Dan’s Cocktail Book Makes Home Drinks Actually Doable
Every now and then, someone puts out a book that actually feels like it was written for people who don’t own a gold bar cart, a glass rinsing station or eight different types of bitters. The Dan’s Cocktail Book is that rare gem, and it comes courtesy of the sharp and talented Lara Chan-Baker, who has somehow turned the chaos of the home drinks cabinet into a confident, clever and genuinely useful guide.
Rather than pretending your kitchen looks like a Fitzroy speakeasy, the book starts from a more accurate premise: most of us are working with a couple of bottles, a lime of questionable heritage and the faint memory of how to stir. Instead of performance bartending, it leans into the practical. These are drinks you’ll actually make, not just flick past while muttering “yeah, right.”
The 68 recipes were created with two heavy-hitters: Melbourne’s Matt Stirling from Caretaker’s Cottage and Three Horses, and Matt Linklater, formerly of Black Pearl and now at Zareh. If anyone knows how to make a drink sing without needing rare Swedish vermouth or a PhD in ice carving, it’s them. Lara’s editorship means there’s no fluff, no ego and no moment where you’re told to “simply forage kumquats from your orchard.”
The chapters read like the inside of your brain at drinks o’clock. There are two-ingredient fixes for when effort has clocked off. There are twists on classics for when you feel like upgrading without committing to homework. There are recipes for the moments when friends invite themselves over and expect to be impressed. And then there are those weekend projects that make procrastination feel productive.
Between the drinks, you get straight-talking tips: glassware that won’t bankrupt you, ice that won’t water down your pride, bar setups that don’t require a renovation and pairing ideas that extend beyond “something salty.” It quietly teaches without preaching and assumes you’re curious, not clueless.
It’s also a good-looking object. The pages have that punchy, confident energy that makes you want to crack open whatever bottle is closest and start pouring with intent. Whether it lives on your kitchen bench, coffee table or next to the NutriBullet you once used for frozen margaritas, it holds its own.
Lara has favourites, of course, because taste-testing sixty-eight cocktails is an occupational hazard she accepted with grace. Expect drinks that sound unlikely until they’re in the glass: chilli crisp martinis, raspberry sangria that’s almost entirely vibes, and citrus sours that play well with whatever booze you’ve got on hand.
The book is available exclusively through Dan Murphy’s, in-store and online. It’s priced at thirty dollars for My Dan’s members, which is cheaper than two cocktails in most Melbourne bars and comes without the humiliation of pretending you “love mezcal” to impress a bartender.
The real win is that it makes cocktail confidence feel achievable. No pomp, no preaching, no chaos disguised as craftsmanship. Just proper drinks, written by someone who understands that most of us are armed with curiosity, half a bottle of tequila and a group chat full of people who will absolutely judge us if the Negroni is wrong.
Lara Chan-Baker has delivered the cocktail book people will actually use. Finally, something worth clearing that sad little shelf above the toaster for.
Every now and then, someone puts out a book that actually feels like it was written for people who don’t own a gold bar cart, a glass rinsing station or eight different types of bitters. The Dan’s Cocktail Book is that rare gem, and it comes courtesy of the sharp and talented Lara Chan-Baker, who has somehow turned the chaos of the home drinks cabinet into a confident, clever and genuinely useful guide.
