Focusing on anything with so much madness going on everywhere is tough. For memorizing drinks or anything else, a calm quiet environment is scientifically proven to work best — for later perfect execution and flawless performance when crowds are cheering and insanity prevails.
Recently I published a few different drink Mnemonics to remember the following drinks:
Singapore Sling
Zombie1
Bahama Breeze*
Ramos Fizz2
Yellow Bird3
I tend to modify my mnemonics occasionally to strengthen the bonds. What I’m always looking for is the perfect picture. What that means for me is that I won’t even have to hesitate a moment – no slow downs – instant, total recall. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, then I use backup systems and will also have an Acrostic or Acronym (If I didn’t develop the Mnemonic that way from the start already).
While what I’m showing you appears to be mostly visualization through graphics. But visualization for a blind man would include sound, smell, size, etc. So when you visualize, don’t just see, but smell, gear, even imagine touching, and sometimes tasting. Is it heavy? How big is it?
Kinesthetic (touch)
Auditory (sound)
Visual (appearance)
Emotional (does it make you feel any particular way)
Conceptual
Olfactory (smell)
Gustatory (taste)
Spatial (size)
If you’ve clicked on the Bahama Breeze link above, you’ll see that it isn’t a full drawing. Rather it is a story. I find that some drinks are quite simple to encrypt with just a story, and in this case it was likely that “Bonnie And CLyde” made it particularly easy.4
In general my creativity and productivity during the shelter in place period are way up, aside from my usual reading and study ranging from forensic debate, wood lore, botany, and so much to do with enhanced learning strategies, I’ve been looking at an advanced note taking method called Zettelkasten (German for “Note Bin”) developed in the early 1900’s by Niklas Luhmann, a German of humble origins who became a prolific writer (58 published non-fiction works) and renowned professor and scholar.
This is from the description on Amazon:
“How to Take Smart Notes is a book by Sönke Ahrens that goes into detail
about the Zettlekasten methodology developed by Niklas Luhmann, a well
known academic that published a prodigious amount of work: 58 books
and more hundreds of articles before his death.
This book is for you whether you’re trying to think better, write more books or academic papers, or you want to take notes using the Zettlekasten method.
lt’s written for students, academics and non-fiction writers in mind.
This is a method that works almost effortlessly because you rely on the
“system” which is what enables you to be prolific. It’s used by many successful writers, artists and academics. This is how Luhmann became one of the most productive social theorists in the last century.”
I also got another book, a condensed version of the above, which makes it clear that Luhmann created a total average of 6 finished notes a day (but likely dozens of quick throwaways?) – so the system isn’t as confusing as I thought it was and it should be able to serve me well.
That said, I haven’t looked at it long enough or used it enough to determine whether or not it’ll help with just memorizing drink recipes in detail. It may help with aspects of mixology theory and drink / liquor / wine history etc.
One thing about the Zettelkasten (Note Bin) method that IS transferable is that writing must be done when learning, and that putting things into your own words is imperative — merely re-reading the same thing over and over won’t help, and using recall is important.
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of bartending and bar management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown clubs and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa in Exclusive Platinum Service Awards Clubs, Florida. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
Footnotes 👇
- Zombie (George de Groff’s version as published on Spruce Eats — This is a fairly hard drink because it’s multiple ingredients are varied and divided into different proportions. That, plus the fact that it’s not ordered often and thus will fade from memory if not properly encoded for instant recall, make it a hard drink. For this one I’m using an idea from my youth when the local mall was selling a rubber OJ Simpson Halloween mask, and the recollection that OJ Simpson was once on the Howard Stern Show and Howard had a recording of him saying “I would Love to” (no context) which his sound effects person had queued up for one button access.
Current Iteration of the Zombie Cocktail
Anyway, long story, but this reminds me of Halloween, of Zombies, of Orange Juice (OJ Simpson), of black, orange, and white (Thanksgiving, Superbowl, Licorice – all rich and meaningful images to ME, and what you’ll have to do once you get started with this type of Mnemonic elaborative encoding yourself when you learn it if you haven’t already done so) etc.
