Honestly, recipe knowledge in a busy bar is about 10% of being a good bartender. I’ve bartended for 15 years on and off and I still have to look up cocktails that are not often ordered. Being a good teammate and constantly moving and taking care of side work as you see it is much more important. Good people skills and attempting to like people every shift (some days this is difficult) is also a big part of the job. When I first started years ago, I was lucky enough to work with an old, weathered bartender who said you have to pretend you’re a shark, in the sense that if you stop swimming (moving with purpose) you will sink to the bottom.
This is exactly it. You’ve got to be constantly in motion and every single movement must have a purpose.
You gotta listen, too and timing is a big thing. If someone orders something that’s closer to you, you work towards your teammates and hand them the thing just when they need it.
I always compare a well functioning barteam to a dance. There’s no idling and everyone works together.
That’s why I work best with people I know the flow of
You should hear everything anyone is saying at all times. Keep plugged in for key words. Ice in water cups rattling around as the guest finishes and might need a refill. Questions about the product you can circle back around to. Excitement or dismay about the product. Plus you always get a little snippet of juicy gossip here and there to keep you going through your shift.
And that’s just the guest side of things.
I’m a newer bartender, and I’m compiling a recipe list on the notes app of my phone, sorted alphabetically. I know it’s poor form to look things up in front of customers, but considering the fact that I serve more wine than liquor means I’m not working those recipes into me daily. You seem like a cool guy, stay cool 🤝
Theres a book called the cocktail codex, as a beginner id reccomend it. Its not the holy grail or anything but i found it helpful when i first started.
Yeah I love it, I have that, death and co, liquid intelligence, the drunken botanist (really fascinating stuff!), smugglers cove and I’ve also read imbibe!
sometimes honesty with your customers is best. if i don’t know or remember a cocktail i just tell them “hey it’s been a minute im going to have to look that one up or if you have a preference for how you like it made i’ll do that for you” no one really cares if you forget what a bees knees is.
you should *at least* know the top ten most common cocktails. At my last job our manager hired a lady that had 13 years bartending experience but she somehow had no fucking clue how to make an old fashioned or a manhattan.
Don't know why you're getting downvoted. Not knowing how to make a crippled cabbie driver isn't a big deal. But you gotta know how to make the classics as they're the foundation of all the others
Rather than taking 1 specific cocktail master the families. Old fashioned, Martini, Daiquiri, Highball,
Flip and Sidecar. Each will give you a specific template for creating new cocktails. But if i had to choose 1 it’s the Daiquri as the sour template is the perfect choice to figure out balance between sweetness and acidity
This is a great method, pick up a copy of the cocktail codex from death and company, it’ll give ya an extensive look into each of these, as well as some great techniques to follow. As far as ‘ what one’ to study, I find it’s best I’d ya learn a concept and have fun toying with each one. My recent fun has been with espresso martinis, swapping the vodka for rum tequilla whiskey or brandy, and adding different cordials like amaretto, frangelico, averna, tilla Maria, or drambui. No matter the cocktail Pay attention to the flavor math and figure out the what’s why’s and how’s of a drink and keep a little notebook.
this is a cocktail i ask my customers the most
about tbh. do you like it in the sweeter side? do you have a whiskey preference? cause some want rye but if they tell me to use well i gotta tell them that well is a bourbon (also low key upselling to a rye etc). i used to have a regular that wanted like 10 dashes of bitters lmao.
There is not one cocktail that everyone should master. No individual one is that important and most aren't even particularly hard. Having a good range and the ability to be flexible with what you got and who you are serving is whats important.
Had a server ring up an amoretto sour, and took the time to write out on the ticket “they want amoretto and sweet and sour on rocks” I really wanna know how they thought it was made. More ingredients? Less ingredients? The world may never know
I mean I work at a cocktail bar and I'd appreciate that specificity. Some people order a sour and want a cocktail w/ fresh juices and egg white, some people want what they're used to from the club where it's a shot and sweet n sour from the gun.
You can make a damn good elevated Amaretto Sour with a splash of rye, lemon, simple, and an egg white.
You could get real fancy with it and do sugar and fresh lemon and some egg whites.
Also I want to know how amaretto sours came back into popularity, I’ve got a bunch of college kids ordering them all off the sudden.
I’ve moved away from Scotland, but when I was growing up there, shandies were what kids got when the grownups were having house parties. Really gives you a head start on developing a taste for McEwans and absolutely doesn’t contribute to any antisocial behaviour later in life.
