freezer door cocktails: 75 cocktails that are ready when you are

Enjoy readymade cocktails whenever you want with this collection of batch drink recipes made directly in the liquor bottle and stored on your freezer door.

There is a time and a place pulling out shakers and stirrers and strainers and taking time to assemble the perfect cocktail. But sometimes, what you really want is a great drink, served immediately.

For those times, there are Freezer Door Cocktails--batch cocktails of your favorite drinks that are built directly in the bottle and kept on your freezer door to be ready when you are.

The premise couldn’t be simpler: Pour off enough of a standard liquor bottle to create just enough space to add the other ingredients needed to produce a full bottle of your desired cocktail. Store the bottle in the freezer and you have chilled cocktails ready whenever the mood strikes. That means a Negroni in hand before you even have a chance to loosen your tie or take off your heels.

This fun, creative collection of 75 ready-to-pour beverages will walk readers through making freezer door versions of their favorite cocktails, from Negronis, Margaritas and Manhattans to Cosmopolitans, Espresso Martinis and Gin & Tonics. Organized by primary liquor, Freezer Door Cocktails also covers the science behind the simplicity, including how the freezing point of alcohol changes based on volume of water, juice, and/or sweetener added, as well as how to use this information to craft your own recipes.

J.M. Hirsch is a James Beard Award-winning food, drink, and travel writer. He is editorial director of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, a Boston-based food media company with a popular print magazine, award-winning cookbooks and public television and radio shows that reach millions of viewers and listeners. His previous cookbooks include Pour Me Another; Shake Strain Done; High Flavor, Low Labor; and Beating the Lunchbox Blues. He is the former national food editor for The Associated Press and lives in New Hampshire with his son, husband and two cats.