EDGE Interview: Mix, Mingle, and Channel Your Inner Carrie. Thea Engst Dishes On Her Official SATC Cocktail Collection

New York City’s most fashionable, hilarious, and iconic ladies have put together a cocktail book of all their favorite drinks. This stylish collection brings the essence of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda to life, one Cosmo, ahem, cocktail, at a time. Get transported from your home to glitzy parties and restaurants in Manhattan through these step-by-step recipes. Each drink is expertly curated to fit Sex and the City’s chic spirit. From the classic martini to more inventive, colorful libations, there is a recipe for every character and key scene (and it includes more than a dozen drinks ordered by name on the show). With spirit-free and low-abv options, there’s something for every taste as well. Get inspired by the gorgeous photographs of finished cocktails and easy-to-follow directions. Whether you’re hosting a high-profile gathering or spending a cozy night in for a watch party, these drinks are sure to bring a touch of the wit and glamour Sex and the City is famous for straight to your bar cart.

Thea is an award-winning author, copywriter, poet, and bartender. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, VinePair, The Boston Globe, Boston.com, Eater, and The Lowell Sun. She loves going out with her friends and cozying up with a scary movie and her cat Nox.

To learn more about the inspiration behind this chic collection—and how Thea brought Manhattan’s most iconic ladies to life through cocktails—we sat down for a spirited conversation.

EDGE: What inspired you to create a cocktail book based on Sex and the City?

TE: I grew up a big fan. I remember my older sister used to get the DVDs for Christmas in those pretty pink, slightly shimmery packages. We would hover over her laptop to watch them after my parents went to bed. I've been watching the show since I was a kid and continued to rewatch it into adulthood. What I’ve always loved about Sex and the City is how I have viewed it in different phases of my life. I remember watching it as a kid and thinking, “Oh my God, Carrie, stop. What are you doing?” And not liking Miranda and having no sympathy for Charlotte. Then I watched it a couple of years later, having grown a little older, and I have much more sympathy and empathy for these women, because they're just doing the best they can, and I could identify with them more. I have always loved how human they are. The reason I was able to write this book was that I had an editor who had previously worked at another publishing house, where I'd written books with her before she moved to a new one. She reached out to tell me that they were looking for someone to write this book, and would I like to pitch for it? And then she asked, “Did you ever watch Sex and the City? And I said, once or twice, Do you mean this year? I was fortunate to already have that connection. As soon as Eileen reached out to me, I thought I could do this. I immediately put together a pitch with three cocktails. The hardest part was choosing what inspired those three drinks, because I had so many ideas already. It was really years of prep (by watching the show on repeat) and then some good luck.

EDGE: Did you rewatch the series for inspiration?

TE: Absolutely. I watched it from beginning to end as I was outlining the book. And then while I was making the drinks, I watched it again. Throughout the process, I had it on in the background as I worked and would reference certain episodes to get something perfectly right or go back to a specific episode because that's what I wanted the drink to be about. I really wanted to make sure that all the references were on point.

EDGE: Were there any specific episodes or scenes from the show that directly influenced certain recipes?

TE: The drinks are for the characters, moments, episodes, and their personalities. Some of the drinks mentioned in the book were mentioned in the show. In season two, Stanford and Carrie are out for drinks, and they place that they are at  has a new cocktail called a “Tartini.” Carrie gets a little drunk, and Stanford says, “Come with me, you little Tartini, or something adorable like that to get her home. So, I made my own Tartini. Other than that, it's a lot of references to the characters and their personalities in a specific episode or moment that stuck with me.

EDGE: How did you balance classic cocktails with more inventive or modern twists in the book?

TE: I think that there are so many great classics, and they're classics for a reason. They're good because they have great proportions and a balanced flavor. When I riff on a classic, I may introduce a new flavor, such as a hibiscus-infused vodka, for example, but I play with Gimlet proportions because those proportions work well. A lot of my drinks are inspired by a classic, and I love doing some fun tweaks on them. And, of course, with Sex and the City, I also wanted them to be pretty and fabulous, because these women are fabulous. Additionally, I wanted the garnishes to be fun, but not so elaborate that they're impossible to recreate at home. Some of the drinks may require a unique tool or ingredient that not everyone has, but many of them utilize creative and fun ingredients that can be found in any grocery store.

EDGE: You’ve written other themed cocktail books, including Spirits of the Tarot—how does this book differ in tone and approach?

TE: This has a very playful and fun tone, much like the comedy of Sex and the City, with its classic wit and innuendos. Not that any of the others weren't fun to write, but I came at this with a totally different approach. The intro I wrote, I tried really hard to be in the voice of Carrie as if she were sitting by her window and chain-smoking while typing out her weekly column. For me, this was fun because I was able to be inspired by these characters and adopt a completely new tone when creating the cocktails. My approach was the same, but with wildly different content, and it was just a blast to write. 

EDGE: Which character do you relate to most and why?

TE: I have thought about this question a lot. I believe that I am Carrie because we are both writers. We both tend to be the silly comedic relief in the friend group, always trying to make our friends smile and laugh, but we also both know when to be serious and supportive. We know when to step in, and I also have terrible taste in men. 

EDGE: If your cocktail shaker could talk, what secrets would it spill?

TE: That this girl drinks a lot of bourbon and Manhattans. I think it would be my cocktail glasses spilling the secrets instead of my shaker. 

EDGE: Brunch is sacred in queer culture—from this book, what would be the ultimate brunch cocktail?

TE: Great question. I have a drink inspired by Elizabeth Taylor for Charlotte, made with Empress gin. It's like purple because they said her eyes were so blue that they sometimes looked violet. I think that would be a lovely drink to have at brunch, with a little effervescence from the bubbles and a light touch. Personally, I love a gin cocktail. I think it's sort of like a Mimosa 2.0.

EDGE: What do you hope that the reader takes away? 

SD: What I love about Sex and the City is that those of us who were watching it live in 2003, or watched it on our sister's DVDs, or who are now streaming it on Netflix, it continues to be introduced to a whole new generation. It continues because the characters are so relatable, and we can all identify with different aspects of them, allowing us to grow alongside them. The storylines of these characters will live on for a very long time. Part of their longevity is that they enjoy having fun, goofing around, and joking a lot. This book is lighthearted. It retells their stories through a beverage, which I think is really cool, and it's never been done before. This is the only official Sex and the City cocktail book out there. I would like the readers to know that this is my way of retelling Sex and the City through cocktails, and I hope that they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Sex and the City Cocktails is available now wherever books are sold – visit www.theaengst.com for more details about the book and Thea.