How to Memorise Cocktail Recipes
It’s embarrassing when you’re a bartender, a customer asks you for a basic cocktail, and you’re not sure how to make it because you’ve forgotten the recipe. Not only does it look unprofessional, it’s a huge time waster too.
Instead of being able to quickly pump out the drink and move onto the next customer, you spend precious minutes annoying your fellow bartenders asking them how to make it, flicking through a cocktail book, or whipping out your phone to google the recipe.
And when you’ve finally finished making the drink, the customer is clearly annoyed that it’s taken so long, so they tip you less. On top of that, there are other customers impatiently waiting to be served also.
The longer they wait, the less they’re going to tip you too. And if one of them orders another cocktail that you don’t remember, you’re not going to have a good night…
That’s why memorizing cocktail recipes is important.
Because when you know the recipes like the back of your hand, this stuff doesn’t happen. If a customer orders a cocktail, you’ll be able to quickly make it and move onto the next customer.
This leads to more money in your back pocket and a more enjoyable night in general.
So that’s what we’re going to go through today. You’re going to learn about drink classifications, the best practices experienced bartenders use to memorize cocktail recipes, and I’ll even talk about some more advanced memory techniques that you can apply to anything.
But before we get to all of that, let’s figure out what recipes you need to memorize in the first place.
What do YOU Need to Memorise?
**Note** For the sake of simplicity, I’m not including highballs like scotch & coke, gin & tonic, and vodka & soda, as cocktails. For the most part, these recipes are self-explanatory.
There’s no point in learning 1,000 cocktail recipes you’re never going to make.
In general, most bars will only require you to make the same few cocktails over and over again. And that number of cocktails usually ranges between 20-50 different recipes.
To be an effective bartender for that venue, all you need to do is figure out what those cocktails are and commit them to memory. That should solve most of your problems.
So before we get into actual memory techniques, you need to find out what cocktails the bar you work for serves on a regular basis so you can memorize these recipes first.
To find out what these cocktails are, simply ask management and the more experienced bartenders you work with. They’ll be able to tell you exactly what you need to remember and what the recipe is too.
That second point is important. Because cocktail recipes can be different everywhere you go. From country to country and from bar to bar. So you want to make sure that the recipes you’re memorizing are the right ones!
Once you’ve got the essentials down, you can start exploring different cocktail recipes that aren’t as commonly served in your bar, but still important to know about. The Sazerac comes to mind, as do the most popular cocktails every bartender should know.
With all of these recipes committed to memory, life as a bartender will be pretty sweet.
source:https://craftybartending.com
