Confinement Cocktails Book Released in Luxembourg

A new English-language book dedicated to cocktails has been published in Luxembourg.

Daniel Eischen and Françoise Reuter recently announced their first publishing project, a cocktail book entirely written and designed in Luxembourg, called Confinement Cocktails: Great Cocktails and the Stories They Tell.

The book is published in English by Op der Lay Sàrl and is now available in bookstores in Luxembourg, as well as online. The official book release party took place at Maya Bar in Luxembourg-Ville last week.

Through a collection of 48 original and adapted cocktail recipes, accompanied by anecdotes and practical tips, Confinement Cocktails aims to immerse readers "in a world of exploration and sensory delights". The idea emerged during the COVID-19 lockdown periods in 2020. The book content also draws from the authors' experiences gathered over years of global bar-hopping and talking to professional mixologists, from Shanghai to Chicago, from Vancouver to Buenos Aires, with an appreciation for Luxembourg's own bar scene. This book promises to equip readers with the "essential knowledge and skills to craft delicious cocktails and unleash their own creativity in mixology".

Confinement Cocktails presents examples from various cocktail families and variations, from negronis to martinis, from "old fashioned" to "contemporary" and "low on alcohol" cocktails, among others. Noteworthy examples include the aptly named "Quarantini" and "Penicillium".

Speaking to Chronicle.lu about this new book and its goal, Françoise Reuter explained: "Cocktail books very often face the same problem as cooking books: [either] the recipes are too basic and boring or they are too complex and out of reach for most people. We tried to create a cocktail book that represents a real exploration for people. We will not tell you how to mix coke and rum but we will neither force you to source ingredients from the other side of the world or use highly complex distillation techniques. We propose cocktail recipes that are accessible to everybody without being too basic. All cocktails have a story, allow for a great experience of taste and can be used as a template to create your own concoctions. We would like to encourage people to explore mixology as they do for cooking."

Elaborating on the reason and meaning behind this book, Daniel Eischen added: "I've been previously asked which one of the 48 cocktail recipes I liked the most and I answered that it was as with your children, you like all of them. In this case, the question is why. I think because of the very personal story Françoise and myself have with each and every one of the cocktails. We discovered them when travelling around the world or when exploring cocktail books. We then personalised them to our taste and for many came up with totally different recipes that reflected our own preferences, but also the ones of the many friends with whom we had the pleasure to share them over the last years. Every cocktail has a story and we invite people to write their own story when re-creating or adapting our recipes. It is a very personal journey."

Françoise Reuter has worked as a strategic marketing consultant and business manager for a Luxembourg group of advertising agencies since the early 2000s; Daniel Eischen is the co-founder of two Luxembourg advertising and marketing agencies, and has chaired various business federations (including the British Chamber of Commerce for Luxembourg from 2019 to 2023).