There’s a new Mnemonics book for bartenders. When I saw it online digitally as an Amazon Book I had mixed feelings. SOMEONE had capitalized on my own idea! (nope) Someone had come up with a similar idea which I could combine with what I’m doing to make it even more powerful! (nope) Someone HAD written a book, it was overpriced, it had NOTHING to do with Mnemonics and I got ripped off? (bingo)
Here’s the “review” (or was that it up there in the last sentence above?)
The above is how the entire book is written. It doesn’t get any better than that. It’s not even “cute” by mistake — it uses the first letter of the alphabet to represent any one of the hundreds of ingredients in a drink. Galliano is “G”, so is Grenadine, so is Goldschlaeger, so is Grand Marnier and the same goes for every other letter of the alphabet and every other ingredient.
So far I haven’t seen a single “Mnemonic” anywhere. No Acrostics, no Acronyms, no nothing.
For comparison, here’s my own Singapore Sling Mnemonic:
For those of you who’ve spent time on this site and learned anything, I use certain key images to help me remember various ingredients. Grenadine is a Grenade. A Drill Bit is Bitters. A Spatula is a Specialty Glass… and there’s a lot of Mnemonics for fractions of ounces (Hatchets equal Half Ounces).
With MY Mnemonics you know precisely what is what. Hatchet? Half ounce. Baby Carriage? 3/4 oz. A Neck Tie? 1 oz. …
See if you can keep up now:
Singapore Sling (“Sing and Clap!”)
The operative word here is CLAP
Cherry Heering (1/2 oz)
Lime Juice (1/2 oz)
Angostura Bitters (Dash)
Pineapple Juice (4 oz) — my Mnemonic is wrong, the cop is “Law” and Law is actually 5… but that’s because I did a conversion from Milliliters and screwed it up, which I apologize for but I remember it so I’m going to leave it that way.
That’s the TOP “CLAP”
Now for the BOTTOM “CLAP” —
The bottom clap isn’t “Sing and Clap” but “You got the clap! which Gauguin had in Tahiti. Which kind of reminds me of Singapore — but only because they’re both kind of exotic sounding places (and you can get the clap in either one of them).
Gauguin starts with G (Gin, 1 1/4 oz), and he’s painting a Grenade (Grenadine with a thread hanging off of it — 1/3rd, one third = one thread). The other two ingredients are easier because the Church was after Gauguin — and that’s why there’s a little black robed Monk inside of the little Amphitheater on the bottom left, a “Benedictine” Monk, and monks take Coin (Cointreau) donations.
Yeah — Singapore Sling is a complicated drink. 🙂
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.
