Equipment: Bar Spoon A bar spoon is a long-handled stirring implement with a rounded, shallow paddle on the end. The spoon is usually about 10 inches long, allowing for effective stirring even in the deepest mixing or serving glasses. The paddle is also used to facilitate the construction of multi-layered and top-floated cocktails. Pouring a liquid slowly over the back of the paddle gently spreads its distribution, allowing the liquid to float on top of the drink instead of plunging towards the bottom of the glass. The floating technique isn't easy, so practice is a must. An added bonus of the bar spoon is its twisted handle. After cutting beautiful citrus peel strands with a channel knife, twist them tightly around the spoon's handle to form curlicue garnishes. Impressive!
Equipment: Channel Knife A channel knife is primarily used to cut thin strands of citrus fruit peel for use as a cocktail garnish. Its cutting blade dips down to form a narrow-width shallow scoop that can be inserted under the peel. You then guide the knife along the surface of the fruit, slicing a continuous strand of peel away without cutting into the flesh of the fruit. Sounds easy, right? There are many channel knife variations: U- and V-shaped blades of varying depths, handle-to-blade orientations of all kinds, thick handles, thin handles... it's a smorgasbord! You may end up buying more than one channel knife to handle different situations. For example, lemons and oranges with thick peels underlaid with lots of pith require a deeper cut, while limes and tangerines with thin peels and very little pith require a shallower cut. A channel knife can also be used to cut the flesh from suitable fruits, such as apples or pears, to create decorative spirals to drop into appropriately flavored cocktails. Use your imagination. Maybe someday you'll pioneer a new cocktail garnish, but first you'll have to master the tool. Good luck on honing those channel knife skills, my friend.
Equipment: Glassware A bartender specializing in mixed drinks should make an effort to pour each drink into its recipe-suggested glass, if possible. A basic set of glassware will satisfy most pouring requirements, so try stocking the following glassware:
Buy clear glassware so your customers can see the beauty of your cocktails; using colored or opaque glass just hides the artistry. Think of your glassware in terms of its shape and volume to help you understand why a drink recipe might request a certain glass. For example, the only glass with a stem is the cocktail glass and it's used to serve "up" drinks. Cocktails served "up" contain no ice. The elongated stem is the intended handhold; it keeps your digits off the bowl of glass, thereby allowing the drink to stay cold. You'll probably see a bevy of barflies cupping the bowl of their cocktail-type glasses in their hot hands. Maybe you can set them straight. The remaining basic glassware is stemless and gradually gets larger in size, increasing the odds of its drink being poured over ice and/or topped up with some kind of mixer, like a carbonated beverage or a fruit juice. The old fashioned glasses are short with a solid base. Think of the highball glass as a typical water glass used in a table setting. The collins glass is the tallest, sporting a cylindrical shape that's long and lean. Nice. You'll also need shot glasses of various capacities in a basic bar. Sometimes they can be used to make layered cocktails, but mostly they're for downing liquor neat. Then there are the specialty glasses like margarita, hurricane, sour, julep, flutes, pousse-café (for layered cocktails), wine glasses, snifters, glass mugs for hot drinks... you could go broke trying to stock them all. Get great glassware, make great drinks, run a classy joint!
Equipment: Ice Tongs Ice tongs are used to accurately add ice to cocktail shakers and serving glasses, because nobody really wants to see their bartender handling the ice with bare hands. Surprisingly, many ice tongs aren't very good at holding onto an ice cube; you might as well be using chopsticks. For the best grabbing quality, get ice tongs that have an extended jaw full of shark's teeth. No ice cube, no matter how slippery, can escape the shark!
Equipment: Measuring Glass A measuring glass is used to measure out the majority of liquid ingredients in cocktail recipes. The glasses are usually marked with ½-ounce division lines and are available in 1-ounce (pony) and 1½-ounce (jigger) sizes. Most are made of either glass or stainless steel. Some measuring glasses have handles; some are double-sided, with a jigger on one side and a pony on the other; some look just like laboratory beakers complete with superfine measurement lines. Get whatever style makes you happy, just remember the overall goal is to measure accurately. Build your cocktails tight to spec!
