I have always wanted to up my cocktail game at home, but really haven’t put in any effort. Part of the reason is I’m the sole drinker in our house and mixing a Drink alone sounds well…like something an alcoholic would do. I’m far from that. It’s rare for me to even order a drink when dining out and, even when I do, I likely have a glass of wine or a mixed drink.

Fortunately, I was given a Book by a coworker of mine when I sparked a conversation with him one afternoon and he had a rather intriguing book in his hand called Dr. Cocktail: 50 Spirited Infusions to Stimulate the Mind & Body. We chatted about it since he held an event with the author Alex Ott.

He give me a signed copy and said try it out. See what you like from it. Which brings me to now, writing this post after making a couple drinks the past couple weeks.

First of all, I love how the book is sectioned into anti-stress, memory-evoking elixirs and aphrodisiacs to name just a few of the many areas the book explorers using various concoctions. The Cocktails feature certain ingredients that serve various homeopathic purposes. Ott is an organic chemist and alchemist, hence the title Dr. Cocktail.

I was personally less interested in the chemistry and more interested in the taste.

So I tried a couple recipes to see how the drinks cured my craving for well-crafted, flavorful cocktails to easily make at home and less about the homeopathic properties they served my mind and body.

First up was the Ghostbuster. Apparently, this Indian designed cocktail is used to expel the ghosts of indigestion while stimulating appetite. I was mostly into it because it include things I readily had in my kitchen like a lemon, fresh sage, pear nectar and Vodka.

The drink tasted amazing. Seriously, it is one the best cocktails I’ve ever had.  The combination of pear and sage is wonderful and the Tito’s Vodka I used really brought it all together into a drink that ended my evening perfectly.

Next up, I went with another drink that used pear nectar, there are four total in the book that do. The Tobacco Vanilla used a spice rum. I had only a dark spiced rum so my version is a little bit different than intended, but still was great. Though it looked more like a dark & stormy than the photo in the book. I loved the blend of this drink with its fig jam, honey and lime juice that went along with the rum and pear nectar. Again, the drinks in this book pleasantly surprised my tastebuds.

I still have 48 more to try. There are cocktails that use tea, peanut butter, crushed almonds and chocolate. It truly is a book of exploration for the senses that I highly recommend.

To learn more about the book and where to buy a copy at Running Press Publishers.