I absolutely love elderflower, so this book was very up my street.
It's got a great mix of different types of cocktails, and I made a couple which were very much enjoyed!
I think any kind of recipe books are hard to review because I never work my way through the whole lot, but this one was fun!

I thought this book had a good range and was a great reference point

Not much of a drinker, but i enjoyed reading this! It has great cocktail recipes for anytime of day or night along with wonderful narratives to set the mood.

What a fun book of cocktails! They divided the cocktails by time of day and I found a few new ones I look forward to trying!

How to Drink French Fluently is a great book if you're looking for recipes that use St-Germain. It seems to be a step up from a beginner to cocktails, as I would have to buy a bunch of ingredients in order to make more than a few recipes in this book. The title is misleading as it doesn't have anything to do with France aside of the name of St-Germain. Perhaps How to Drink St-Germain would be more appropriate?

Beau Livre!!!!
This is one of the best cocktail books!

I was not able to fall in love with this book. The drink recipes were very good but the book itself was not attractive. I felt like just going through the pages instead of devouring the text.

"How to Drink French Fluently" includes beautiful photos and some really great recipes. I could do without a good bit of the text in this book meant to set the scene for each section of drinks - brunch drinks, day drinks, etc. Most of the drink recipes use "normal" ingredients that most people have access to or could whip up. I think that's important, as some cookbooks are filled with bizarre ingredients most Americans can't buy. The drinks are unique enough to warrant a recipe, but refined enough to sound and look drinkable. I've made three drinks from this book so far (flapper's delight, St-Germain cocktail, and tiger beat) and all three tasted great and looked fantastic.

Every champagne enthusiast owns a bottle of St. Germain liquor. How to Drink French Fluently by Drew Lazor and Camille Ralph Vidal give us a simple, fresh quick modern cocktails to put the two right together.
Uncomplicated recipes for fabulous drinks, that anyone can easily whip up on their own, no mixologist needed, only you. I can't wait to try them all!

In accordance with the publishers’ request, I will not publish the following review to Goodreads until 31 May 2017, which is within one week of the book’s publication date.

St Germain is one of my favorite liqueurs: I love the way it smells as well as the way it tastes. So I was very excited to see that there was a book dedicated to it. Of course, when I mentioned to my mother that I was going to request a book with 30 St Germain recipes, her response was “What do you need so many different St Germain recipes for?” In her mind, my father’s standard St Germain cocktail – St Germain, light white wine, club soda – was all that anyone ever needed. I, on the other hand, was intrigued by the world of new possibilities.

According to the Introduction, the aim of the book is “to take you on a tour of joie de vivre – from the first meal of the day to the last sip of the night - with St-Germain keeping pace every step of the way.” Although “joie de vivre” is not necessarily defined in the Introduction, it is well described. It is that spirit capable of pulling one away “to a time and place where the present moment is the one that matters most.”

I love the way that this book is organized according to a daily chronology of drinking: brunch, daytime, aperitif, dinner, nightcap. Of all the possible ways to organize – by season, by primary flavor profile, by date invented, et cetera – this seems to be the most useful as I most definitely am aware of what time of day it is when I reach for my bottle of St Germain. Within each chapter are four to ten cocktail recipes from big city bartenders across the United States, as well as ephemera about drinking during that time of day. Of general interest to me were pages such as “Rules of the Brunch Drink,” “The Day Drinker’s Palate,” “Rules of the Aperitif Cocktail,” “Pairing Cocktails with Food,” and “Anatomy of a Nightcap.” The “Rules of the Brunch Drink,” for example, were very simple: give the people what they want, brunch drinking is session drinking, put refreshment first, and don’t expect a cure. The “Rules of the Aperitif Cocktail” were strikingly similar: get low in alcohol, don’t sweat the details, get outside, sharing is caring.

Each chapter begins with a substantial introduction that describes the history behind the association of drinking with that particular time of day, as well as introducing the family of cocktails to follow. For example, the introduction to the Brunch chapter discusses the first appearance of the word brunch in print in 1895. And who could forget the comment in the introduction to the chapter on Nightcaps: “Which is why the first rule of the nightcap is that there is no s in nightcap.” I love the vocabulary used in this book; it is not for the faint of heart! Words like “portmanteau,” “euphemistically,” and “ingratiated” are the norm in the author’s writing style.

The drink recipes in the time of day chapters are well-written and easy to follow. At the top left hand corner is a box that indicates the serving size of the recipe, and at the top right hand corner is a box that indicates the name and bar of the inventor. The recipe title is in the center of the page. The recipe headnote provides the inventor’s thoughts about the recipe. The ingredients are measured in ounces, with measurements in plain text and ingredients themselves in bold text. The recipe itself follows the ingredients list, starting with a garnish and then following with the method. Off to the left of the recipe is a small drawing of the glass that the drink should be served in. Overall, it is one of the easiest to follow cocktail books that I have read. The recipes for syrups at the end of the book were simply written in paragraph format so as to fit as many as possible on the page.

Given that there were 30 recipes with St Germain, I was concerned that many of the recipes would just notionally use the St Germain as an afterthought or an accent to make it into the book. That was not the case. The presence of St Germain in these recipes varied from just a ¼ ounce accent in a gin cocktail to 1½ ounces dominant liqueur in a royale cocktail. Without being too scientific about it, it seemed like most of the cocktails had about ¾ ounce St Germain. Quickly glancing through the Index, it seemed that gin was the most frequently used base spirit, with only one cocktail using vodka. Although while reading the book, it seemed to me like there were a lot of cocktails using Aperol; according to the Index, there were only three.

The full color photography is simply gorgeous. While most of the photography in the recipe chapters is of identifiable finished drink recipes, there is some filler photography.

In general, I believe that the book satisfies its aim. Reading it made me very happy. I started reading it on a Saturday morning with the intention of reading just a chapter, and I finished the entire book in under two hours. Even though it is a niche publication, I would most definitely buy it as a birthday or Christmas gift for my Francophile friends, depending on the timing of its publication.

Although I have marked several recipes to try from this book, I have yet to prepare any of the recipes. When I do, I will update this review.