With
25+ years of experience, working all types
of bars (in America), I have found that I make the same drinks
over & over & over again. It seems that the only people
who order the wild & crazy drinks are under the age of 25.
Over 25, people tend to order beer, wine, or a favorite cocktail.
There are some exceptions: 1)
some establishments carry their own specialty
menus, 2) bartenders
have their own specialty drinks, 3)
the popularity of a drink at the time, 4)
and some people like to try something new & hip while celebrating
a special occasion or while on vacation. There is also a geographic
issue.
First you need to know some drink-making terminology.
You will find terminology, measures, lingo, and more
here.
The
Drink Families
Pretty
much, all drinks fall under these categories. All other drinks
are usually just spin-offs from these drinks. The drink families
are Juicy, Creamy, Sour, Tropical, Hot, Shots, Classic, Highballs,
Stick, and Misc. Drinks.
Drink Making Tips
| Never
fill a cocktail to the brim.
Somewhere between 1/4” and 1/2” from the rim is
proper. You need that extra room for travel and melting. |
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Always
serve a cocktail on a beverage napkin to absorb
the condensation.
Anytime
an ingredient is mentioned,
know that the ideal is to use the highest possible quality of
that ingredient. Of course, when you work for an establishment
you have to use what they provide, but at home parties and handmade
cocktail bars you can use the best.
.
Know
that some drinks have geographical differences
in measures and ingredients slightly vary. This is nothing to
have a fight over. Just make it the way your boss wants you to
or agree with the other bartenders so that it’s made consistently.
But ultimately, it should be made the way a guest prefers.
| Most
of society
knows nothing about cocktails except from what they see and
hear on TV and the movies, so when the opportunity arises
take the time to educate them without an attitude. |
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If
possible,
always place a guest's glass on the cocktail napkin in front
of them while you are making their drink. This presentation
makes a little show for them and actually makes more sense
rather to make the drink in the well and then try to carry
the drink down to them. Of course you wouldn’t make
a Bourbon & Coke this way, but shooters, layered
drinks, Martinis, Margaritas, wine and the like are excellent
to present this way. You’ll discover that it’s
much more efficient as well. |
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If
possible, preheat coffee glasses
with hot water for a few seconds before making a coffee drink. |
Know
that some establishments have funny rules.
For example, some won’t allow you to hold a glass and walk
to the bottle on the back bar then pour. They want you to keep
the glass on the bar mat, walk to the bottle, take it to the glass,
and walk the bottle back. However they seem to allow you to walk
with a shaker tin. But all establishments are different. The weirdest
was when I wasn’t allowed to write anything on a cocktail
napkin or it was grounds for termination.
Some
establishments require you use a jigger to
make all your drinks. The best way to hold the jigger is with
the jigger touching or very near the rim of the glass. This way
you can fill and dump. If you are holding the jigger with your
left hand then you’ll find it works easier if you wrap your
right (hand holding the bottle) around the glass/glasses meeting
the jigger. Filling your jigger away from the drink and then carrying
it over to the drink makes no sense and looks silly.
| When
you get several orders
at once, the first thing you should do is grab your glassware,
ice them (if needed), and set them in order on the bar mat
in front of your well. This way, if you forget what you’re
making, then all you have to do is glance at the glassware
and 9 times out of 10 you’ll remember. |
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Most
bartenders are confused when it comes to using straws.
