Being a Bartender: The How’s, What’s and

Why’s.
Within the bar trade there are what can be classed as various types or categories of bar tender,
all of which have certain skills and styles that they bring to the job. These categories in turn are
governed by one overall premise from which bartenders should adhere, and that is to be
professional.

The Professional Bartender: With a drinks knowledge like and encyclopaedia, a professional
bartender should know everything about drinks and the drinks trade. Further to this they should
know correct etiquette, how to look after and treat their guests, have an element of flair and
panache and a genuine love for the job. Understanding like this is generally achieved over time,
being in and around the industry for a long time in order to learn from varying styles and trends.
Perhaps the archetypal example of this comes from the father of bartending, Professor Jerry
Thomas. The following article written by Dale ―King Cocktail‖ DeGroff illustrates what made
Jerry the bartender of bartenders.

“Bartenders world-wide owe a debt of gratitude to Jerry Thomas, but unfortunately few modern
bartenders know anything about him.
Born in 1830, Jerry Thomas is considered to be the Father of the Cocktail. This is not to say
that he invented it, which he did not, but instead that he nurtured it, raised it, and in turn helped
to introduce it to the world around him. By profession he was a bartender, and by reputation he
was a showman. A combination of skills that we will see in place today behind many bars.
In 1862, "Professor" Thomas played an important role in the history of the cocktail. He
published a book. This was the first recipe book for bartenders, as well as the first book to
include recipes for the drink known as the "cocktail". The 236 recipes included in the book were
broken down into categories, which included Punch, Egg Nog, Julep, Smash, Cobbler, Mull,
Sangaree, Toddy, Sling, Fix, Sour, Flip, Negus, Shrub, Pousse Café, Cup, and several others.
Almost hidden within this collection, was a listing of ten drink recipes which were referred to as
"cocktails". Clearly they were just one style, among many other drinks that a bartender was
expected to prepare. In later editions of this book, Mr. Thomas would double this count to a full
twenty, as well as move it to the front of the book. Clearly the cocktail was building up steam,
and Jerry Thomas was right there at the head of the train.
For all that Jerry Thomas did in these early days of the cocktail, precious little is actually known
about him, but that doesn't deter us from remembering him, and recognizing his contribution to
our craft”.

Mixology: As stated mixology is where the bartender is interested in combining and infusing a
range of diverse ingredients in order to make a ―perfect drink‖. They aim to balance a
multitude of tastes, textures and flavours, and know about endless products and their
properties. Many of their techniques are tried and tested whilst other are new and highly
creative however, all are aimed at high quality production.

Flair: These guys can only be described as flamboyant, with a means of service that is second
to none, Juggling and acrobatics are combined with free pouring to create bright and colourful
drinks. Speed and style are of the essence and almost anything goes. Not the most balanced
drinks in the world but it‘s certainly fun watching them work.

Ideally it should be possible to achieve a mix of all of these styles. We want to create the
knowledge and experience of a professional bartender with the balance and skills of a
mixologist, whilst creating an element of entertainment and flamboyancy like that found in
flaring. It should be noted however that despite the different styles there are certain fundamental
that help make up the bartender role within both the outlet and the individual.

Bartenders Etiquette

What you should always do:

 Always serve the drink on a beverage napkin

 If possible, place the drink in front of the person who order it
 Always use a clean and fresh glass when people re-order.
 Keep the bar top cleared of all used glass, beer bottle, straws, napkin etc…..
 Remember that people can see behind the bar. It is important that it remains spotless.
 Clean the ashtrays constantly. Clean them in to a designated rubbish area.
 Wipe spilled drinks immediately, and warn guest of any broken glass around the bar area
 Always offer a clean beverage napkin.
 Be attentive, light a cigarette for guest. Keep a lighter handy. Be alert so guests do not have fight
to get your attention.
 Return each bottle to its proper place on the rail/back bar after using it, so you or your working
partner can reach for it without losing time looking for particular brand. Be sure that label face
forward/ the front.
 Use CLEAN ice. Do not use your hands, glasses or anything other than a scoop for handling ice.
 Keep your glass sparkling clean. NEVER, touch either a clean glass or a soiled glass inside or by
the rim.
 Keep the unnecessary noise down.
 Never overfill a glass with mix as it weakens the drink.
 Avoid over familiarity with the guest while he is with other guest.
 Never mention his last visit unless they bring it up.
 Do not gossip. Do not tell off colour stories, and do not argue politic or religion.
 Never complain about your co-employee, supervisor or bosses.
 A good bartender never wins an argument.
 Do not neglect a "new" guest by standing at the other end of the bar engaged in the idle
conversation. Never let anyone feel an outsider!
 Do not interrupt, be a good listener. On the other hand, never give the impression of listening in
on a conversation between guests.

