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[ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES] Retsepty kokteilei i napitki inostrannykh marok (posobie dlia rabotnikov restoranov sudov zagranplavaniia) [i.e. Recipes of Cocktails and Foreign Label Drinks (Manual for Restaurant Employees of International Ocean Liners)].

Dubner, G., Zippa, L.

Item #2491

Moscow, 1966. 164 pp. 20,5×14 cm. In original cardboards. Bumped, ink signature on front flyleaf, small tear of front endpaper, otherwise mint.

First edition. One of 1000 copies. Very rare.
An interesting book that features interaction of Soviet and Western cultures through alcoholic drinks during the Cold War. It could be considered the earliest Soviet manual on mixing hard drinks. Usually, only party officials could get into international cruises. To take a trip, Soviet people needed to obtain two visas: entry and exit. The first one is a regular case. The exit visa was an invention of the USSR. Regional authorities decided whether a person was worthy to leave the country. A destination might be less or more exotic. Since the early 1960s, the USSR made every possible effort expanding its influence on the African continent. Thus, Soviet tourist cruises and flights to Africa became one of the tools of Soviet international policy. After WWII, the Soviet Maritime Passenger Fleet was enlarged with ocean liners received as reparations: Berlin, Patria, Hansa, etc. Some of them started routes from Odesa, the only Soviet international port in the Black Sea. Frequently, Soviet cruise ships were rented for foreign tourists by international companies. In such cases, the service was oriented to foreigners and Soviet people weren’t allowed to join them.
This edition was commissioned by the Black Sea Shipping Company. It was compiled for restaurant employees hired for international routes of foreigners. A half of the book lists common cocktail recipes. Each one consists of an English or French name, its Russian transliteration, proportions of ingredients and general instructions on how to mix them and decorate a beverage. The manual includes foreign alcoholic and soft drinks, cigarettes: American of various sizes, British, French and Dutch, English-French-Russian dictionary and index. In the Soviet Union, the first cocktail bar of foreign drinks and jazz music had opened on Tverskaia street during World War II. It was quite popular despite high prices. In fact, it was supervised by NKVD looking for non-socialist elements and the place served them well. In the early 1950s, the power changed and the bar was closed. In the late 1950s, a wide-scale anti-alcohol campaign was started, meanwhile currency bars for foreigners began to be created in hotels after the VI World Festival of Youth and Students (1957). At that time Soviet cocktails weren’t impressive in variety. According to memoirs of the first Soviet bartender Alexander Kudriavtsev, recipes might be found in foreign magazines, received from clients or even invented on the fly. In particular, his book “Technique of Mixing Drinks” was published in 1978. Since the 1970s, bars were founded across the Soviet Union, yet hard liquors of private distillation remained the most common in rural.

Worldcat doesn’t track this edition.

Price: $450.00