"Bitters" Is Now Officially a Teenager
Today Marks 13 Years Since the Publication of My First Book.
Bitters at 13
Thirteen years ago, on 11/1/11, my debut book, Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas, was published by Ten Speed Press, landing on bookshelves and backbars around the world. It shared a pub-date with my friend Jim Meehan’s The PDT Cocktail Book (Jim was a huge help while working on the book so this made for a fun gentlemanly rivalry) and went on to win an IACP Award, a James Beard Award, and was a finalist for a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award (Jim took that one). The book is currently in its 18th printing and has sold over 117,000 copies and still going strong.
When I floated the idea of a 10th anniversary edition for 2021 my publisher took the If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It approach. While still very relevant and a great resource for recipes, Bitters feels like a moment in time to me. With each page I’m sent back to where I was when I was writing that particular section or on location for a specific photograph or finalizing the cover or fine-tuning the subtitle. It was a period of my life when I first truly understood the pressure of deadlines (and the grace of extended deadlines), something that’s now a chronic condition of my life. If I ever did revisit the book in any way it would likely have to be a complete overhaul rather than cosmetic changes and updates here and there, and that might risk taking away the many elements that resonated with so many readers.
A big thank you to Aaron Wehner for taking a chance on me and acquiring the book, my editor Emily Timberlake, my photographer and partner in crime Ed Anderson, the team at Ten Speed Press (design, copyedit, sales, marketing, publicity, special sales, and on and on), and my first agent, Michael Bourret. And eternal gratitude for all of the bookstores and speciality shops who continue to support my work, all the bartenders who still answer my email queries, and readers around the world who have picked up a copy over the years.
Here are some photos from the Bitters Scrapbook for your viewing pleasure.
