Give Me Liberty and Give Me a Drink!

Book excerpt: Finalist, Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits “An impassioned case against a senseless system . . . Come for the cocktail recipes, stay for the call to arms.” —Clay Risen, author of American Whiskey, Bourbon, and Rye “A potent, thought-provoking mixture of fun and ‘what the hell’ awareness.” —Lew Bryson, author of Whiskey Master Class Across this nation, in breweries, liquor stores, bars, and even our own homes, we’re being stripped of our most basic boozy rights. Thanks to Prohibition and its 100-year hangover, some of the most outdated, bizarre, and laughably loony laws still on the books today center around alcohol and how we drink it. In New Mexico, $1 margaritas are illegal. In Utah, cocktails must be mixed behind a barrier called the “Zion curtain.” And forget about happy hour in Massachusetts—the state banned it in 1984. But we don’t have to stand down and dry up—it’s time to take to liquid protest. Created by the nation’s leading alcohol policy expert, Give Me Liberty and Give Me a Drink! combines the thirst-inducing pleasure of trivia with 65 recipes for classic and innovative cocktails. So arm yourself with a mezcal-based One Pint, Two Pint, inspired by Vermont’s ban on beer pitchers, or The Boiling Point, a beer cocktail that is highly illegal in Virginia, and get ready to drink your way to a revolution on the rocks.