The Spirit, Mixer, Glass & Garnish cocktail recipe journal

Bookblock recently manufactured the Spirit, Mixer, Glass & Garnish cocktail recipe journal, a must-have notebook for every cocktail enthusiast and bartender out there. The journal allows you to store your recipes by spirit, with space to note your garnish, glassware, and more!

Ben Putano, the creator of Spirit Mixer Glass & Garnish said that ‘One night I was having friends over to make cocktails. I was picturing the hassle it would be to talk through all the ingredients we had and all the possible drink options, so I found a small journal lying around and wrote 5 or 6 cocktails recipes that I knew we could make. My friends were then able to flip through the book, find a drink they wanted to try, and (best part) make it themselves! It was so easy and a lot of fun. It was like having my own house cocktail menu.

A few days later, I had another friend over for a drink and we were talking about the journal. Then we started brainstorming what a dedicated cocktail recipe journal would look like. This guy, Brett Vance, ended up being my partner for the project. Brett is a photographer, graphic designer, and fellow enthusiast of coffee and cocktails. 

We mocked up a design for the journal and I posted it on the Coffee Cocktails Instagram feed. Then I reached out to people individually and asked them about their experiences making cocktails. I asked how they record their recipes, what information they record about each drink (glassware, garnish, etc), and if they would be interested in a dedicated cocktail recipe journal. The feedback was positive enough for Brett and I to improve on the original mock-up and launch a design competition for the front cover on 99Designs.

We received 65 entries for the front cover design competition and then had the growing group of contributors actually choose the winning design. This group also voted on other design aspects like journal size, colour, and features (elastic band, bookmark, etc.). In the end, around 400 cocktail enthusiasts participated in the design.’

Putano hopes that not only will the book provide ample space for those that are already crafting cocktails at home, but it’ll give others a chance to experiment some more as well.

Making great cocktails at home is way easier than most people think, and I think Spirit, Mixer, Glass & Garnish will make cocktails feel more accessible to new enthusiasts,” he adds.

On the bartender side, Putano says, the book is meant to be a fitting repository to store the cocktails that are time and time again, beautiful works of art in and of themselves.

At 150 pages, Spirit, Mixer, Glass & Garnish offers plenty of space for cocktail recipes as well as recipes for shrubs, infusions, bitters, and more. The book is divided into sections based on spirit, and each recipe template will include space for the cocktail name, date, creator, ingredients, garnish, method, and additional notes. Better yet, the book cover is water resistant (read: when you get drunk and spill the drink you’re trying to make, it won’t mess the book up).