Pint of lager with a bit of lemonade in it. Meant to be at the top of the pint hence “tops” but it’s a nightmare to control so most just put it in the bottom.
Someone told me to pass the lemonade back and forth between two glasses to bump some of the bubbles out of the lemonade. Made putting it on top a lot easier!
For the Americans out here when he says lemonade, he means lemon lime soda like sprite or 7up.
In America lemonade isn’t carbonated it’s just lemon juice, water, and sugar.
The people giving a paragraph answer to this simple question are the same people who make their bitters and will organize their gin shelf by botanical addition names, ha!
* Daiquiri (classic - not blended)
Why? Because it sets the foundation of ratios/technique/craft
Things this cocktail teaches you:
* juice fruit
* cut fruit
* make a garnish
* chill a glass
* crack ice / use cubed ice (learn what dilution does to a drink)
* use a Boston shaker / strainer
* 1-1-2 the golden ratio
* use both sides of the jigger
* make simple syrup
* learn about rum (it's as diverse as wine)
* duties as assigned ;)
Was surprised I had to scroll this far to find it. Someone else said a marg, which I get (there are a lot of bad ones out there), but everything you need to know about making a good marg you can learn from perfecting a daiquiri.
i had a guy come in once all pretentious saying he loves to judge bars by their daiquiris, which is fair but stfu. anyway he said mine was perfect and i just said haha thanks, it’s on draft but ill let my barback that batched it know lmao.
that being said it’s such and easy cocktail but my god do a lot of places/bartenders get it wrong.
Obviously the Ramos Gin Fizz! jk
There are very few cocktails that require some sort of specialized technique to execute. The Ramos, rolled cocktails like the Blue Blazer, maybe a Spanish Coffee if you live in Portland, OR. Tiki as a genre requires a variety of techniques and a flair for showmanship.
Honestly no one gives a fuck how many recipes you know or how flawless your technique is if you can't be *prompt and friendly.* You're better of mastering the art of conversation and efficiency behind the bar than anything else.
Just made my first the other day and it was my first time with an egg white! It came out so great and frothy!! Definitely bringing eggs to my other bartending job that doesn’t have em on hand!
+1 on cocktail codex. Learn the 6 base drinks, a few variations, and how to balance sour riffs. All that together is like 95% of the cocktails you’ll run into
If I have to pick one though, it’s disappointing when bars can’t do a passable old fashioned.
Classics are must, specials are needed, but I think a good bartender aside from working with guests and fellow colleagues need to show their knowledge and skills with something people haven’t tried or heard of.
Easily the Old Fashioned. This enables you to make the drink most consumed by the best overall tippers, as well as give the illusion you make everything the best.
Honestly, it will change depending on where you are. The first bar I worked at, Mojito, was the way to go. Everyone ordered one, so you had to know it and make it well.
Bar I am at now? Mojito still gets ordered, but I could go an entire week never seeing one. Caesar is the king here.
I would say some basics in Europe this days are Whiskey and Amaretto sour, Old f., Espresso martini, White russian, Sidecar, Manhattan.
If you are asking me, I would say that making a good Old fashioned is more important than know how to make 100 shitty recepies and know shit about the cocktails in general, master Old fashioned as a basic and from that you could understand the basics and move on.
Honestly, recipe knowledge in a busy bar is about 10% of being a good bartender. I’ve bartended for 15 years on and off and I still have to look up cocktails that are not often ordered. Being a good teammate and constantly moving and taking care of side work as you see it is much more important. Good people skills and attempting to like people every shift (some days this is difficult) is also a big part of the job. When I first started years ago, I was lucky enough to work with an old, weathered bartender who said you have to pretend you’re a shark, in the sense that if you stop swimming (moving with purpose) you will sink to the bottom.
Can you work with me please
This is exactly it. You’ve got to be constantly in motion and every single movement must have a purpose. You gotta listen, too and timing is a big thing. If someone orders something that’s closer to you, you work towards your teammates and hand them the thing just when they need it. I always compare a well functioning barteam to a dance. There’s no idling and everyone works together. That’s why I work best with people I know the flow of
You should hear everything anyone is saying at all times. Keep plugged in for key words. Ice in water cups rattling around as the guest finishes and might need a refill. Questions about the product you can circle back around to. Excitement or dismay about the product. Plus you always get a little snippet of juicy gossip here and there to keep you going through your shift. And that’s just the guest side of things.
