I have always said that there are three things, in equal proportion, that make a great cocktail: the recipe you use, the ingredients you select, and the techniques you employ. These posts are all about technique.
November 27, 2018
As you probably know, the main reason why I have this website is to share what I’ve learned in the bar world with you, the people who actually read this junk š But one other small reason why I record my findings here is that is serves as a record for when I need to | Read More
May 25, 2018
I was on Seth Meyers this week! I went on to promote my newest book, Drinking Distilled: A User’s Manual, but ended up making a Spanish Coffee instead and almost setting the whole place on fire. Such a trip getting a chance to do this! I was nervous as hell for like three weeks, even | Read More
July 12, 2016
The newly rediscovered interest in slushy cocktails has resulted in me being inundated with questions about how to properly operate a slushie machine. And so, as has always been my mission with this website, Iām here to try to help. You see, for the longest time operating a slushy machine was a lengthy experiment every | Read More
August 11, 2014
I was having this conversation with a writer about my new book on cocktail technique last week, and she got on the subject of bar tools. āA lot of this stuff is really expensive,ā she said, āDo you have any advice for home cocktail enthusiasts who donāt want to spend a ton of money?” And | Read More
July 3, 2014
Read full article at www.foodrepublic.com
Bring a large pot of water to a boil (cover the pot to speed things up). In the meantime, put some cold water and ice into a medium bowl, and arrange a double layer of paper towels on the counter.
April 10, 2014
Ever since I wrote on How To Price a Cocktail Menu like a million years ago, I’ve gotten requests from bartenders, bar managers, and bar owners for some guidance on how to perform inventory and calculate pour cost. Which is, like, super surprising to me since there are few tasks more reviled in our business | Read More
February 7, 2014
Hereās a fun little game you can play. Go ask someone – preferably someone not wearing arm garters or quoting Jerry Thomas – and ask them whatās in a Hot Toddy. The more people you try this game with, the better, because youāre going to get a lot of varied answers. But Iām going to | Read More
January 2, 2014
Sometimes when I put up a new post on this site, itās because I have what I think is a good idea and I want to say, “Hey world, hereās an idea I came up with and Iād like to share it with you.” Other times I put up a new post because I want | Read More
March 13, 2012
Iāve said this before: Iām a lazy guy, and yet Iām a perfectionist. I want my cocktails perfectly-prepared, but Iād really rather not work too hard. With that in mind, I present my latest in perfectly-prepared cocktail ingredients for slackers like you. A couple of years ago, like so many other bartenders around the world, | Read More
October 10, 2011
I guess I’m getting old. I donāt say this because my fortieth birthday is approaching like a speeding bullet, but this: I know that cocktail carbonation is the hot new thing right now, but if someone hands me another carbonated Manhattan Iām going to cry into it, I swear. Believe me, Iām all for innovation | Read More
June 16, 2011
Contrary to what you may have heard, thereās more to my job than coming up with cool mezcal cocktails and bitching about having to write the schedule. At the end of the day, Iāve got to approach this career as a professional, with an eye on business. One of the more challenging parts of my | Read More
December 10, 2009
While this is a topic that has been covered by pretty much every cocktail blog under the sun, I haven’t yet written about it. Why? Well, for one, I’m lazy and never got around to it. But after having made various versions of grenadine for years at my bars and after doing a little research | Read More
March 20, 2009
Hey, here’s a fun way to illustrate karma. If you’ve, say, built a large web presence upon a not-so-generous string of public criticisms of bar-related web videos [1, 2, 3, 4], then one day somebody will ask you to appear in a series of videos yourself. That’s what happened last month when Imbibe Magazine called | Read More
March 6, 2009
Speaking of great cocktails made with cachaƧa, let’s take a moment before the weekend and see what our old friends at the American Bartending School would do when confronted with a bottle of the stuff. In this segment, we’ll learn how to make the Brazilian classic, the caipirinha (kai-peer-EEN-ya) 1. Announce to your friends that | Read More
May 22, 2008
Some of you are here to find out how to make my pinot gris reduction for the East of Eden, and as the directions will tell you, you’ll need to reduce the wine by half. But how can you tell when a liquid is reduced by half without pouring it into a measuring cup every | Read More
These are the books and tools I use every single day to make drinks at home and behind the bar. Clicking on a product takes you to Amazon, which helps me keep this site running, so thank you in advance!
