Archive for August 2014

Summer Brief: Cocktail fire tricks

When making a zombie it is customary to use a hollowed out half of a passionfruit to fill with wray and nephew rum and set alight to it. A nifty trick that can be done by the bartender is fill a salt shaker with strawberry angel delight and safely pour some from a height over the zombie. Angel delight is very flammable but because it is powdered, it cannot spread or set fire to anything else or cause harm to a customer if done correctly.
Below is a video of this technique being done.


Wednesday, 27 August 2014 by Ashley Woodrow-smith
Leave a comment

Summer Brief: Orange zest caramelisation

A common technique known by bartenders is the use of fire to entice and enhance flavours. Below are photos I have taken of the process used to caramelize the oils and sugars expressed from the rind of and orange.

First, cut a large slice of the oranges surface off. 
Warm up the back and front with a lighter for about 4 seconds each.
Hold the flame in front of your orange.
squeeze the zest out of the skin onto the flame.
Through practice this trick becomes easier and professional.
This trick adds an extra zesty taste and smell to some drinks which will help perfect them.

Thursday, 21 August 2014 by Ashley Woodrow-smith
Categories: | Leave a comment

Summer Brief: Know Your Glasses

The Glassware found in a bar serves many other purposes than simply as a recepticle and a container for your drinks. In fact, many glasses are designed for a particular liquor. Brandy Snifters are large, and the wide bowl is cupped in the hand to warm the brandy, while the long-stemmed handle of the Champagne Glass accomplishes the opposite, keeping the drink cold. Appearance also counts when selecting glassware. A Martini is not a Martini if served in a beer mug, as the wine glass is ill-suited to holding the ice or quantity of liquid in a popular Highball.

Stem Glass
Used for:

Martinis
Daiquiris
Pornstar Martini
Cherry Smash
Martinez
Manhattan 
Brooklyn
Margarita
Sidecar
Jack Rose
Negroni

Hurricaine Glass
Used for:

Zombie
Planter's Punch
Love Potion
Weng Weng


Old Fashioned
Used for:

Old Fashioned
Purple Rain
Sazerac
Mai Tai
The Godfather
Ice Pick

Collins
Used for:

Mojito
Long island iced tea
Tom Collins
Bloody Mary

Boston glass and Boston shaker
Used for shaking cocktails with ice.



Thursday, 14 August 2014 by Ashley Woodrow-smith
Categories: | Leave a comment

Cocktail Making

There are a few different ways to pour a drink behind the bar. Many bars require the staff to use jiggers as seen below, which are used to measure the amount of spirit that you require to be put into a cocktail. In the UK jiggers come in 25ml, 35ml, 50ml, 70ml. It is very common to have 125ml, 175ml & 250ml jiggers to measure wine as well.
alternatively you can free pour, which means pouring straight from the bottle. The best technique for free pouring is holding the bottle by the neck with your forefinger and thumb and using the rest of the fingers to support the rest of the bottle
The most common way to hold a bottle as seen below is by the neck with your thumb tucked in. This allows you to hold the vertically upside-down and gives the bartender control over the bottle and the end of the pouring motion
another way is to grab the neck with your hand facing down so that when you flip it your hand is the correct way up.
This technique is very comfortable but makes it a lot harder to end the pour as you have less control over the bottle and have to twist your wrist in quite an unnatural way.
A similar technique is grabbing the neck in-between your middle and forefinger. This gives the bartender more control over the bottle than the previous technique but is less comfortable.
alternatively you can hold the knock with your thumb and pinky and support the rest of the bootle with your remaining fingers. All these types of pour work. You just have to fid the best one for you.
Another technique which looks good but also speeds up the process of making multiple drinks is stack pouring which involves stacking a number of glasses into each other and free pouring into the gaps of each glass. This technique requires the bartender to know how many seconds to pour for the correct measurement.
The video below shows this technique being used to make jaegerbombs

Fan pouring is yet another technique which can speed up the process of cocktail making whilst also giving the customer a show. It involves multiple bottles in a hand and free pouring as seen below.
Once you have poured the ingredients to your cocktail into your boston glass, fill your boston tin with ice and quickly flip the boston tin to fit on top of the glass.
Then flip it over as seen below and make sure that the glass firmly held in place by the tin
Hold the glass at the base with your thumb and the boston tin with your other hand.
And shake over your shoulder for the best shaking motion.

Tuesday, 5 August 2014 by Ashley Woodrow-smith
Categories: , | Leave a comment

Summer Brief: Bartending Equipment

Speed-pourers / Pour spouts
These pour spouts are placed in the top of a bottle and make it easy to moderate how much liquid is poured as it makes a consistent flow of liquid.

Juice-pourers
Juice pour spouts are similar to to speed pourers but allow a lot more liquid to be poured quicker which is needed when pouring fruit juices.

Muddler
A muddler is a tool, used like a pestle to mash—or muddle—fruits, herbs, and/or spices in the bottom of a glass to release their flavour. Cocktails which require this include: Mojito, Caipirinha and Old Fashioned 

Waiters friend
This device functions as a corkscrew, but has an "arm" to grip the edge of the bottle and give leverage when pulling corks. There is often a short blade, which is used to cut away the foil or wax seal that covers the cork.

Hawthorne Cocktail Strainer
The next most-important-bar-tool is known as the Hawthorne Strainer, a mutant device that looks like the unholy union of Spatula and Slinky. It is a slotted "paddle" with a coiled spring along its outside edge. When used, it is placed over the end of a shaker or a mixing glass before the drink is poured, in order to prevent ice and other stuff from getting into your drink.

Bar blade
Bar blades are bottle openers that are designed with the bartender in mind. The circular hole makes it easy to grab from ones back pocket and makes the tools easy to spin round ones fingers to impress the customer. The other end 

Garnish Tongs
Garnish Tongs are used to simply transfer your choice of garnish for a drink from your garnish tray to the drink. Many bartenders use their hands, but some like to give a more professional service to the client. 

Zester
A zester is used for obtaining zest from lemons and other citrus fruits. To operate, the zester is pressed with moderate force against the fruit and drawn across its peel. The rims cut the zest from the pith underneath. The zest is cut into ribbons, one drawn through each hole.


Apple Correr
An apple corer is a device for removing the core and pips from an apple. It may also be used for a pear, quince, or similar fruits. 

Melon Baller
A melon baller, formally called a Parisienne scoop, is a small spoon-like tool used to cut round- or oval-shaped sections of melon, known as melon balls, by pressing them into the melon's flesh and rotating. It can also be used to cut other soft fruit.

Bar Spoon
This is simply a long-handled spoon for stirring drinks, muddling fruit, and making layered drinks by pouring over the back of the spoon.


Friday, 1 August 2014 by Ashley Woodrow-smith
Categories: , | Leave a comment