Mistakes

From time to time accident will happen. If you should accidentally knock over a drink or clear away a
guest's drink, then make them another at no extra charge. Be alert to your guest's reactions. If there is a
problem concerning a drink served to a guest, replace the drink at no charge, record spillage.

Ice: When or if (because you will) you break a glass over an ice well, take the ice out of service straight
away! Do not take a chance with your guest's safety. Broken glass is extremely dangerous.

Being a Bartender

The Individual

In order to become a component and efficient bartender there are certain parameters from which an
individual can work, namely:

 Serve with style, and create a positive presence.

  Act as an ambassador for your outlet, your team and yourself.
 Create and maintain a welcoming environment for the customer.
 Up sell to the guest, don‘t just give them what they always have, sell them something new, and
sell it with passion.
 Know your product.
 Entertain the guest and get the best out of your team.
 Never provide a product that you are not 100% happy with yourself.
 Be Responsible as a bartender and take ownership of situations. Always Serve with responsibility
and act with due diligence.
 Be Polite and Courteous.
 Be aware of your environment and all of the people in it.

Within these fundamentals comes a number of core attributes that must be present in order to make a
good bartender great. By instilling these attributes within their staff an outlet will be able to, in part,
achieve its maximum potential. These are known as the bartending cores:

Appearance: Look sharp! Come to work well presented and prepared for the shift with all of your
necessary personal equipment

Knowledge: Know your trade. Know what products and services you are selling, why you sell them and
how to sell them. Know your clients, what they want and how to create that WOW factor. Know your team
and how to motivate them in all situations. Your knowledge will inspire others and create confidence.

Presence: Make yourself known in a positive light. Be friendly and approachable, confident and willing to
help others. Work quickly and with purpose, charisma and skill and treat everyone the way you want to be
treated yourself.

Motivation: Enjoy what you do and show it in your work. If you do, you‘ll inspire others to follow. Be
enthusiastic about what you do and what you want from the job, and be sure that you make it happen.
Your motivation shows others that you have pride in your job.

Team Player: The team is bigger than the individual, so be part of it. Your presence can boost and
enhance the team, which will intern reciprocate itself on you, so look towards the greater good.

Accountable: Take responsibility for yourself and others. If you make a mistake take ownership of it and
learn, and if you do something well credit yourself for it. See The section on Bartender etiquette for more
details.

Sell, Sell, Sell: You are there to make as much money as is possible for your business and for yourself.
Create a rapport with your clients, encourage them to spend without them even being aware of it and
ensure that they are going to return, they will appreciate the effort and attention, as will you!

Think Ahead: If you can do anything to pre-empt a situation do it. This proves you know your trade and
your environment and will set you ahead of others.

Trustworthy: Act with due diligence. If there is a problem, look after it in an appropriate manner. If you are
seen to be doing the right thing people will have confidence in you.

Standards: Accept and provide nothing but the best, never drop your standards or the core standards of
your unit.

Enjoy: It sound simple but remember, if you don‘t enjoy what you are doing, you‘re probably in the wrong
job. People like to see others enjoying themselves, and if your enjoyment makes other happy, you‘ll
appreciate it more yourself.
Remember, you are providing a service. If a customer feels like they have had a bad experience because
of money, they may still come back.

S5) Techniques for making Cocktails

In all cocktails there are 4 key components that should be satisfied during production.

Strong Component: Your Base Spirits and main flavour.

Weak component: The ice or soft part of the drink.

Sweet component: Could be either Gomme or other sugar syrups, sugar or various liqueurs.

Sour component: Either Lemon, Lime or grapefruit juice

Note: additional such as botanicals or fresh fruits can fall into any of the last 3 categories or could appear to be
separate.

From these basic principles a variety of techniques can be utilised to create a range of drinks, flavours and
textures.

Building: Simply when you add one ingredient on top of another to create a drink, building is the most simple and
quickest was of producing drinks. As a general rule the strong or alcoholic ingredient should always be put in last as
it will fuse through the entire mix, plus if there is a mistake with an order we may be able to save the most
expensive part of the drink from being wasted.

Layering: Tend to be a technique associated more with shooters, the purpose of layering is to make ingredients sit
on top of each other, mainly just for visual effect. This can be done by either using the bar spoon, a regular spoon
or simply by tilting the glass.

Muddling: The technique of breaking up ingredients to extract their flavours. There are 2 types of muddling:

Gentle or light, which is where the ingredient should be lightly mixed so that it is not pulped or broken up, but so
that its flavours still released.

Heavy muddling which is where a pulp is to be made in order to extract as much flavour as possible from the
ingredient.