Equipment: Measuring Spoons Measuring spoons are used to dole out the minor ingredients in cocktail recipes, namely dashes and splashes. Equip your bar with the typical kitchen measuring spoon set: tablespoon, teaspoon, ½-teaspoon, and ¼-teaspoon. Next, teach yourself how to accurately use them, for example:
You may find the water level in the above test is well below the line. That's because it's a natural tendency to fill a measuring spoon short so as not to spill anything. If your water level was short, repeat the test. Try filling the tablespoon until the liquid starts to mound up; think of it as a slightly "heaping" tablespoon. You should then find your tablespoon of water matches the ½-ounce line on the measuring glass. Run the above test using 3 teaspoons to get to the ½-ounce mark, then repeat using 6 half-teaspoons, then 12 quarter-teaspoons to get to the mark. Get your spoon technique down cold! Someday you may convince yourself that you inherently know what a dash or splash looks and feels like and stop using measuring spoons altogether. If the cocktails don't suffer, then congratulations, you could be a professional bartender. Of course, if you're measuring dry ingredients, like bar sugar, just aim for a level spoonful. If only the rest could be that easy.
Equipment: Muddler A muddler is the tool you use to bruise or crush ingredients in the bottom of a cocktail shaker or serving glass during drink construction. A muddled ingredient delivers a more intense flavor and heightened aromatics as compared to that released from its undamaged state. Muddlers are traditionally made of wood, but you can also find various plastic or glass ones or stylish ones with rubber ends. Before purchasing a wooden muddler, make sure it doesn't have a varnish coating or a wood stain treatment. The varnish will wear down and crack over time, depositing varnish bits into your muddled concoctions, while the stain could add an unpleasant flavor. If your muddler is stained wood and its color gets lighter over time from muddling citrus fruits, then you've got a problem; citrus oils are excellent penetrating cleaners. Some of the handiest muddlers are the two-ended ones with one flat end and the other rounded. The flat end will probably see the most use, but if one day you need to muddle something in a serving glass with a rounded bottom, that round end of the muddler will come in handy. Now grab that muddler you'll be using and get to bruising!
Equipment: Paring Knife A paring knife is a small short-bladed knife you'll need to keep sharp for many a preparatory bartending task. You'll be wielding it often: slicing fruit, slicing vegetables, cutting twists from citrus peels, slicing cheeses, and handling whatever else needs to be carved or cut. Make sure to get a nice cutting board to go with it too. And if "Mack the Knife" is playing? Flash the blade in the glimmering light.
Equipment: Shakers The cocktail shaker is the bartender's best friend, the main tool used to sate their customers' craving for world-class mixed drinks. Cocktail ingredients and ice are added to the shaker's mixing glass, then either enclosed and shaken or left open and stirred with a bar spoon. The resulting elixir is strained into the appropriate glass and rest is good times! There are a few shaker types to choose from:
Boston Shaker - This kind of shaker consists of two mixing glasses: one made of stainless steel and one made of thick, sturdy glass. You'll have to master the skill of forcefully sealing the two glasses together and breaking them apart after the two-handed shake. There are lots of opportunities to make a mess with this shaker, but the pros use it for fast operation and large capacity. Pouring requires a separate strainer, but you could crack the two glasses slightly apart after the shake and show off with a "flair" pour-and-strain, but that takes a lot of skill. Cobbler Shaker - This kind of shaker consists of three pieces, all stainless steel: one mixing glass, one mixing glass pouring spout cap with a built-in strainer, and a spout cap. The machining of the parts makes them easy to seal and handle when shaking. Pouring can be difficult through the small strainer if you put uniformly-shaped ice in the shaker; an ice dam can form behind the strainer and inhibit pouring. Use irregular cracked ice in your shaker and you'll never have that problem. This shaker is probably the easiest to master and comes in many sizes if you want to tailor-mix to your serving needs. French Shaker - This kind of shaker is similar to the Boston Shaker, consisting of two mixing glasses, but both are made of stainless steel. The machining of the glasses makes them much easier to seal and handle when shaking. Pouring also requires a separate strainer; the Hawthorne strainer is the standard.
