Bartender 101: Learn Those Drink Recipes

A good bartender knows their drinks. Any seasoned bartender I ever interviewed can tell you that I would ask them the ingredients in a Martini and throw them for a loop with Little Purple Men (1 oz Sambuca, a licorice flavored liqueur, and 1 oz Chambord, a raspberry flavored liqueur). Many times, working bartenders, applying at my bar, could expect me to show up to their bar, order a drink (to test quality), and observe them while they work.

How do you go about learning hundreds of drink recipes? You study!

Breaking into the Bar Business: Learn the Recipes

The first thing you are given at a bartender school is a book, actually more of a pamphlet, of cocktail recipes. For the self-starter, go out and purchase a good drink recipe book and some index cards. If you want, find a good cocktail recipe Website and take the recipes from there to get started now.

I am sure you have used flash cards at some point in your life. You should make drink flash cards out of those index cards, about 100 to start. Write the recipe on one side and the drink name on the other. Quiz yourself until you have them memorized. Doing this will give you a good base knowledge of drink recipes.

I will tell you now that the majority of business in neighborhood bars will order beer, shots, well, or call drinks. Customers in nightclubs will order all of those in addition to fancier cocktails with silly names and shooters. Patrons to restaurant bars will order the same plus wine or house specialty drinks.

Your Starter Recipe List

Here is a list of drinks that I was most often asked to make. Keep in mind that this list is limited to 31 plus some variations. After you create flash cards for these, you should add to them by asking everyone you know to name 5 drinks until you have 100 different recipes.