Shaking: Shaking has a number of reasons for being used in the production of cocktails. The main reason despite
popular belief is to introduce air into the drink, or aeration, which will in turn cool it and make it taste smoother.
To do this you must use the correct technique and the correct equipment. Boston shakers are perfect for this as
they have the largest air chamber so more air will be mixed into the drink. The second and more obvious reason is
to mix or infuse the ingredients in the can whilst achieving effective dilution. Finally other reasons such as further
muddling using the ice are also recognised. When shaking you should always fill the Boston shaker to the rim to
maximise the cooling potential of the drink. This can involve the use of Liqueurs, fruits, botanicals, creams, juices
and eggs white. Ingredients with different densities are best mixed this way.

Stirring: This is primarily used to produce a more distinctive result than that produced by shaking. Stirring allows
ingredients to be chilled to the perfect temperature without losing their core characteristics. As air is not
introduces there is no softening of the mixes which will also maintain the clarity of the spirit being used. In addition
the rate of dilution is less therefore the natural strength of the core spirit is maintained. Stirring is perfect for
drinks with a heavy spirit ratio, high alcohol content and minimal modifiers.
Blending: This is generally found with disco drinks, and is where all of the ingredients, including ice are thrown into
a Hamilton blender (or other brand) and mixed until they are a fine mix. This is again a simple and quick way of
working but is noisy.

In addition to the techniques listed above there are a number of frequently used expressions or terms which will
become relevant during the manufacturing process.

Pour: The transfer of ingredients from one receptacle to another.

Strain: Helps to remove any unwanted ingredients or ice from a drink before it is poured. This can be done with a
hawthorn strainer or a tea strainer or for best results a combination of the 2, known as double straining.

Lengthen: the process of topping up a drink.

Rim or frosting: The process of converting the outer rim of a glass with either salt or sugar, or other appropriate
ingredients such as cinnamon. This is to create a texture for the drink and not to alter the taste, hence why it is
only on the outer of the glass.

Twist: A Strip of the fruit zest either made by cutting the zest directly with a bar knife or sing a fruit zester or
canelle knife.

Chunk: A generic term for one piece of cut fruit such as pineapple.

Float: Layering an ingredient on the surface of a drink.

Glug: Generally used for ingredients such as egg white, it describes an approximate 12.5ml measure.

Free Pour: A method of exact pouring without using jiggers or measures.

Dot: One tear drop of an ingredient, usually bitters.

Dash: One swift movement of a bitters bottle to extract one dash, in essence a multitude of dots in one pour.

Teaspoon/BSPN: Measuring an ingredient using a bar spoon (denotes a 5ml measure).

Parts: How the breakdown of a drink is written if using ratios as opposed to set measures.

Infused: The addition of external flavours to water in order to alter the taste.

Maceration: The addition of external flavours to Alcohol in order to alter the taste.

S7) The Different types of Cocktails

As stated earlier in the manual, Professor Jerry Thomas was perhaps the greatest bartender and pioneer of the
cocktail. In one of the chapters he describes a cocktail as ―a modern invention, and is generally used on fishing or
other sporting parties, although some ―Patients‖ insist that it is good in the morning as a tonic‖. When looking at
the categories of drinks that are available today it is important to note how many of these were created by Mr
Thomas, and how they have stood the test of time.

Cobbler: A drink that is traditionally made out of fresh seasonal fruits, paired with a base spirit or wine and other
modifying agents. Traditionally these were made in cobbler shakers which were placed into a manual mixing
machine. Often they were elaborately garnished with lots of fresh seasonal fruits and shaved ice.

Collins: To all extents a Collins is the same in make up as a basic sling or fizz, however the glass used for its service
is smaller at 10oz and the garnish should be a lemon wedge and cherry.
Corpse Revivers: Initially corpse revivers were intended as a morning after cure for drinkers who overindulged.

Crusta’s: Thomas stated in his book ―the ―Crusta‖ is an improvement on the ―cocktail‖ and is said to have been
invented by Santina, a celebrated Spanish caterer‖. Indeed the Crusta was first invented in New Orleans at the turn
of the 19th century by Joseph Santina. The name is gained from the sugar rim that is found on the glass to create
texture and sweetness. Also common to these drinks are a long peel of lemon zest around the inner of the glass
rim. Crusta‘s are usually made with a large measure of base spirits, a small measure of liqueur, lemon and bitters.
Some recipes call for crushed ice and others ask for just 1 cube to be used.

Daisy: A Daisy is a cocktail consisting of a base spirit, Lemon Juice (25ml), Sugar (20ml) and Grenadine (10ml). The
drink is stirred in a mixing glass and served in an old fashioned glass over ice.

Fancy Drinks: As described in Jerry Thomas‘s bartenders guide ―fancy drinks‖ are a ―miscellaneous collection of
fancy beverages, embraces a number of French, Spanish, English, Russian, Italian, German and American Recipes‖.
From this his book goes on to talk about mixes such as Pousse Café‘s, Shrubs, Champerelle‘s and sleepers.