If you don't like something about one shaker or can't master it, then try another one. Pick the cocktail shaker you think is best for you and get to mixing, because we've got customers.
Ingredients: Bar Sugar When a cocktail recipe specifies "bar sugar" as an ingredient, it is requesting a white sugar that dilutes effectively in liquid that is also suitable for rimming a cocktail glass. Go to the grocery store and buy a box of "superfine" granulated white sugar from the bakery aisle and you'll have your supply of bar sugar. It's that simple. So next time your neighbor knocks on your door asking to borrow ½ cup of bar sugar, you've got it covered.
Ingredients: Bitters Bitters are the extra spice of life added to many cocktails, usually in very small quantities due to their intense flavor. If you stock your bar with the following bitters, you'll be able to craft the vast majority of the classic cocktails:
You can get by quite easily stocking only Angostura and orange bitters, but Peychaud's is used in some excellent cocktails you definitely won't want to miss. There are many other kinds of bitters, mostly required for cocktails conceived by the more modern mixologists in our midst, so buy them as your need arises. Got a hankering for a bitters cocktail? Let's mix one up!
Ingredients: Garnish Garnish is anything you add to a cocktail outside of the mixing process that serves to enhance its flavor and/or look. The cocktail recipe specifies the intended garnish, but it's up to you to determine its quality, so use the freshest ingredients possible. It may also be up to you to determine the quantity depending on the type of garnish. Most garnishes serve to add either an aromatic or edible element to the cocktail, or both. These are typically fruits and fruit peels, herbs, spices, sugars, and vegetables, but can also include things like chocolate shavings, candy, and whipped cream. The citrus peel twist is probably the most classic cocktail garnish. The word "twist" implies that the peel be squeezed over the drink to express its citrus oil onto the surface of the cocktail. Some bartenders rub the resulting oily surface of the twist around the rim of the glass as an extra flavor enhancement. For the finishing touch, the colorful twist is dropped into the cocktail. A twist can also be "flamed" to impart a burnt citrus flavor to the cocktail along with a lot of flair to the presentation. Hold a lit match between the twist and the surface of the cocktail and then squeeze. It takes a lot of practice, but it's worth it. Twists can add a lot of flavor to a cocktail and the size of the twist is up to you, so try to find the right balance. Use your paring knife to cut a section of peel from the citrus fruit while keeping as little pith on the back as possible. An oval is the typical twist shape, but nothing is set in stone, so be as artistic as you want. It should be self-evident how to prepare and employ most other garnishes. Always think about taste and try to use good judgment on how much garnish to use. For example, don't grate a small mountain of nutmeg on top of any drink requiring it. On the other hand, maybe it makes sense to add two olives to a martini, especially if your customer prefers it. There are strictly functional and visual inedible garnishes too. These include useful things like stir sticks and straws that aid in maintaining the mix and drinkability of some cocktails. Other inedible garnishes, like paper parasols, are essentially useless and just for show. You might want to avoid that kind of garnish, if possible. Your goal should be to garnish with skill and class and not overdo it. If the garnish makes the cocktail look better and taste better, then you've done an excellent job!
Ingredients: Honey Most recipes for cocktails served cold are accompanied by generic instructions for preparation. They usually say to combine the drink ingredients with cracked ice in a mixing glass and either shake or stir. Unfortunately, some ingredients don't play along with those instructions, namely honey. If you put honey with ice, it will harden on contact with the ice and refuse to mix, even if shaken vigorously. After pouring the cocktail, you'll look inside the mixing glass and there, looking up at you, will be a blob of frozen honey... wasted. To incorporate honey into a cold cocktail, you'll need to dissolve it first. Add the required recipe amount of honey and liquor into an empty mixing glass and stir. It may take 4-5 minutes to dissolve the honey, but it'll be worth it. Next, add any remaining ingredients, followed by the ice, then shake or stir. Honey has a friend too, named molasses. Now you know what to do.
