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BarSmarts™ Mixology Course

Whether you are a seasoned professional or someone just getting interested in mixology, I highly encourage you to check out the BarSmarts™ program. Led by the famed team of partners of Beverage Alcohol Resource (BAR), LLC, Dale DeGroff, Doug Frost, Steve Olson, F. Paul Pacult, Andy Seymour and David Wondrich, BarSmarts™ was designed exclusively for Pernod Ricard USA and aims to deliver the most comprehensive spirits and mixology education available.

Summit Sips is Now Certified
I just completed the BarSmarts™ WIRED certification course and I thought I’d write a few words about this program. First of all, I have always been curious about bartender certification and I have a lot of respect for everyone in the trade that can successfully navigate a busy night behind the stick. Managing customers several bodies deep, staying on top of wait staff orders and keeping track of tabs and cash transactions—all while maintaining a watch on customer behavior and consumption—seems like a hectic environment to make a buck. It can be a lot to handle and comes with some serious legal and economic responsibility since the bar is often the primary revenue stream for both restaurants and drinking establishments.

Not long ago, A friend of mine completed a state-certified bartending program and felt that it was lacking in many ways. That program focused on speed, efficient technique and drink recipe memorization rather than history, product knowledge, and creativity. Although I recognize a business’s need to move product and to do so in a way that gets the job done quickly, safely and economically, I was more interested in understanding spirits, how products are made, how they compare, why one might cost more than another, the importance of fresh ingredients, how to balance flavor, and most importantly—how to build a delicious cocktail, be it a classic or a contemporary riff. This focus on quality and ingredients was much more important to me than learning how to accurately free-pour.

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Holiday Gift Ideas for the Mixologist

Gifts For some people it’s a burden and for others it’s a joy—that time of the year when everyone is expected to exchange gifts. Whether or not you enjoy the holiday season there is one thing most of us agree upon: how frustrating it can be to try to come up with good gift ideas. Sure, there’s amazing and expensive technology out there with plenty of fun gadgets that will be obsolete by this time next year, but how about a more traditional approach? Why not give a gift that will inspire or will teach, or will assist? I’m talking about useful gifts for the mixologist in your family.

A Shopping List
I’ve written before about using good tools and technique with an emphasis on making the most of what you already own. That’s fine for the rest of the year, but this is the perfect time to consider items that can help elevate your mixologist’s skills and abilities so they (and you) can enjoy even better cocktails in the coming year. These suggestions are in no particular order, and some of the best resources for buying these items are listed at the end:

Boston Shaker – It has to be the most useful tool for the home imbiber. The Boston Shaker is what almost every professional bartender uses to mix cocktails. It’s comprised of a large, 28 ounce metal tin and a 16 ounce pint glass. This simple tool will have your mixologist shaking in no time! They are easy to clean and usually very inexpensive. What’s that you say? They already have a 3-piece (cobbler style) cocktail shaker? Get them a Boston Shaker anyway—trust me—they will be glad you did. A 3-piece shaker might look convenient, but they are messy, they don’t seal (or don’t come apart!) and they are often just more clumsy than they need to be. Since the Boston Shaker is so cheap, you’ll want to add:
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So You Wanna Make A Great Cocktail

You can do it. I know you can, because I believe anyone can, provided they understand that the best cocktails consist of two basic elements:

Great ingredients
Great technique—with the equipment you have

You won’t resolve yourself to mediocrity once you realize that you’re not required to own a multitude of special tools to get the job done. Of course, using top-shelf products and fancy equipment to build your cocktails can make things easier, faster and better—but getting good results using what’s available is always the goal.

Is great technique a substitute for great ingredients?
No. As you’ll see, proper technique is closely tied to the equipment you are using, and rarely can it replace or mask a substitution or omission. Ingredients and technique are equally important, and as you face inevitable limits due to budget, space or availability, you’ll need to understand how to use what you have and make the most of it.

Great Ingredients
There’s no question that what you put into something has the greatest effect on what comes out. It’s the same with cooking a gourmet dinner. When it comes to making cocktails, there are some things you cannot substitute. Fresh citrus is definitely one of them. Don’t use the sweetened bottled lime juice available at the liquor store. Also, don’t bother with bottled lemon juice thinking you are saving time. It just doesn’t make sense when you can grab a few lemons and limes at the local market any day of the week. Besides, fruit is almost drink sized! Cut and squeeze only what you need for a drink or two. You won’t be wasting anything, and the fresh peel will often end up as a cocktail garnish, so you need to get the fruit anyway.

Some spirits cannot be substituted either. Chartreuse and Benedictine, for example, are totally unique, as are plenty of others. Yet, there are some liqueurs that can be replaced, such as subbing triple sec for Cointreau, with very little affect on the outcome. It could also be argued that light rums are similar enough, or that vodka should be flavorless anyway. Just remember that if a recipe calls for one brand, it’s usually because another might not contain some subtle flavor characteristic that is important in the cocktail. When in doubt, ask someone who knows the drink and they can suggest alternatives.

Don’t skip the bitters! You may not think a drink that calls for just a dash Angostura even needs something so tiny in the first place, but skipping the bitters is like not salting your soup. Don’t worry,

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