Menno-Nightcaps
Cocktails Inspired by that Odd Ethno-Religious Group You Keep Mistaking for the Amish, Quakers or Mormons
About the Book
A satirical cocktail book featuring seventy-seven cocktail recipes accompanied by arcane trivia on Mennonite history, faith, and cultural practices.
At last, you think, a book of cocktails that pairs punny drinks with Mennonite history! Yes, cocktail enthusiast and author of the popular Drunken Mennonite blog Sherri Klassen is here to bring some Low German love to your bar cart. Drinks like Brandy Anabaptist, Migratarita, Thrift Store Sour, and Pimm’s Cape Dress are served up with arcane trivia on Mennonite history, faith, and cultural practices.
Arranged by theme, the book opens with drinks inspired by the Anabaptists of sixteenth-century Europe (Bloody Martyr, anyone?), before moving on to religious beliefs and practices (a little like going to a bar after class in Seminary, but without actually going to class). The third chapter toasts the Mennonite history of migration (Old Piña Colony), and the fourth is all about the trappings of Mennonite cultural identity (Singalong Sling).
With seventy-seven recipes, ripping satire, comical illustrations, a cocktails-to-mocktails chapter for the teetotallers, and instructions on scaling up for barn-raisings and funerals, it’s just the thing for the Mennonite, Menno-adjacent, or merely Menno-curious home mixologist.
Reviews
“This book is hilarious. From the introduction to the acknowledgements, it’s filled with a cordial wit that often made me laugh out loud… In contrast to the humorous tone, the cocktails themselves are decidedly serious… Most often they are interesting variations on classic mixed drinks, with just one or two variations that make them uniquely interesting.” —Country Living Magazine
“As a good Mennonite, I cannot publicly admit to tasting these cocktail recipes myself, but I fully acknowledge this work as a delightful collection that is a pleasure to read. S. L. Klassen has given us the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book of the Mennonite world.” —Andrew Unger, author of The Daily Bonnet and Once Removed
“Seventy-seven recipes, presented with comical illustrations, are as informative as they are hilarious”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Likely the world’s very first Mennonite cocktail book.” —Mennotoba
“With lots of wit and satire, Sherri Klassen of the Drunken Mennonite blog has put together 77 cocktail recipes with amusing connections to Mennonite history, faith and culture.” —Canadian Mennonite
“Klassen mixes puns with Anabaptist history to present alcoholic (and nonalcoholic) odes to theological and predominantly European-based ethnic cultural traditions. Recipes are paired with light-hearted reflections on thrift, schisms, guilt, theology, shunning, migration, judgment and even executions.” —Anabaptist World
“Suitable for anyone with a sense of humour.” —Culinary Historians of Canada