If a drink has one spirit on the rocks (or two spirits without
a mixer like a Rusty Nail) then it gets one straw
to stir the drink, helping the ice melt. It’s then sipped
from the rim of the glass. If you work at a high-end bar, then
cocktail stir sticks are used. (The other bars just use
a cocktail straw because they don’t want to pay the extra
money for stir sticks.) Drinks with mixers served in short highballs
or old-fashioned glasses get two cocktail straws. They
are used for stirring and also sipping. Trying to sip a drink
through one straw is frustrating. The extra straw allows more
of the drink to enter your mouth. However, the majority of men
will stir then set the straws on the bar because it seems unmanly
to sip through a straw. If I’m making
the drink right in front of a man I gently roll the drink
and give it to them without the straw. They like it. Tall
drinks of course, get drinking straws. High-end bars will have
tall thin cocktail straws called Collins straws (meant to be used
for drinks served in Collins glasses). And if you just have normal
sized drinking straws at your bar then you should use two for
frozen and blended drinks unless you just enjoy watching guest’s
faces turn blue. Or have fat straws.
You
should also know a secret that most nightclubs have been practicing
for years; walk into any nightclub/danceclub and I bet you that
they have fat straws. Even for the short drinks! The theory is
that people drink faster out of fat straws therefore more drinks
are ordered and the club makes more money. It works.
Another
way straws are used are is to mark drinks.
Let’s say you are making drinks for a server and she has
ordered a coke and a diet coke and you have to walk away for some
reason. How will the server know which is which? One way is to
stick a small cocktail straw in one of them to show which is which.
You also have to come up with other marking methods for other
drinks like a Vodka Tonic and a Gin & Tonic sitting next to
each other. Once your system is established then you can keep
marking drinks and the server will know what they are. Another
way is to line up the drinks in the exact order given so all they
have to do is follow the order.
When
working with servers, know that they are
usually responsible for garnishing their own drinks.
Alcohol portions
normally add up to 2 ounces or less. It’s very rare for
drinks to contain more than that.
When
sweet-n-sour mix is mentioned
in a recipe it means the sweet-n-sour mix that your bar provides,
but the best is freshly
made sweet-n-sour mix. When you look at other drink recipe
books you’ll see that recipes call for fresh squeezed lemon
or limejuice and a spoon of sugar. This is sweet-n-sour mix. The
water from the melting ice or mixer provides the water to mix
with the sugar and lime making sweet-n-sour mix.
When
guests ask for cream they mean half &
half. Half & half is what most bars stock and its namederives
from its contents: half cream and half milk.
Never
shake carbonated mixers,
unless you enjoy mini explosions.
If a draft beer has been sitting
long enough for the head to go down, secretly stick in a straw
and swirl it around to beat the head back up before serving.
When
a guest lays a napkin on top of their drink
it means that they will be returning.
When you look at recipe sites
and books, sometimes they give instructions in parts. This is
confusing to some people when it says add one part this and one
part that. What is a part? Well, it’s simply that.
It’s an equally divided part of the whole. Let’s say
that your recipe says, mix together one part vodka, one part
orange juice and one part cranberry juice. That’s three
parts, right? You’re going to mix equal parts of all those
ingredients together. If that didn’t click with you, then
you’re probably asking yourself, how much is one of
those parts? Imagine that you have set these items side by
side on a table; shot glass, pint glass, flower vase, and trash
can. Got the image? Okay, now imagine dividing each of
those objects in thirds (3 parts). Vodka would be poured in 1/3
of the way up, the orange juice would be poured up the imaginary
2/3 line, and the cranberry would fill in the last top 1/3. When
you’re dealing in parts, just know that each part is equal
no matter what size container you are talking about.
| Experienced
and professional bartenders
always grab and pour a bottle by the upper neck. Many times
they wrap a finger around the pour spout in case it slips
out. You will be laughed at if you grab it by the body. It’s
the first sign that you don’t know what you are doing. |
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Here's an image of a bartender holding the bottle incorrectly...or
rather unprofessionally. |
If
you want to learn these top drinks that all bartenders should
know then I suggest buying a very portable
pocket-sized address book that has alphabetical tabs. Simply
go through these drink recipes and start filling up your
book. Study them at your own pace, because just like anything
else in life, we learn through repetition. Add new drinks
as time goes by. Later, when and if you ever work behind
a bar, you can always feel confident that you have these
recipes at any moment right in your pocket.
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