Fizz: Fizz style drink became available with the advent of soda or charged water. They are compiled in the same
way as a sour taking a base spirit, lemon juice and sugar, then lengthening it with soda water.

Fix: A 19th Century drink similar to a sour consisting of a strong, sweet and sour component garnished
extravagantly with fresh fruits.

Flips: Traditionally flips were colonial drinks using beer or spirits. Often they were heated using an item called a
loggerhead which was placed into a metal mug. Flips have evolved and now tend to be made using a base spirit,
egg (either hole or separated), lemon, sugar and bitters. Usually they are served in a stemmed wine or sherry glass
without ice. Thomas wrote about the flips ―the essential in ―flips‖ of all sorts is, to produce the smoothness by
repeated pouring back and forward between two vessels, and beating up the eggs well in the first instance‖.

Frappe or Mist: A Frappe or Mist denotes a drink or spirit that is served over crushed or shaved ice.

Horses Necks: These are drinks using a base spirit (usually bourbon) bitters, ginger ale and citrus. The drink gains its
name from the cut of garnish which is designed to resemble a horse‘s neck looking over the rim of the glass.

Julep: ―The Julep is peculiarly an American Beverage, and in the southern states is more popular than any other‖.
The julep‘s history dates back to 18th century America, finding its home in the southern states.

Juleps were first made with Cognac and Peach Brandy, however with the influx of Irish migrants to the south and
the growth of the Bourbon industry, juleps soon became predominantly whiskey based. The drink itself is ideal for
the hot summer months where it is mixed with lots of fresh mint, sugar and crushed ice.

Martini’s: Simply stated the Martini is the king of Cocktails however, to technically be classed as a martin in the
truest sense of the word the libation must be made only of Gin or Vodka with Vermouth and Water.

Mules: A simple and refreshing drink using base spirits, lime, ginger beer and bitters which were first served in
simple style copper drinking cups to help keep the drinks cool.

Negus: Another style of classic hot drink invented by Colonel Negus, this is produced by rubbing sugar into lemon
zest to extract the oils, then placing in a jug and filling with boiling water and a alcohol base, usually Port, although
sherry can also be used. Once the mix has cooled down it is ready for consumption. Ice is not specified.

Pony: The pony itself does not donate an actual style of cocktail but more refers to the glass that is used. The Pony
glass in this case resembles a miniature port glass which holds just over 1oz of liquid.

Pousse Café: A pause café is now perhaps better known as a layered shooter. The principal behind there
construction is that you place the ingredients carefully into the glass in order of the sugar content. The higher the
content of sugar the lower it should be in the glass. The idea from this is that the lighter products will sit on top of
the heavier, so creating a layered effect. These take time to produce and must be handled with care. The Pousse
café was first written about in Jerry Thomas‘s 1862 book ―How to mix drinks or the bon vivants companion‖.

Punch: The name punch comes from the Persian word ―Panj‖, or the Hindi word ―Panch‖ meaning 5 ingredients,
namely a base spirit, sugar, citrus, spice and water. Traditionally punches are made in large containers or ―punch
bowls‖ and were popular in 18th century colonial states, indeed in the Bon Vivant‘s companion there were 86
punch recipes listed.

Rickey’s: Named after Washington Lobbyist ―Colonel Joe‖ Rickey, these drinks have very dry finish and a strong
citrus bite courtesy of the lime base, mixed with spirits, soda and bitters.

Shrubs: These cocktail require a lot of preparation before being produced. Fresh fruits (usually cherries) are
infused in boiling water for about 10 minutes before being strained through muslin into glass jar, sweetened with
sugar and blended with a base spirit, often Brandy. The jar is then sealed and left to sit for an extended period. On
service the mix is decanted into a glass with a spirit and water and serve. Ice is not specified.

Slings: In its early life the sling was a very different drink to its modern incarnation. In the 18th century slings were
comprised of spirits, water, sugar and grated nutmeg on top. Since then the sling has developed with the basic
make up being similar to Collins asides from the size of the glass it is served in, 12oz as opposed to 10oz for the
Collins. Now days the sling may utilises fresh fruits, liqueurs, citrus‘s, bitters and charged water to make a popular
summer libation.

Smash: According to the bartenders guide the smash is ―simply a julep on a small plan‖.

Sours: A sour is traditionally served in a rocks style glass and is comprised of a spirit (50ml), Lemon juice (20ml),
sugar syrup (25ml) and bitters served over crushed ice with a lemon zest garnish.

Toddy: Now days the toddy is known as a hot drink using a base spirit, hot water, honey, cloves and spices and
fresh citrus however,