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BarSmarts™ Mixology Course

BarSmarts Tools

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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By , April 24th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , | Categories: Classic Cocktails, technique, tools | 2 comments |

So You Wanna Make A Great Cocktail

shaker

IMG_2125You can do it. I know you can, because I believe anyone can, provided they understand that the best cocktails consist of two basic elements:

  1. Great ingredients
  2. 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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By , October 30th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , | Categories: technique, tools | Comments are closed |