Ingredients: Ice Ice is the essential ingredient in nearly all cocktails prepared and served cold. Most mixed drinks are shaken or stirred with ice in a cocktail shaker where the ensuing melted ice becomes a major ingredient. Some cocktails are prepared in the serving glass with ice and are just mixed with a light stir, so the ice serves more to cool the drink than provide an immediate liquid dilution. Always be conscious of the fact that water, melted ice, is a required ingredient in cocktails that are shaken or stirred vigorously with ice. You are melting the ice on purpose to create the correct amount of water to make the drink taste right. Try making those cocktail recipes without ice. Besides being warm, the final mix will likely taste terrible. If you find that concoction enjoyable, you may be a lush. Randomly shaped cracked ice is probably the best all-purpose ice. Ice of uniform shape tends to lock together, forming ice dams which can cause slow pouring from the shaker and troublesome drinking for cocktails served over ice. Your ice should not taste like anything. It should just be refreshingly clean. If you don't have an ice maker with a filtered water source, purchasing your ice from the grocery store is the cheapest and best bet. Your ice should be crystal clear for serving purposes. Ice that looks cloudy isn't aesthetically pleasing and takes away from the beauty of the finished cocktail. Cloudiness is common in ice made in trays or by home refrigerator freezer ice makers. The cloudiness comes from tiny air bubbles being trapped in the cubes during the freezing process. You may need crushed ice for some serving purposes. If so, fill a sterile bag with ice, get a good mallet and pound away. If you need shaved ice, get a block of ice and start scraping. You'll figure it out, you're the bartender! Get good ice to make your cocktails look and taste right.
Ingredients: Juices Fruit juices are a common cocktail ingredient and fresh-squeezed juice with no pulp is considered the gold standard. You can squeeze your own juice, but filtering out the unattractive pulp can be difficult, unless you're using a fancy juicing machine. Citrus fruit juices are the most common juice ingredient. Citrus fruits are also the easiest to squeeze, so if you want the freshest cocktails and don't mind the work, squeeze away! But let's face it, you're probably not going to be squeezing your own cranberry juice; or apple, grape, pineapple, or tomato juice for that matter. So what should you do? Find the best bottled juice you can. Go to the store and look for the following on the label:
If you can only find "From Concentrate" juice, that would be the next best. The main goal is to find pure juice with no added sweetening; do not settle for less. As an experiment, compare some fresh-squeezed juice to the best bottled juice you can find. For example, squeeze some fresh lemon juice and compare it to the bottled version. If you can't tell the difference, maybe you'll decide to use bottled juice all the time; it may even be more cost effective. Do the taste test in a favorite cocktail too. If everything tastes great, you'll be fine either way. The source of the juice is up to you.
Ingredients: Liquor Besides your bartending skills, the liquor you stock can make or break your bar's reputation. Make sure to stock premium liquor at a minimum; it will go a long way to building an excellent rapport with your customers. Go to any reputable bar and see what they stock for a good indicator of what's considered premium, then visit the liquor store and check the shelves. In general, you get what you pay for when it comes to liquor, so pay attention to price for a rough gauge of quality within each liquor category. The major brands are sure bets, but there are worthy boutique competitors too. The only way to know which liquor brands you like is to buy'em and try'em. For example, you may prefer a different brand or type of gin depending on the specific cocktail, so you'll stock a variety. The same could go for every spirit category and every cocktail recipe; it all depends on how deep you want to travel down that long mixology road. You decide what to stock in your bar, it's your reputation. A super-premium liquor, such as a 25 year old single malt scotch, is best left to be enjoyed alone, not commingled as an ingredient in a mixed drink. Why hide the excellence? You can't make it better by mixing it with lesser ingredients. Besides, it would be an insult to the maker and a colossal waste of money. On the other end of the spectrum, just remember liquor sold in plastic bottles is made for the street, not the bar. The last thing you want is people saying your bar uses rotgut, so don't serve cheap liquor to your customers. Hey, got some time? Let's take a trip to the liquor store.
