Cover Image: Camp Cocktails

Camp Cocktails

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

So... I don't camp. But I'll hike, if forced. This book has a great array of alcohol to go into the woods, mountains, or lake with, at varying degrees of difficulty. You can pre-mix a cocktail in a flask, spike your hot chocolate, add OJ to a beer, bring a whole cocktail setup with shaker and ice, and/or forage for wild ingredients. It's nicely illustrated and easy to follow. Would make a great gift for that friend who loves camping and drinking. :)

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

Was this review helpful?

This book was interesting but not up my alley. I really like reading books about cocktails but as a person who is not outdoorsy it just didn't hit the mark with me. If you like camping and cocktails then you will probably like this book, but it was mediocre for me.

Was this review helpful?

I love mixology and learning about cocktails, so this was right up my alley! Will definitely try some of the cocktails in here, but maybe not while camping...Would recommend for people who are into this topic.

Was this review helpful?

This was a very enjoyable read and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read it! It was easy to follow along with and I enjoyed making the recipes.

Was this review helpful?

How stupid am I that I never thought of bringing alcohol on my camping trips? This book was eye-opening in term of cocktail variety and ease. While there were many cocktails that sound appealing and I will be making in my future, I have three worlds for you: salted Nutella hot chocolate.

Was this review helpful?

Adult | Nonfiction
This is such a great idea! Part of my camping experience includes cocktail hour – usually cheese and crackers, veggies and dips, and either a cold beer on a hot day or a glass of wine. But why not make a fun drink? Emily Vikre recently opened a craft distillery with her husband, spurring her interest in creating original cocktails. Combine that with a lifelong love of camping and you get a beautifully conceived and rendered book of recipes for simple but spectacular campside drinks. After an introduction that explains the genesis of the book and how it’s organized, she helpfully lists suggestions for simple ways to equip yourself for tending bar in the woods, as well as camp-friendly techniques for straining, shaking, and muddling.
Depending on your campstyle (backpacking, car camping, or cabin), you can work with basic supplies like juices and spirits in spillproof bottles to a shaker, fresh lemons and wild mint. Then you get the recipes, both classics and originals, again organized by the same three types of camping, each requiring more equipment and supplies than the one before. These include flasks of prepared cocktails, “easy spikeables” for hot and cold drinks, simple radlers, interesting cocktails like a maple syrup old fashioned, and (no surprise) drinks I’ve never heard of like Blood and Sand. Each recipe includes exact amounts and step by step instructions. Backpackable recipes include instructions for making different amounts depending on the size of the flask; the rest are pretty easy to scale up or down. There is a nice mix of recipes, with some for those totally new to making cocktails and more elaborate ones that will appeal to bartenders who have a shelf already filled with the various types of liqueurs and spirits she calls for. There are lots of drinks with fruit, which is great for summer and fall camping when you are passing by the fruit stands of our province. Vikre also include a final chapter on foraging wild fruits, leaves and berries and using them to make fascinating syrups and cordials like spruce tip syrup to wild apple bitters. Pretty cool! There’s a Canadian feel to the pro-camping narrative, by the way, though Vikre is from Minnesota. I guess that vibe crosses borders after all. My thanks to Harvard Common Press for the temporary digital reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this title: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42283442

Was this review helpful?

Camp Cocktails by Emily Vikre is a fun approach to enjoying a cocktail while outdoors. The book covers so many different types of outdoor experiences and proves that there is no limit to enjoying a delicious cocktail at the same time. This isn’t your average bartending book and is geared for those who are wanting to bring some classy cocktails on an outdoor trip.

This is a perfect book for those who have a cabin or even enjoy backpack camping. Vikre has given simple, yet detailed instructions for how to transport and create so many unique and fancy drinks. Some will require a bit of prep and equipment, but those used to preparing for trips like these will have the desire to kick things up a notch. The book is divided into sections based on the type of adventure you are seeking.

Before You Leave (Camp Cocktail Basics)
Backpacking
Car Camping
The Cabin
Foraged and Found

❀ LOTS OF TIPS AND IDEAS

What I love about Camp Cocktails is the way Vikre has organized the book and the beautiful images that accompany each drink. There are numerous tips and ideas for how to make the most out of each recipe. It makes a backpacking adventure seem almost glamorous!

