Not every revolution requires an insurrection, and not every renaissance begins in salons, galleries or cloistered chambers. The cocktail seemed an unlikely candidate to start either a revolution or a renaissance, but somehow over the past decade, it has managed to become the center of both. Today the cocktail is celebrated at week-long conferences and festivals that draw thousands. Taking cues from a wider culinary movement that's been building steam for decades, craft-cocktail bars (and the bartenders and writers who inhabit them) are digging in the depths of the drink's rich history and apply these fresh-taught lessons to new drinks, appropriating techniques and skills acquired everywhere from centuries-old handbooks. However, as fascinating as today's artisan-driven or tech-savvy craft-cocktail bars can be, there's also a need for cocktail comfort food--for exciting drinks that have the benefit of being delicious, and that can be easily prepared by non-professionals. From Paul Clarke, the 2014 Best Cocktail & Spirits Writer and founder of the groundbreaking spirits blog, The Cocktail Chronicles, comes an approachable guide to the cocktail renaissance thus far and--as the name implies--a chronicle of the cocktails that have come along the way. The Cocktail Chronicles is not a lab manual for taking the cocktail experience to a molecular level; nor is it an historical monograph tracing the details of our forebears as they developed and mixed the drinks we enjoy today. Instead, The Cocktail Chronicles is a collection of approachable, and easily replicable drinks that all share the same thing: a common deliciousness and a role -- both big and small -- in the ongoing and thriving cocktail renaissance.

This collection of expertly curated recipes represent a photo album of sorts--snapshots of people encountered over the years, with some close friends and family members depicted alongside a few dimly remembered strangers. The Cocktail Chronicles believes cocktails should be fun: it doesn't demand the purchase of a new product for every recipe or require hours spent preparing a single ingredient -- that is a sure way to suck the joy right out of it. Life is complicated--a good drink doesn't have to be. To that end, The Cocktail Chronicles has you covered.