On April 4th, one month before its scheduled release, I started to receive emails and texts from friends, family, and strangers who had received their pre-ordered book, Bourbon Is My Comfort Food: The Bourbon Women Guide to Fantastic Cocktail at Home four weeks early.
And they were thrilled. As was I.
This book has been a true journey for me. From turning my side hobby into something serious during the pandemic to picking up my phone and then an actual camera to learning the basics of beverage photography, from focusing on just a few cocktail templates to venturing out into layered, bitter, complex creations. This has been a trip – in every sense of the word.
My sincerest hope is that this book will open the eyes of a few people who wonder about bourbon cocktails and start to journey down the rabbit hole. Or that someone who loves bourbon but can’t get friends and family on board with their passion will have a way to open the door for them to do what whiskey lovers want most – to share the whiskey experience.
In the last few weeks, I’ve had several occasions where I’m in rooms full of spirits writers or whiskey makers and in all of them, one thing holds true – the expectation that the spirit will be enjoyed and that it will be used to bring people together. I hope my book does the same.
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of texts and tags of people who are reading and enjoying my book, and I hope that all of them use me as a resource when things go well, or more importantly, when they don’t quite turn out. Bourbon is a complex, varied spirit, like any whiskey category, and using it in cocktails can be an exercise in flavor complexity.
Plus you get to taste lots of whiskeys, and there’s never anything wrong with that.
Cheers to all of you who pre-ordered the book. Let me know if you enjoy it, or if I’m missing something. Who knows, there might be a second book – Bourbon Is My Comfort Food, Too.