The Zombie Recipe is thus: (The Tie, which stands for 1 oz., black, white, orange is 1 oz Black Rum, 1 oz White Rum, 1 oz Orange Curacao (I Google’d Zombie, black, white, orange and came up with “Zombie Party”, which I then converted into the Tie idea); The Box of Cereal, which counts for 1 1/2 oz., OJ, Hawaiian Punch – which in turn stands for Passion Fruit Juice is 1 1/2 oz OJ, 1 1/2 oz Passion Fruit Juice; The drills in the hands of the Hawaiian Punch character stand for “bitters” (Drill Bit) and since there are two drills, it means 2 dashes of bitters; O.J. Simpson is reaching outside of the box with a Hatchet, which stands for 1/2 oz, and is chopping a citrus, in this case a lemon and a lime, 1/2 oz Lemon Juice, 1/2 oz Lime Juice; O.J. Simpson is also tossing a Grenade (which stands for Grenadine) into an Amphitheater, Amphitheater stands for 1/4 oz, so 1/4 oz of Grenadine. The Garnish reminder is the mint sprig adorning his head and also over to the left of the page where I had placed it originally before deciding to make it part of O.J.s getup. It also gets as a garnish any “fruit in season,” which I gather means if there isn’t any other fruit in season, then just a mint sprig will do… and if there isn’t any mint in season, then any fruit in season will do.
Earlier Iteration of the Zombie Cocktail
Since having created this image I haven’t had to think about this drink more than once a day, sometimes not even that often. Two or three days go by and I still remember it’s ingredients and exact proportions and garnishes. It also gets a float of 151 Dark Rum on top, if available, so I suppose I could use a mint leaf as a sail on a dark little dildo boat (the mnemonics for 151 are DLD, TLD, THLD, DLTH, TLTH and whatever other combinations there are – so Dildo being the easiest to remember quickly as an object, that’ll stand for 151 rum for me from now on) with a Mint Sprig sail. Memorization of the dildo comes from the movie Naked Gun with O.J. Simpson, where Lt. Frank Drebbin is accused of sexual assault with a concrete dildo – all very easy to recall FOR ME – When you make your associations you’ll do them the way you will find easiest to recall later on, long term – which is what I’m trying to teach you as PART of the most advanced bartending there is.
[↩] - Ramos Fizz — The Ramos Fizz is not difficult, but it’s also not often called for in most bars today. That’s why I included it — it’s a real classic, quite famous, and knowing through mnemonics will help you remember it for a long time for when you need it without having to look it up often. 1 1/2 oz Old Tom Gin (Box of “Total” Cereal), 1/2 oz Lemon Juice, 1/2 oz Lime Juice (hatchet chopping), 1 oz Simple Syrup (1:1 water to sugar), 1 oz egg whites, 2 oz Cream or Milk (Noah on the Milk Carton) and 3 Dashes of Orange Flower Water.
Shake like mad. Splash of Club Soda, no Garnish.[↩] - Yellow Bird — You can’t think Yellow Bird without thinking “Big Bird” (so Collins Glass – Big Glass!) and “yellow” or clear everything in case there’s ever any confusion. The cereal box has Pineapple and Lemon (juices), 1 1/2 oz of each. Big (Yellow) Bird has a Tie on (1 oz) with a symbol reminding me it’s Light Rum (a Star Trek comm badge. Why? William Shatner made a marketing video for Bacardi back in the late ’60’s / mid ’70’s where he played bartender, using only dark and light rum). Yellow Bird has two Hatchets (1/2 oz) thus pouring 1/2 oz Banana Liqueur and 1/2 oz White Ce de Cacao (symbolized by Hershey’s White Chocolate). Then there’sthe Cherry with sword pick (Cherry Garnish) and finally the card suit “club” because it’s topped off with club soda.
Yellow Bird
I’llprobably work on this one a bit more to tighten it up.[↩] - *Bahama Breeze:
Bahama Breeze Cocktail Elaborative Encoding Mnemonic Device
For this one, what stuck in my head somehow was the PD having a shoot out with Bonnie And Clyde. PD is 2oz Pineapple Juice (or 1 oz Pineapple, 1 oz Orange Juice), and 1 oz Dark Rum. Then for Bonnie And CLyde: B for Banana Liqueur, A for Apricot Brandy, C for Coconut Rum, and L for Lemon Juice (not lime, because in the movie I’m imagining for Bonnie And CLyde, the old actor Jack Lemon is the star).
Then the image of the grenade and Bumblebee inside of the Amphitheater (1/4 oz each) are easy – the Grenade representing Grenadine, and the Bee (with it’s prison stripes – which if Bonnie and Clyde get caught they’ll soon be wearing too) representing 1/4 oz. honey.
All in all it’s a fun story which YES took a little time and creativity to construct – but I KNOW it precisely, won’t easily forget any of it, can INSTANTLY refresh it with one quick look at the story, and recalling it is a breeze. You could even call it a “Bahama Breeze.” 🙂 [↩]