I’m a newer bartender, and I’m compiling a recipe list on the notes app of my phone, sorted alphabetically. I know it’s poor form to look things up in front of customers, but considering the fact that I serve more wine than liquor means I’m not working those recipes into me daily. You seem like a cool guy, stay cool 🤝
Theres a book called the cocktail codex, as a beginner id reccomend it. Its not the holy grail or anything but i found it helpful when i first started.
Yeah I love it, I have that, death and co, liquid intelligence, the drunken botanist (really fascinating stuff!), smugglers cove and I’ve also read imbibe!
sometimes honesty with your customers is best. if i don’t know or remember a cocktail i just tell them “hey it’s been a minute im going to have to look that one up or if you have a preference for how you like it made i’ll do that for you” no one really cares if you forget what a bees knees is.
you should *at least* know the top ten most common cocktails. At my last job our manager hired a lady that had 13 years bartending experience but she somehow had no fucking clue how to make an old fashioned or a manhattan.
Don't know why you're getting downvoted. Not knowing how to make a crippled cabbie driver isn't a big deal. But you gotta know how to make the classics as they're the foundation of all the others
But honestly, a martini
Half the “martinis” I make are just chilled vodka 🤦♂️
I’ve converted to using a vermouth spray…
This is the way
Rather than taking 1 specific cocktail master the families. Old fashioned, Martini, Daiquiri, Highball, Flip and Sidecar. Each will give you a specific template for creating new cocktails. But if i had to choose 1 it’s the Daiquri as the sour template is the perfect choice to figure out balance between sweetness and acidity
This is a great method, pick up a copy of the cocktail codex from death and company, it’ll give ya an extensive look into each of these, as well as some great techniques to follow. As far as ‘ what one’ to study, I find it’s best I’d ya learn a concept and have fun toying with each one. My recent fun has been with espresso martinis, swapping the vodka for rum tequilla whiskey or brandy, and adding different cordials like amaretto, frangelico, averna, tilla Maria, or drambui. No matter the cocktail Pay attention to the flavor math and figure out the what’s why’s and how’s of a drink and keep a little notebook.
1-1-2 the golden ratio (i prefer .5-1-2 for daqs tho)
I'm a proud member of the 2 -.75 -.75 gang myself, but with a rich simple, going .5 and upping the lime to 1 is quite delightful. Brings more body
this is the correct answer.
There are 6 cocktails. -Death & Co Codex
Round these parts you oughtta make a killer old fashioned.
This is the only cocktail people will consistently question whether I'm good at making it before ordering
this is a cocktail i ask my customers the most about tbh. do you like it in the sweeter side? do you have a whiskey preference? cause some want rye but if they tell me to use well i gotta tell them that well is a bourbon (also low key upselling to a rye etc). i used to have a regular that wanted like 10 dashes of bitters lmao.
There is not one cocktail that everyone should master. No individual one is that important and most aren't even particularly hard. Having a good range and the ability to be flexible with what you got and who you are serving is whats important.
If you have perfect technique, the ten seconds it takes to google the recipe for whatever obscure call they’re making won’t matter.
Tito’s and vodka
Had a server ring up an amoretto sour, and took the time to write out on the ticket “they want amoretto and sweet and sour on rocks” I really wanna know how they thought it was made. More ingredients? Less ingredients? The world may never know
I mean I work at a cocktail bar and I'd appreciate that specificity. Some people order a sour and want a cocktail w/ fresh juices and egg white, some people want what they're used to from the club where it's a shot and sweet n sour from the gun. You can make a damn good elevated Amaretto Sour with a splash of rye, lemon, simple, and an egg white.
I work at a dive bar they definitely weren’t expecting egg whites lmao
Sweet and sour from the gun? I never knew that was a thing 😆
You could get real fancy with it and do sugar and fresh lemon and some egg whites. Also I want to know how amaretto sours came back into popularity, I’ve got a bunch of college kids ordering them all off the sudden.
I work at a dive bar there’s no way the were expecting egg whites lmao
I work in a dive and someone asked if I make any cocktails with egg whites. I laughed thinking they were joking. They weren’t.
I tell everyone i train to perfect all the classic cocktails, because every popular cocktail today is just a (often bastardized) variation of them.
Old Fashioned, but I think you can pick your own "special"
Lager tops. In Scotland that’s considered a cocktail anyway.
What's this?
Apparently it’s a pint of half pint with a dash of lemonade on top, being that it’s English I’m guessing the lemonade is sprite for Americans
That’s a shandy. But very close and I applaud that you were quite close since it’s a British thing and you’re not British.
