and French and creole cuisine at night.

I unexpectedly ran into some magnificent cocktails by Veronica Jacquemod at a new restaurant called Alizé in Marigot. The first, Wind of Provence: Pineau de Charentes, makrut lime tea, brut apple cider, and bergamot. Second, Captain Jack: Plantation pineapple, passionfruit, vanilla and lime with a mango-honey foam. Veronica worked in restaurants on Majorca and in Italy previously. The best drinks I’ve had yet this year.

THE BIG NEWS

Last month I promised the big news, and here it is. My first book, The New Cocktail Hour (2016), is getting a 10th Anniversary edition!

Back when my sister Tenaya and I were writing The New Cocktail Hour, our press told us they wanted a drinks bible that would remain on the shelf for years to come. I thought to myself, “Well, the market decides that.” But we threw everything we had at the project, taking two years to write the cocktail guide we could not find. It went on to become a modern classic that has, indeed, survived and thrived on the shelf for a decade.

Times have changed, however, and the new edition will involve some streamlining and quite a bit of new content. I will be thrilled to share it on its scheduled pub date in 2026!

Oscar Night Cocktail

After I completed my book Forbidden Cocktails for TCM, I decided that since I’d watched most movies up to 1934, I should continue past the pre-code years and view more American cinema in chronological order. So on the weekends we’ve been queuing up classics as well as little-known gems. After more than a year, we’re only just now making it into 1942 - our last big favorite film was 1941’s The Lady Eve with Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. All this is to say, I’m not at all up on Oscar movies this year. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t watch. And while enjoying the show, naturally a glam cocktail is de rigueur. We included this great Dale Degroff creation The New Cocktail Hour:

RITZ COCKTAIL

BY DALE DEGROFF

Citrus, honey, caramel, brioche

Full of old-school glamour, this is an ideal dinner-party aperitif. Serve it with canapés, shrimp, and a relish tray.

Dale DeGroff, a godfather of the Craft Cocktail Movement, created this modern riff on the brandy drinks of yore while working at Joe Baum’s New York restaurant, Aurora, in 1985. Designed as a tribute to the Champagne cocktails once served at the Paris Ritz, it has the telltale signs of a straightforward classic: classy, subtle, and full of sparkle.

3/4 ounce (22 ml) brandy

1/2 ounce (15 ml) Cointreau

1/4 ounce (7 ml) Luxardo maraschino liqueur

1/4 ounce (7 ml) fresh lemon juice

2 ounces (60 ml) dry sparkling wine

Orange twist, for garnish

Stir the first four ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass. Top with sparkling wine and garnish with an orange twist on the rim of the glass.

Excerpted from The New Cocktail Hour by André Darlington and Tenaya Darlington. Copyright © 2016. Available from Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

What’s Ahead

I’m buried writing this month, updating the gigantic manuscript for The New Cocktail Hour and bringing the book into 2026. It will have so many new bells and whistles.

My next book, Booze & Vinyl Country, comes out September 23! The project has been in final edits (what I was doing on the beach in St. Martin) and I’ve already seen some of the possible covers. I’m anticipating a COVER REVEAL NEXT NEWSLETTER! Increasingly, it’s sounding like this is going to be a big book tour. We’ve had a hard time winnowing stops down to twelve cities (I try to cap tours at eight), so I’m preparing to be on the road for a while this fall. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

When I’m (mostly) done with NCH book edits in May, I’m headed on a five-city aperitivo tour in Northern Italy. But we’re ending in London because it’s my birthday and we’re going to St. John again.

Then summer we are living in Medellín while I wrestle a different manuscript.

That’s the next few months!

THANK YOU FOR READING.