“The One-Bottle Cocktail” Author Maggie Hoffman On Tastefully Preparing & Writing About Booze
While most drinkers love the idea of trying a new cocktail, they do not necessarily have all of the items on-hand in their bar to make said cocktail. In turn, there lies a challenge of how to keep things fresh while also keeping your budget in-check. Fortunately, author Maggie Hoffman has come up with an interesting solution with her newly-released The One-Bottle Cocktail. Simply put, Hoffman’s book is a collection of 80-plus recipes from top bartenders and mixologists which only require one spirit.
Prior to writing The One-Bottle Cocktail, Hoffman had established herself a top journalist within the food and drink worlds. She founded the “drinks” section for the James Beard Award-winning website Serious Eats in 2011, and has also contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, Saveur, Food & Wine, and Wine Enthusiast. The Bay Area-based writer/editor kindly entertained Q&A for The Hype Magazine and can be followed on Instagram via @MaggieJHoffman.
Where did the idea for The One-Bottle Cocktail come from?
Maggie Hoffman: You know, I love bars, and I love interviewing bartenders, and I’m always excited to hear about new bitter liqueurs from Italy and interesting Spanish vermouth. But at home, I was finding that I just couldn’t make the drinks in most cocktail books. And I’d publish recipes for great drinks from bartenders — at Serious Eats, where I was working with Kenji López-Alt of The Food Lab and other brilliant folks — and readers would complain that you’d need a half-ounce of Chartreuse, and that bottle cost $45 or $50, and a fresh bottle of vermouth for $15 or so, and something else, and two drops of some fancy new $23 bitters… Pretty soon you’ve spent a hundred bucks for a single drink that you don’t even know is to your taste. For many people at home, that’s just nuts.
But cocktails can be fun AND affordable if you start with just a single spirit, maybe the gin you already have, and add fresh ingredients from the grocery store. These days, stores like Whole Foods or your local H-Mart have so many awesome ingredients that can add all the elements you need in a cocktail. If you can make tea, you can make an interesting cocktail modifier that won’t cost you $30 and take up shelf space in your tiny apartment.
How long did it take to write the book?
Maggie Hoffman: I got in touch with about a thousand bartenders around the country and the world, and talked to them about the idea for a month or two. In the end I think I tested about 300 recipes, and that took several months. The great drinks — the ones that made me stop and think, MAN, that is DELICIOUS — ended up adding up to 83. I think I finished the first 75 or so in about 12 weeks, and then it took me a month to find the final few. At the end, it’s a jigsaw puzzle of flavors. “Oh, I don’t need another strawberry drink, since there’s Shannon Tebay Sidle’s gin cocktail with strawberry, black pepper, and greek yogurt, and there’s Caitlin Laman’s cognac drink with rooibos tea and strawberries.” I tried to find something for as many seasonal ingredients as possible. There’s a cantaloupe drink, and a honeydew drink, and a fig drink, and blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, concord grapes…
You founded the drinks section of Serious Eats. How did you wind up writing about food and drinks?
Maggie Hoffman: I’ve always loved writing, and studied with some amazing poets in college, including Laurie Sheck and the late C.K. Williams. I was working in publishing production in New York in the early years after college when I started writing a food blog and connecting with some of the local food and drink community. It was the early days of Twitter, when people met IRL!
Sooner or later I pitched the idea of a beer column to Serious Eats, and they took a chance on me; it was a time when an eager enthusiast could gather a ton of beers of one style together and taste them systematically. Eventually they agreed that we should launch a dedicated site, while I helped out with some other editing tasks. There were some terrific drinks writers already contributing—including Paul Clarke of Imbibe. I learned a lot from editing folks like him, and making the drinks for photography, and soon I was going out and interviewing bartenders, which was the most fun of all.
When did alcohol become your specialty as a writer?
Maggie Hoffman: I started writing about wine and beer around 2009, and really got into cocktails during 2010. I’ve been able to meet so many amazing people in the industry; people who are so generous with their knowledge and their ideas. It’s an incredibly fortunate place to be.
I still love to write about cooking and cookbooks, too. There’s a limit to how much you can taste intelligently each day when it comes to beverages. The palate fatigue is real.
Do you feel that there are any misconceptions about what you do for a living?
Maggie Hoffman: Oh, I think people assume it’s a super-glamorous life, and for some booze writers it is—jetting off to some press trip to a distillery, being wined and dined. My life isn’t really like that. I love to visit new bars for inspiration, I love to talk to bartenders, I love to visit wineries, but I also have a toddler at home and laundry to do — did I just ruin the magic? (laughs)
I think people also assume that authors of books make a ton — or you know, any — money, which I wish were true. I’m hoping this book will be everywhere so that people can have fun with it, can try new drinks and get excited about cocktails and spirits they haven’t tried. I’d love for it to be a part of people’s celebrations, people’s happy hours. I’m hoping to spread the word about some super-talented bartenders who aren’t the same dudes you hear about over and over. And I’m hoping to recoup my costs, the ingredients, the photography, etc. If more than that happened financially, frankly, I’d be surprised. At one point, I thought books might be able to be my “job,” and maybe that will be true if LOTS of people buy them — GO BUY THEM! — but it’s more likely that they’ll be a really fun thing to do, and maybe they’ll open the door to freelance work.
As a writer, how much of your work time is actually spent writing versus being out on assignment?
Maggie Hoffman: Right now I’m working on a second book, so I’m not really “out on assignment” much at all. I am testing big-batch recipes which will be ideal for entertaining. And I’m writing about those, and plotting the photoshoot, which is happening in a few weeks with Kelly Puleio, who also shot the first book. She is a great talent, and that week is a little crazy but also kind of a highlight of the project. It’s so fun to see the drinks come to life.
So you have plans for another book. Is it another installment of The One-Bottle Cocktail?
Maggie Hoffman: I’ve been toying with a few different ideas for #3, but YES, there is a second book coming your way in 2019. It’s not more one-bottle drinks — maybe that’ll come down the line — but it’s all about easy make-ahead drinks for entertaining. No shaking cocktails for each person. Maybe I’m just lazy. But aren’t we all?
When not busy with work, how do you like to spend your free time?
Maggie Hoffman: I have a toddler, so our weekends are often SUPER-GLAMOROUS trips to the playground and housework. We have an amazing babysitter, though, who makes it possible for us to slip away to go hiking or visit new restaurants and bars. I dream of a time when I get to travel more.
As a music-related publication, I must ask: What was the last concert you attended for fun?
Maggie Hoffman: Oh boy, it’s been awhile, sadly. I love live music and used to be a performer; I was in an a super-dorky and wonderful a cappella group in college, and then a short-lived band in New York City afterwards. We’d sing “Angel From Montgomery” and then the two guitarists would fight over who was allowed to solo. I try to go to Hardly Strictly every year, particularly if Patty Griffin is playing.
Finally, Maggie, any last words for the kids?
Maggie Hoffman: Support writers! Spread the word about books you love! Go to events! And even if you don’t buy books on Amazon, leave reviews for the books you love — that helps those books get recommended to others. In this day and age, that’s so, so important.
About the Author
Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."
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