The foreword is one page and, if I'm any sort of judge, practically perfect for the product. It states the intent and reasoning behind the project, and recounts Samuel Loveman's anecdote about Lovecraft's spiked drink. The second page is a copy of the drinking song from Lovecraft's "The Tomb" - again, exactly perfect for such an endeavor. The rest of the book, while entertaining and full of several tasty-sounding drink recipes, falls a little short however. Part of this is due to layout - slim as the pamphlet is, they could easily have crammed in at least 50% more drink recipes with no loss of readability. As it is, there are many pages with huge gaps of blank paper between brief, brief recipes.
The recipes themselves all have colorful Lovecraftian names like the Klarkash-Tonic, Zadok Allen's Zombie, Gin and Miskatonic, Cthulhu's Revenge, and Whately Wallbanger but aside from a few interesting exceptions, have nothing to do their supposed inspirations. For example, the recipe for a Chaugnar Faugn Frappe consists of:
On the other hand, the recipes are all fairly simple and can be made by even the most slightly competent bartender with a fully stocked bar, or a dedicated amateur willing to drop a little coin at the liquor store.Pack a Sherry glass with shaved ice, and fill with a cherry liquer, such as Peter Heering's.
The most interesting recipes have longer write-ups, detailing the hazy and exotic history of their historic cocktails - not all of which are from the Mythos, and several of which are basically illegal if made as directed. Case in point:
Ingredients in some of these other "exotic" cocktails include absinthe, opium, laudanum, and cantharides (the latter two in a recipe attributed to Aleister Crowley, "Kubla Khan #2").The Alhazred Cocktail
Abdul Ahazred, the "mad poet" of Sanaa, in Yemen, lived circa A.D. 700 to 738. After travels which took hi from the ruins of Babylon and Memphis to the great southern desert of Arabia - the Roba El Khaliyeh or "empty space" of the ancients, and where Alhazred claimed to have seen the fabulous Irem, City of Pillars, he settled in Damascus, where he penned one of the most tremendous occult volumes of all time, the Al Azif. This book was to see centuries of suppression, and yet survive in various translations. Even today it is rarely seen, the few copies being closely guarded.
It was recorded by Ebon Khallikan, Alhazred's twelfth century biographer, that during the writing of the Azif, Alhazred was observed to try to relax at times by drinking a cup of liquor laced with oil of hashish. The only liquor available at the time would have been a species of rum, which had been invented in Asia before the time of Jesus.
2 jiggers Demerrara Rum (or other dark rum)
2 to 5 drops hashish oil (Arabian, if available) according to strength desired
Drip the oil into the rum and stir carefully. Add slice of lime. If desired, ice could be added, or a mixer. Abdul undoubtedly took his neat.
The "Compleat Lovecraftian Bar Guide" ends on page 13 with a few words of wisdom, including "If you find yourself able to translate the Duriac script of Al Azif, you've had enough."
