Picture this: it’s a Friday night, and you’ve decided to try your hand at mixing your own cocktails. You settle on something called a Vieux Carré — a classic cocktail that originated in New Orleans — but as you scan the ingredient list, you realize that you need four different bottles of liquor and two bottles of bitters. Your heart sinks: another cocktail dream bites the dust.

So what do you do when you love cocktails, but don’t want to spend years and lots of moola building up a sizable liquor collection? Enter Maggie Hoffman’s lifesaver of a cocktail recipe book, “The One-Bottle Cocktail,” out today. Here are five reasons why it needs to be on your bookshelf, pronto.

1. Author Maggie Hoffman has some serious cocktail cred.

I’ve actually been following Hoffman’s food and drink writing for a while now, so when the opportunity arose to review her new book of drink recipes, “The One-Bottle Cocktail,” I jumped at the chance.

Not only has Hoffman written about cocktails and spirits for the likes of Saveur and Food & Wine, she founded the drinks section of Serious Eats. She also served as managing editor for the James Beard Award-winning site. Not too shabby, eh?

On top of that, Hoffman’s collection of recipes in “The One-Bottle Cocktail” are sourced from top bartenders around the country, including two of my favorites: Arnaud Dissais at Mace and Sother Teague of Amor y Amargo (both in New York City). They’ve managed to create drinks that have a great depth of flavor despite only using one spirit.

2. Each drink only requires one bottle of liquor. (Really.)

My friends are often afflicted with what I’d like to call, for lack of a better term, “Sad Cocktail Face.” It’s a look I know all too well: the deflated, wistful expression you make when you taste a mouthwatering cocktail and ask what’s in it, only to find that it’s fifteen esoteric ingredients that you can’t find anywhere.

I mean, even I find myself going, orgeat? Lillet Blanc? Say what?! I don’t have those on hand, and we’ve got bottles of Cynar and Becherovka on our shelves.

One of the best things about “The One-Bottle Cocktail” is you’re not going to have to drop, say, $60 on a bottle of green chartreuse or $35 on a set of bitters to make these drinks. (Though if you want to, just to add to your collection for another day, we won’t judge.) Every drink in this book uses either vodka, gin, tequila, mezcal, rum, brandy, pisco, or whiskey — in other words, bottles of liquor that are easy to find in your local store.

Click here to purchase the book! ↓↓

3. Odds are, you have all or most of the ingredients you need to make these drinks right in your fridge.

My favorite cocktail to make at home, the Gold Rush, uses three ingredients: bourbon, lemon, and honey. Part of the reason it’s so easy to make for us is that we always have the latter two ingredients on hand for other dishes and drinks. So a major appeal of “The One-Bottle Cocktail” is that the drink recipes call for items like fruit or fresh herbs — things that you’re likely already stocked up on.

Case in point: I decided to make two cocktails from Hoffman’s book and had nearly every item in each recipe. The one thing I had to buy was plain Greek yogurt, but only because I keep vanilla and coffee-flavored Greek yogurt in my fridge. All in all, I spent roughly $5 to make two drinks on a Friday night. Win!

4. There’s a handful of extra goodies, too.

I have a gut feeling for what drinks work well during certain times of year, but Hoffman helpfully takes the guesswork out of it by providing a chart of “Drinks By Season and Occasion” at the end of the book. (I love that there’s a whole list of cocktails that would be good for Cinco de Mayo. Bring on the tequila and mezcal!)

There’s also a “Bonus Drinks” page at the end of each chapter that suggests recipes elsewhere in the book that would work well with that spirit. For example, the “Near Miss” cocktail (recipe later in this post) calls for bourbon, but according to the “Bonus Drinks” page in the “Gin” section, you can substitute gin for bourbon if that’s what you fancy.

5. The cocktails are @#$!ing delicious.

Look, I have a really high bar when it comes to tasty cocktails — even those I can make at home. So I asked Hoffman for some of her favorites from the “Gin” and “Whiskey” sections of the book, since those are the two spirits most commonly imbibed by our circle of friends. I narrowed down her shortlist to two cocktails: “Slippery When Wet” for gin and “Near Miss” for whiskey.

