MEMORIZING LOTS OF DRINK RECIPE INGREDIENTS QUICKLY AND PRECISELY
Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa – last night and the night before (October 15th and 16th, 2021) I worked the Halloween Event at the zoo; a line of ten to 15 to my left as they filed past, with their families and friends providing them with the drink names they wanted to drink from the other side of the rope they stood on. Seven specialty drinks, plus whatever else was being thrown at me. Each new drink 5 to 7 ingredients of exact proportions and garnish.
Example, the WITCHES BREW:
1.25 oz Camareno Silver Tequila
1 oz Lime Juice
.5 oz Blue
.5 oz Razzmatazz
Shake, Pour
Top with Sprite
* Garnish with stick of fresh berries
There was no time to look at a recipe or even to memorize – fifteen minutes for 7 drinks, sitting down with a snack and a 2 pages of recipes photographed on my cell-phone and it was LIVE!
Without my mnemonic convention for instantly memorizing exact pours I’d have been cooked.
Over and over again returning guests on the line thanked me and told the manager that the drink I made for them was “MUCH BETTER” than what they got from the other bars… not because I did something “different” but because I did something THE SAME (as the actual measurements and ingredients the recipe called for).
Last night was the Halloween Party – once a year. Will making recipes right according to spec bring guests back next year? maybe. But what about in your own bar, every single night, night after night? Are your bartenders memorizing recipes precisely and “wowing” guests again and again, or are they winging it and slopping together a mish-mash of colors and flavors and not having a care?
TEST YOUR BARTENDERS!
Being fast but wrong only compounds the effects of mistakes.
Give whoever it is a written bartending test of 20 to 40 popular drinks. Include name of drink and under it:
Glass
Method
Ingredients
Garnish
Then, no cheating, no phone near them, no “bathroom break” and, with you watching during the entire test – let them.write the answers. 30 minutes tops.
Afterwards grade it as part of their 90 day ’employment evaluation’.
Then (if they fail or pass, and they’re still there in a week) MAKE THEM TAKE THE IDENTICAL TEST!
Don’t give them a copy to take home or photograph with their phone after grading the first time.
Compare the answers of the first test to the answers on the second test. If the bartender really totally sucks then they should be different answers to the same questions.
If they’re identical, but wrong, then the person CAN learn, but learned wrong and needs correction.
Send your bartenders to join my Facebook and/or LinkedIn Mnemonic Bartending group. If they’re smart they’ll make the time and give it the extra effort to learn the techniques that will, once mastered, improve their bartending skills at once.
LINKEDIN: https://lnkd.in/ePMTTNF3
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mnemonicbartending/
Site Author, David Jonathan Curtis: David Jonathan Curtis, a seasoned professional in his fifth decade of bartending and bar management, began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in both iconic Midtown clubs and Wall Street bars, generating over $1,350,000.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia and now Tampa, 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.