Ingredients: Sugar Syrup Sugar syrup is created by heating equal parts of granulated white sugar and water in a saucepan. It's very simple to make and called "simple syrup" in the culinary world, so you might see that terminology used in cocktail recipes too. The following recipe will produce about 6 ounces of sugar syrup:
A good container could be an old artificial sweetener bottle or a small, sealable squeeze bottle. You'll want to keep the syrup bottle sealed to keep it from absorbing any potential refrigerator odors over time. If your sugar syrup grows mold or any other unappetizing gunk, the container wasn't sterile when you filled it or the syrup got contaminated at a later date. Sugar syrup made and stored correctly will last for many months in the refrigerator with no ill effects. If rarely used, your sugar syrup will separate over time by forming beautiful sugar crystals on the bottom of its container. Shake your sugar syrup container every now and then to keep it mixed and ready for action. You do know how to shake vigorously, don't you?
Measurements: Fruit-To-Juice As you navigate the cocktail world, you'll eventually come across drink recipes that instruct you to use "the juice of ½ lime" and the like. In the case of lemons, you'll then ask, "But which lemons? The big ones or the small ones?" That's right, you've been to the grocery store before! These "juice of ..." cocktail recipes can be really obnoxious when you're just trying to get some drinking done. Here's a handy table that provides the squeezed-juice amounts for the most popular cocktail fruits:
Follow the above fresh juice amounts and your cocktails should turn out just fine, and now it's boozin' time!
Measurements: Nomenclature Here at Ralph's Bar we like to keep the cocktail recipe nomenclature as simple as possible. The table below lists the terms used to specify liquid recipe amounts and their equivalent values when measured using standard measuring spoons and glasses. All liquid amounts are based on the United States fluid ounce standard.
Technique: Glass Rimming Sometimes a cocktail recipe requires the rim of the serving glass to be coated with a complimentary dry ingredient. The dry ingredient is used to tantalize the tongue just before the cocktail washes in to complete the overall flavor. Some common glass rim treatments are:
The correct way to rim a glass is on the outside only. The last thing you want are clumps of dry ingredient falling into the cocktail from the inside rim, altering the intended mix. The recipe didn't say to add that dry ingredient to the shaker, did it? Here's a glass rimming procedure you can try:
When you're done, you can fold the paper plate and funnel the unused dry ingredient, if still pristine, back into its container. Nice.
Technique: Liquor Storage If a bottle of liquor you stock is used in high volume, it will empty quickly and get replaced with another fresh bottle. Other bottles will take a long time to use up, so how long can they maintain their quality after being opened? In general, anything 70-proof and over can be opened and stored indefinitely at room temperature without loss of quality. The potential problems are with lower proof liquors and wines. Lower proof liquors usually showcase a major flavor of some kind, typically of a fruit or a sweet. Others are amalgamations of fruits, spices, herbs and countless other ingredients. Once opened, the flavor will change over time, so if you value the initial and intended flavor highly, the shelf life is not indefinite. For example, Chambord has a bright black raspberry flavor when first opened, but 3 months later the taste is much more subdued. Then again, some people might prefer the bitterness of Campari toning down as it gets older. It all comes down to personal taste. If you stock liquors that incorporate dairy or egg elements, you will need to worry about them going rancid over time. These liquors usually have storage instructions and "Best Taste Before" dates on the label, so follow the directions. The typical wines specified in cocktail recipes are aperitif wines, like Dubonnet and Lillet, and fortified wines like vermouth, port, and sherry. Like lower proof liquors, once opened, these do not have an unlimited shelf life. You should refrigerate your wine to prolong its life. Wine has a much shorter life span than lower proof liquor. For example, experts typically say vermouth lasts only 4 weeks when refrigerated after opening. Keep track of when you open your lower proof liquors and wines. When an old bottle is nearly empty, do a taste test with the incoming new bottle. If the taste is comparable, your rate of usage is within the life cycle of that product. If the taste comparison is unacceptable, shorten the taste test time for that product and try zeroing in on its shelf life with the next new bottle. Record your results and build your own knowledge base; you be the expert for your bar and its liquor storage situation. You may be pleasantly surprised at how long some things stay fresh, especially your refrigerated wines. Finally, don't you love the wonderful vapors wafting out of your favorite liquor bottle? That's flavor leaving the bottle! Keep your liquor tightly sealed when it's not in use. Take care of your liquor and it will take care of you.