Mr. Five O’Clock and I were dubious about using Greek yogurt in a cocktail (lest it taste like some sort of Jamba Juice smoothie), but it provided a tangy and refreshing taste in the “Slippery When Wet” cocktail. Likewise, the “Near Miss” cocktail was well balanced, and the grapefruit twists kicked it up a notch. However, be careful with the size of your lemons in this cocktail — we had large and small lemons, and as you might imagine, larger wedges make for a more citrusy drink (so adjust to your taste buds).

Lucky for you, dear reader, I’ve been allowed to share these delectable recipes so you can get a taste of what’s in the book. Warning: boozy deliciousness ahead.

Slippery When Wet

Makes 1 drink

From Maggie Hoffman: I adore this fragrant and refreshing strawberry-gin drink, created by Shannon Tebay Sidle of New York’s Slowly Shirley and Death & Co. The secret ingredient is a dollop of unsweetened Greek yogurt, which gives the cocktail a tangy flavor and subtly creamy texture. The final result isn’t sweet or smoothie-like; this is definitely still a cocktail. A sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper highlights the gin’s herbal character, but I also like this drink with grassy blanco tequila or a full-bodied aged rum. If your fridge doesn’t dispense crushed ice, fill a freezer bag with cubes, wrap them in a dish towel, and go wild with a meat tenderizer or rolling pin. 

1 large or 2 small ripe strawberries, halved
¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce undiluted honey
2 ounces gin
1 heaping teaspoon plain Greek yogurt

GARNISH: freshly ground black pepper and a vertical slice of strawberry

Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and honey in a cocktail shaker and muddle until well broken up. Add gin and Greek yogurt and fill shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled, about 15 seconds. Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice, then double-strain cocktail into it. Grind black pepper on top and garnish with the strawberry slice.

Near Miss

Makes 1 drink

From Maggie Hoffman: Benjamin Schiller of The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group in Chicago counters the simple sweetness of fresh raspberries and mint with the power of the peel: both lemon and grapefruit peels, to be exact. Muddling half a lemon and two swaths of grapefruit brings out their aromatic oils and a little bitterness, which keeps this juicy, fruity whiskey cooler in balance. The result is a gorgeous magenta drink that wakes up your taste buds and keeps your mouth watering.

½ lemon, cut into 3 wedges
7 ripe raspberries
¾ ounce 1:1 simple syrup (recipe follows)
2 grapefruit twists
2 ounces bourbon
Leaves from 1 sprig mint
2 ounces chilled club soda

GARNISH: mint sprig

Combine lemon wedges, raspberries, simple syrup, and grapefruit twists in a cocktail shaker and muddle until raspberries are well broken up. Add bourbon and mint and fill with ice. Shake until very well chilled, about 15 seconds. Double-strain into an ice-filled collins glass, pour the club soda down the side of the glass, and give it a brief, gentle stir. Garnish with a mint sprig.

SIMPLE SYRUP: IT’S SIMPLE

Many folks are intimidated by the idea of simple syrup. It’s time to get over our fears: no one wants a grainy mouthful of sugar in their drink. Plus, making simple syrup is actually crazy easy, especially if you happen to have a resealable jar (such as a mason jar) around. For 1:1 simple syrup, add equal parts sugar and hot water, seal, and shake until dissolved. Let cool before using and store for up to several weeks in the fridge. For 2:1 simple syrup, mix two parts sugar to one part hot water and proceed as above. Easy-peasy.

Your simple syrup needn’t be so basic, though; many grocery stores offer entire shelves of different types of sugar. Less-processed cane, turbinado, and demerara are a few great ways to add a touch more complexity to your drinks.

Click here to purchase the book! ↓↓

Don’t Forget to Stock Up on Cocktail Gear!

Ready to go and make these cocktails? Check out these items that every home bartender needs.

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Reprinted with permission from The One-Bottle Cocktail: More than 80 Recipes with Fresh Ingredients and a Single Spirit by Maggie Hoffman, copyright © 2018. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

I received a free advanced digital copy of “The One-Bottle Cocktail” in exchange for an honest review.