For three years, Tokyo-based British journalist Nicholas Coldicott visited approximately four bars a night, conducting research on the Japanese capital’s premier drinks. Some 800 libations later, Coldicott, who has covered the region’s beverage scene for more than a decade, poured his learnings into a new book, Tokyo Cocktails (Cider Mill Press), a collection of more than 100 drink recipes enhanced with stories about the city’s individual cocktail history, traditions, and virtuosos. “In no other country do you encounter such extreme thinking about the science of technique,” Coldicott says of the bar culture he has encountered there. “This seems uniquely Japanese.”