Recipes & Histories of Classic Cocktails

Whether you're a professional bartender or a home enthusiast, CO Specs is your indispensable A to Z guide to all the essential classic cocktails. From the Aperol Spritz to the Negroni, Martini to Manhattan – learn the recipes and discover the histories and stories behind all of your favourite drinks.

With tens of thousands of cocktails in existence, how many of those could be considered classic, essential, or even tasty? — CO Specs distills down to the 200 true classics everyone should know.

For Bartenders, it’s a thorough field manual of all the classics you should know. A one stop shop. The book I wish I’d had (and spent far too long creating).

For the Home Enthusiast — whether you’re shaking up a few cocktails after a long day, or mixing something to impress your dinner guests, you’ll find all of your favourite cocktails (as well as many gems yet undiscovered) among the CO Specs. Be confident you’re making them correctly, and impress your friends with insightful trivia.

  • Built for heavy use Published in a hardbound A5 size, it fits nicely in the hand and is easy to carry around. At over 3cm thick, it’s satisfyingly substantial.
  • History (for cheaters) There’s always debate and discussion about the “correct” way to make a classic drink. The aim of CO Specs is to illuminate the answer, and the reasoning behind it. CO Specs explores the history & fable underpinning each classic drink, revealing the original provenance of its appearances in print, as if torn straight from the pages of these (sometimes ancient) recipe books.
  • Tested (To Death) Each drink has been scrutinised, tested, then tested again to achieve the ‘goldilocks’ balance of ingredients. Informed by history, balanced for now.

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