Long before there was a Kevin Bauch circumnavigating the globe to cure his thirst, there was the inimitable Charles H. Baker, author of my current favorite cocktail book The Gentleman's Companion - Being an Exotic Drinking Book or Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask.

Charles H. Baker Jr. (December 25, 1895 - November 11, 1987) was a true bon vivant who spent most of his adult life traveling the globe, collecting food and drink recipes, the most famous of which being his chronicles on cocktails. Many of those recipes found in this book are seeing new light today at some of the best bars in the world.

If the book only contained recipes, it'd still be an important work in the field of bar manuals. What sets it apart is his prose, at once exotic, irreverent, funny and deadly serious about accuracy. Baker's wonderfully evocative introductions to his drinks alone make it impossible for me not to reach for my cocktail shaker.

Here is his introduction to a drink now finding it's way onto classic cocktail bar menus:

REMEMBER the MAINE, a Hazy Memory of a Night in Havana during the Unpleasantness of 1933, when Each Swallow Was Punctuated with Bombs Going off on the Prado, or the Sound of 3" Shells Being Fired at the Hotel NACIONAL, then Haven for Certain Anti-Revolutionary Officers.

Even better is this one:

THE SAHARA GLOWING HEART COCKTAIL, from the Hands of one Abdullah an Arab Muslim Wizard back of Mahogany at the Mena House Bar, near the Pyramids of Ghizeh, which Are Just South of Cairo.

After which, Baker lights into a story about drinking a few of these, swiping some camels and riding them to the Sphinx under a desert moon. Finally revealing the recipe for the cocktail, he advises that before imbibing, "pray Allah for forgiveness of all imminent and future sins of the flesh."

The book is loaded with great cocktails sampled from all over the world. There is "THE IMMORTAL SINGAPORE RAFFLES GIN SLING, Met in 1926 & thereafter Never Forgotten," The Grande Bretagne Cocktail sipped in Greece, Mint Juleps from the Philippines and Cuba, a champagne cocktail with the unforgettable name of Maharajah's Burra-Peg in India, each recipe proving more irresistible than the last. Also included are his homemade concoctions for orange bitters, a spectacular recipe for rose liqueur, the process for making your own ginger beer and even a way to make your own mead.

It is, in my opinion, the most captivating cocktail recipe book ever written, and deserves a place on your bookshelf.