Techniques

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.

Universal Syrup Calculator Webapp!

This is super cool. Friend of the site and all-around rockstar Richard Lindsay turned my Universal Syrup Calculator into an easy-to-use webapp, so those of you who aren’t super comfortable with spreadsheets (and I don’t blame you) have a much easier solution. Just plug two numbers into Richard’s app and it spits out all the | Read More

Universal Syrup Calculator

Greetings! Today, April 25th, is the 26th anniversary of the day I started my bartending career. A couple of years ago during the height of the pandemic I decided to celebrate by sharing my chocolate chip cookie recipe online. And this year I thought I would just make that a tradition by sharing something I | Read More

Updated Resume/CV Help

With the loss of both my bartending/bar management jobs due to the pandemic, I just wrote my first resume (curriculum vitae or CV for my international and academic friends) in nearly fifteen years. To say I was a little rusty at putting together a resume would be putting it mildly. I haven’t had a need | Read More

Save Your Leftover Batched Cocktails in the Freezer

A few weeks ago I got an Instagram message from an old regular of ours, who had some questions about making my famous Gallon of Margaritas recipe for Memorial Day. At one point in the conversation she said to me, and I quote: “Can I make a half batch of these because last year we | Read More

Don’t Fear the Irish Coffee

The Irish Coffee used to freak me out. Now, granted, this was back in the day when it was nearly impossible to find the answers to just about any bartending questions online. So you kinda had to go with what the guests or the more experienced bartenders told you was correct. And that information was | Read More

My Late Night Television Debut

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

How to Use a Slushie Machine

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, I’m here to try to help. You see, for the longest time operating a slushy machine was a lengthy experiment every | Read More

Build a Better ($5.63) Muddler

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. “A lot of this stuff is really expensive,” she said, “Do you have any advice for home cocktail enthusiasts who don’t want to spend a ton of money?” And | Read More

How to Take Inventory and Calculate Pour Cost

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

Hot Toddies Suck – Long Live the Hot Toddy

Here’s a fun little game you can play. Go ask someone – preferably someone not wearing arm garters or quoting Jerry Thomas – and ask them what’s in a Hot Toddy. The more people you try this game with, the better, because you’re going to get a lot of varied answers. But I’m going to | Read More

How to Build Your Own Carbonation Rig

Sometimes when I put up a new post on this site, it’s because I have what I think is a good idea and I want to say, “Hey world, here’s an idea I came up with and I’d like to share it with you.” Other times I put up a new post because I want | Read More

Vacuum Seal Oleo Saccharum

I’ve said this before: I’m a lazy guy, and yet I’m a perfectionist. I want my cocktails perfectly-prepared, but I’d 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

Bottled Carbonated Cocktails

I guess I’m getting old. I don’t 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 I’m going to cry into it, I swear. Believe me, I’m all for innovation | Read More