Cocktail Guide 2010

By Dana Cowin, Kate Krader

Cocktail Guide 2010. © Tina Rupp.

The entire planet, it seems, has become drink-obsessed. So we shifted the focus of our annual F&W Cocktails guide from the United States to the entire world. With help from outstanding deputy editors Jim Meehan and Joaquin Simo (both star mixologists in their own right), we found talents like Hidetsugu Ueno at Tokyo's Bar High Five—a classics master who employs seven different shaking techniques when he mixes his drinks and stores his spirits at various temperatures to change their texture. We also noticed some excellent trends (don't just drop a mint leaf into a drink—smack it first). And we sought out terrific cocktail-friendly dishes like mini croque-monsieurs from Bar Meurice in Paris; they pair beautifully with the sherry-spiked Andalusian from Las Vegas mixologist Francesco Lafranconi. Turn your house into one of the world's best cocktail bars.