A Quick Drink: The Speed Rack Guide to Winning Cocktails for Any Mood

Speed Rack is an annual competition among women bartenders, designed to show off their skills and creativity. It raises money for breast cancer research.

Collected here are more than 100 recipes taken from or inspired by a round in the finals of the competition where bartenders must respond to improvisational demands of the judges–a tropical old-fashioned, say, or a low-ABV sherry cocktail, up.

Contributors are contest participants, winners, and judges, and whether they’re slinging mocktails or riffing on martinis, margaritas, or mai-tais, their concoctions are a long way from staid and predictable. WIth drinks bearing names like Red Bottom Stiletto, Hang on Little Tomato, and Guillotine, this is a boisterous and fun-loving collection that pays serious tribute to craft and creativity.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.