❀ INTERESTING RANGE OF RECIPES

While it isn’t quite time to be heading out on a camping trip where I live, I have bookmarked quite a few ideas for upcoming trips this summer. What is fantastic about this book is the range of recipes available. Some are simple, such as the Flask Manhattan, while others are more complex, like the Field and Garden Vermouth. Some drinks can be quickly put together and enjoyed, while others involve foraging and concocting.

If you enjoy the outdoors and want to try something a bit different on your next adventure, Camp Cocktails by Emily Vikre is one book to try. It is definitely an interesting and unique take on cocktails.

Was this review helpful?

Pros:
-Each recipe is broken down into three ingredient lists, to save the “bartender” from having to do math/calculate adjustments. There is a list for 1 cocktail, an 8 Oz flask and a 32 Oz water bottle
-Breakdown by style of camping is also super helpful

Cons: didn’t have any

Giftable: absolutely. I’m donating one to our camp’s yearly raffle this year...and probably giving several as gifts.

Was this review helpful?

Beautiful, unique and filled with wonderful drink recipes. I love all the different categories of drinks in the chapters. Also a great addition to add seasonal ideas. Super functional for camping but most can be made for home too.

Was this review helpful?

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

Sorry, this book was one of those that I wanted to read so badly, but I got bored of it. It is something that happens more often when books like this make the introduction to the recipe WAY too long. I get you want to give us some personal story or some facts about the drink, but I was just getting bored while reading, just wanted to get on with the recipe. More books do this, some work if they make it interesting, but most are just meh.

Still I love the recipes I read, and the photographs made it nicer and gave it more personality. I definitely would like to try out some recipes, but I think I will do that at home as our car is pretty full already each year with stuff we need for camping.

Plus, the foraging was fun... but I cannot find all the plants here, in Europe.... Most are only found in the US. Then again, a lot of the camping stuff is also not something one does here and so freely.

For the fun recipes, how well they were written (as in ingredients and some tips), the photographs, I give the book 3 stars.

Was this review helpful?

This is a great idea for a book!! Enjoying the great outdoors with a warming tipple. Even if you're not a rugged camper type, I think you could easily adapt these recipes for a garden 'camping' trip or just enjoy them in the warmth and comfort of your own kitchen.
Filled with old favourites and new tastes as well as twists on well known recipes, this is a treat for the tastebuds and the kitchen bookshelf!
If you can't decide between being Bear Grylls or being a bartender... why not have both?!!

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Camping and drinking? Yes please! These are great! Easy to follow recipes, especially for those of us that are more into "glamping"! (Check out Marshmallow Mule!) Obviously though, you can make any of these at home and don't have to be camping to enjoy these!

Cabin trips, hikes, patio parties, camping adventures—however you enjoy the great outdoors, it should be fun and easy. And so should the drinks! Simplicity, though, doesn't mean you're limited to a bottle and a mixer. With Camp Cocktails, you'll have a variety of options for simple and tasty drinks that are ready to go wherever you go.

Cool off after a hot day spent hiking through the woods with a Flask Boulevardier or the Northwoods Sidecar. Break in the campsite with a Grilled Orange Cobbler or the ultimate beer-based cocktail. Bundling up around the fire? Warm up with the Salted Nutella Hot Chocolate, the Penicillin Toddy, or a spiked hot apple cider. If you’re ready to go a step further, there’s even a chapter for using foraged ingredients.

Every recipe comes with easy-to-follow instructions, and many feature expert bartender tips and hacks. A variety of occasions are all here, from stargazing to boating. And to round it all out, there's a whole chapter dedicated to foraging/found ingredients, and integrating nature into your favorite cocktails.

Was this review helpful?

A useful guide to sophisticated drinking in the great outdoors. Vikre accompanies her innovative and approachable cocktail recipes with witty introductions and candid photos. The book is broken into sections by what type of camping or backpacking you're doing--whether it's a backcountry trek where you only have room for a flask, or car camping where you can bring a whole cooler of make-ahead frozen margaritas. There's even a chapter on drinking in the morning. A fun and helpful book.