Technique: Mixing Mixing is the process of transitioning a cocktail recipe from written promise to real world excellence in the form of a beautiful and tasty liquid drink. Unfortunately, the recipes for cocktails served cold do not specify the amount of a very important ingredient: water. The amount of water added comes from the shaking or stirring of the fledgling drink's ingredients with ice. The ice cools the overall cocktail and it melts. As the bartender, it is up to you to know when to stop mixing so the correct amount of water is incorporated for the perfect mix. This is the intangible element that sets bartenders apart. How much melted ice water should be mixed into a cocktail? As a general rule, for every 3 ounces of cocktail ingredients distinctly specified in the recipe, melt 1 ounce of water, erring on the side of adding slightly more water. It's the water that blends and binds the other ingredients together to make the drink palatable, so get it right! Mixing requires some math. A cocktail recipe doesn't know the size of your serving glass or how many customers you're serving. A bartender has to look at the recipe volume and calculate the amount of water to add during the mixing process, then compare that to the volume of the glassware that needs to be filled. Also, cocktail recipes are written to get the ingredient proportions right in order to achieve the desired taste, not necessarily to produce the correct volume for a "single serving." You may find that making 2½ times a certain cocktail recipe is sufficient to serve four people in your bar. Other recipes may come up too short to serve even one of your customers. Mixing isn't easy; you have to keep all the numbers straight if you want to be great. Cocktails are either shaken or stirred. Stirring is usually reserved for cocktails with all-liquor ingredients and produces a clear cocktail with a smooth texture. Shaking is the norm for cocktails that incorporate non-alcoholic ingredients like juices and syrups. Shaking produces a more effervescent and cloudy cocktail due to the tiny bubbles generated by the more violent mixing motion. There are levels of shaking. For example, if a cocktail incorporates egg whites, you'll have to shake vigorously to get them to blend. You may determine that certain cocktails only need a gentle shake or maybe just a back-and-forth roll between two mixing glasses. Just make sure you can explain what you're doing and why in case somebody asks. In general, measure your cocktail ingredients accurately and know how your ice melts when you shake and stir. Don't just throw ingredients and ice together and hope to get lucky. Bartending is a skill game; luck is for losers. If you think when you mix, your customers will be very happy!
Technique: Pouring Pouring a cocktail is the second best thing about bartending, because it comes just before the happy drinking. An excellent pour fills the serving glass to the highest level that still allows the customer to pick it up easily without spilling. You've got to be able to raise a clean toast! A bad pour is mostly about optics. Some serving glasses look bad being poured well short of the rim, especially the cocktail glass and the high-volume glasses. Nobody likes to feel shortchanged. The old fashioned glass is a special case. If its cocktail is served over ice, the pour should be suitably near the rim. If the cocktail is not over ice, a short pour still looks pretty darned good. That's probably because neat liquor is commonly served in an old fashioned glass and that short look has always been cool, "Give me two fingers of bourbon, barkeep!" There's a perfect level for all pours. The skilled bartender inherently knows where that is for all serving glasses. Since being caught short on the pour is unacceptable and embarrassing, bartenders will often have a little extra volume left over after the initial pour, especially after mixing for multiple servings. This unpoured extra is called the cocktail "dividends" and can be used at the bartender's discretion. It may be used to quickly top off the original customers or get poured into a small pouring vessel, sitting on ice, to halt dilution for lengthier storage. A shot of cold dividends could be given to another customer down the bar who is curious about the cocktail. That's good advertising and could pay dividends later. There is one pour that, if done poorly, could ruin your bartending reputation: the top-up pour. Cocktails that need to be topped up in the serving glass usually consist of an intense flavor core that requires subsequent dilution with a mixer to become palatable. Typical mixers are fruit juices and various carbonated beverages. How much mixer should you add? The volume left to be filled in the appropriate serving glass should give you a clue. Unfortunately, cocktail glassware doesn't conform to strict size standards. The glass you're using may be smaller or much larger than the cocktail recipe was designed to support. Also remember that any ice you may add will remove topping-up space too. In most cases, topping up with at least as much mixer as the volume of the flavor core will probably produce the strongest acceptable version of the drink. Adding more mixer will yield weaker but possibly more desirable servings. Whatever you do, don't get caught serving in a glass that leaves no room to top up! Visualize your pour, then pour with confidence.