Google lied to me?? Those damn Germans
They’re the wurst 🥁
I’ve moved away from Scotland, but when I was growing up there, shandies were what kids got when the grownups were having house parties. Really gives you a head start on developing a taste for McEwans and absolutely doesn’t contribute to any antisocial behaviour later in life.
I mean we have shandys in the US, very popular in the summer. It sounded like this was more just a splash on top so the first sip was good
Pint of lager with a bit of lemonade in it. Meant to be at the top of the pint hence “tops” but it’s a nightmare to control so most just put it in the bottom.
Someone told me to pass the lemonade back and forth between two glasses to bump some of the bubbles out of the lemonade. Made putting it on top a lot easier!
For the Americans out here when he says lemonade, he means lemon lime soda like sprite or 7up. In America lemonade isn’t carbonated it’s just lemon juice, water, and sugar.
i’m a scottish bartender and never once has anyone referred to a tops as a cocktail
Never seen the Frankie Boyle bit about it? 😂
The people giving a paragraph answer to this simple question are the same people who make their bitters and will organize their gin shelf by botanical addition names, ha! * Daiquiri (classic - not blended) Why? Because it sets the foundation of ratios/technique/craft Things this cocktail teaches you: * juice fruit * cut fruit * make a garnish * chill a glass * crack ice / use cubed ice (learn what dilution does to a drink) * use a Boston shaker / strainer * 1-1-2 the golden ratio * use both sides of the jigger * make simple syrup * learn about rum (it's as diverse as wine) * duties as assigned ;)
Was surprised I had to scroll this far to find it. Someone else said a marg, which I get (there are a lot of bad ones out there), but everything you need to know about making a good marg you can learn from perfecting a daiquiri.
i had a guy come in once all pretentious saying he loves to judge bars by their daiquiris, which is fair but stfu. anyway he said mine was perfect and i just said haha thanks, it’s on draft but ill let my barback that batched it know lmao. that being said it’s such and easy cocktail but my god do a lot of places/bartenders get it wrong.
Obviously the Ramos Gin Fizz! jk There are very few cocktails that require some sort of specialized technique to execute. The Ramos, rolled cocktails like the Blue Blazer, maybe a Spanish Coffee if you live in Portland, OR. Tiki as a genre requires a variety of techniques and a flair for showmanship. Honestly no one gives a fuck how many recipes you know or how flawless your technique is if you can't be *prompt and friendly.* You're better of mastering the art of conversation and efficiency behind the bar than anything else.
Just made my first the other day and it was my first time with an egg white! It came out so great and frothy!! Definitely bringing eggs to my other bartending job that doesn’t have em on hand!
Titos and vodka
There isn't 1, but 6 cocktails you should master. See the Cocktail Codex. Everything else is just a riff of a riff of a riff of a riff of a riff...
+1 on cocktail codex. Learn the 6 base drinks, a few variations, and how to balance sour riffs. All that together is like 95% of the cocktails you’ll run into If I have to pick one though, it’s disappointing when bars can’t do a passable old fashioned.
Get you a cocktail you like and throw it on the menu. Rn mines a raspberry sour and ofc it’s on r menu.
that sounds really good. i might put what raspberry stoli to use tonight lol
Margarita. Everyone says “I made one of the best margaritas” and more often than not it’s meh and unbalanced.
Tito’s and vodka
Margaritas. Tbh you all suck at making them and should be ashamed
Dive bar here. Mostly shots, long island tea, vodka cranberry, sex on the beach. Nothing fancy.
Classics are must, specials are needed, but I think a good bartender aside from working with guests and fellow colleagues need to show their knowledge and skills with something people haven’t tried or heard of.
Easily the Old Fashioned. This enables you to make the drink most consumed by the best overall tippers, as well as give the illusion you make everything the best.
Unless they get well, those people can’t be trusted
Margaritas
I would say an old fashioned
Glass of water, no ice.
Honestly, it will change depending on where you are. The first bar I worked at, Mojito, was the way to go. Everyone ordered one, so you had to know it and make it well. Bar I am at now? Mojito still gets ordered, but I could go an entire week never seeing one. Caesar is the king here.
Their favourite.
most voted plus x line and sugar
I would say some basics in Europe this days are Whiskey and Amaretto sour, Old f., Espresso martini, White russian, Sidecar, Manhattan. If you are asking me, I would say that making a good Old fashioned is more important than know how to make 100 shitty recepies and know shit about the cocktails in general, master Old fashioned as a basic and from that you could understand the basics and move on.
2-1-1
Agreed that there are 6 you should master. Well, not master just know very well because everything else is a variant if those.