The ins and outs of cocktails

Some of the material in The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails is relatively heavy going

Do you know what a “boomerang” means, in bar terms?

Before I read The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich with help from Noah Rothbaum, I didn’t. Now I do, and the information has cheered me up considerably.

A boomerang is a drink sent by a bartender in one bar to a bartender in another. The glass will be sealed with cling wrap and, because the practice is more or less illegal, tucked into a paper bag or go-box. Customers act as couriers. The name derives from the fact that if you send a nice drink