Was this review helpful?

You do not need to camp to enjoy the creative cocktails in this book. If you are a camper all the more better because the recipes have been thoughtfully created with the needed practicality in mind. I like the range from classics with a twist to ones I have never thought of making or enjoying before. Looking forward to trying recipes and sharing this book with readers!

Was this review helpful?

Camp Cocktails is a handy guys for those of us who love the outdoors and our cocktail's.
Emilu Vikre talks you through basic of camping and cocktails and then basses recipes on how you are camping. Back pacing? There are some awesome flask cocktails that would be great for me. Car or Cabin campaigning? well, you can make fancier drinks!
The book has great photos! I love that about cook books. I love to see what the drinks should look like plus there are gorgeous pictures of nature that just get you in the mood.
My favorite section was the foraging area. The author talks you through the season and explains how to make syrups and the like of natural food around you. Each creation is followed b a perfectly paired cocktails.
This is an awesome book that I have already told one of my other fiends about.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

20 year old me would be all over this book. 30 year old me is thinking there is way too much work for a lot of these. One for sure requires 1 cup of sugar.

The drinks sound yummy and I’d try them at our cabin but for a camping trip I think I’ll just stick to wine in a bottle or canned drinks.

Was this review helpful?

Camp Cocktails is an intermediate cocktail recipe book where all recipes aim to be easily made while camping. Sign me up, right?! Vikre focuses on recipes that are tasty and appropriate, and can be easily brought back-packing, car camping and cabin camping! I’ve gone on a lot of camping ‘expeditions’ in my life, and just about all of them could have been made better with a few of these recipes.

Like Vikre, I have a love for cocktails and have been coerced into playing bartender for family and friends more times than I can count. Unlike Vikre, my concoctions are fly by the seat of your pants and lack any real knowledge outside of experimenting and adjusting. I think that the mark of a great cook-book is how inspired you feel to go forth and bake, cook, create. Camp Cocktails definitely inspired me. I found myself wishing that I wasn’t stuck in Vermont in the middle of winter. I can feel that camping itch starting to take hold and am already planning some trips for this summer!

Vikre included in depth discussion of the different tools most, if not all, cocktails require. She explained the differences between stirring and shaking, and when each one should be done. She explained how to pack your ingredients and your pre-made cocktails and explained in depth how to create each drink.

The only real issue I saw with the book wasn’t really an issue for me, but I read some reviews before sitting down to type this one, and a few people seemed to disagree that her cocktails were doable while camping. I think the real problem was that those people weren’t expecting an intermediate recipe book, and were hoping for more recipes like gin and tonic, or rum and coke, or rum punch. Vikre has clearly been camping a lot and I’m sure Camp Cocktails had a lot of recipe field taste testing. Basically, if you’re not the kind of person to make a fancy cocktail at home, chances are, you’re not going to be the kind of person who makes a fancy cocktail while camping. Own that and move on. Don’t begrudge the rest of us our grilled strawberry margaritas! Or our marshmallow shot glasses. Or our delicious and refreshing looking brambles!

As for me, until it’s time for camping, I’ll be sitting by my fireplace with some new cocktails.

Was this review helpful?

Camping and drinking, is there anything better? There are so many recipes to choose from. Between seasonal mixes to types of camping options. I already have plans to make Blueberry Maple Bourbon and the Grilled Orange Cobbler for my next trip. Plus there’s a photo for every drink. If you like camping, then you need this book before you’re next camping trip.

Was this review helpful?

What a great assortment of cocktails and creative solutions to take them on the road! I also loved the foraging recipes that give you ideas for how to use herbs and such that you might have access to outdoors (I definitely want to try the lilac cordial this spring!). A good blend of tips and recipes and fun asides.

Was this review helpful?

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. With an upcoming trip to the woods with my group of girlfriends, this is a must purchase for our trip. Filled with great ideas and easy cocktail ideas, I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book.

Was this review helpful?