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My Second Book is Out Now!

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I’m so proud to announce that my second book, Drinking Distilled: A User’s Manual, is out now! Just a couple of years in the making, this one is radically different from my first book, The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique. Drinking Distilled is a sort of how-to manual for those of us who enjoy | Read More

Stop it With the Healthy Alcohol Already

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One of the worst things to ever happen to the liquor industry was the health craze. Those seeds were planted in the Seventies, grew in the Eighties, and have been harvested more and more every decade since. I still remember being stuck eating carob-covered banana chips while my mom was in Jazzercise class at the | Read More

Orange Blossom/Flower Water and the Ramos Gin Fizz

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How come nobody ever talks about orange blossom water? It’s like, “Hey, welcome to the internet. Here’s a thousand articles about a bunch of bitters that you’ll never use, and no information on orange blossom water.” Okay, sure. There’s really only one classic cocktail that calls for orange blossom water, the Ramos Gin Fizz. But | Read More

My Reddit AMA

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Happy New Year! I hope the holidays treated everyone well, especially you professional bartenders out there. I think the only folks who have it harder than we do during December are our friends in the retail business, so now that we’ve moved on to January, let’s all raise a glass. Hey, there are a lot | Read More

How to Use a Slushie Machine

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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

Bartender Story Problems

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If you don’t tend bar for a living, or haven’t at some point in your past, you probably don’t understand the quick thinking that we have to do every single second. So, in order to demonstrate what sort of complicated math we do regularly to those who don’t tend bar, and to act as a | Read More

Southbound Suarez

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Man, there are few things out there more polarizing to people than creamy drinks. And it’s funny, you know, because I think it’s a pretty universal thing that our mouths just water at the sight of a creamy cocktail. Look at a properly made Ramos Gin Fizz. Or a White Russian. Or Egg Nog. How | Read More

How to Make Your Own Horchata

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You know what I love? Horchata. There is nothing in the world like a giant Styrofoam cup filled with pebble ice and sweet horchata while you nosh on greasy tacos from a street truck. Having been born and raised in California, it is one of life’s great pleasures. And since I’m obsessed with all things | Read More

How Not to Make a Sazerac

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Okay, I know. This is some seriously low-hanging fruit and I should be ashamed of myself for making fun of it. But come on. It’s so bad, but it’s so fun. So sit back, and enjoy this video from one of our longtime favorites. Ladies and gentlemen, the Sazerac. A drink that originilated in New | Read More

2016 Drink Trend Predictions

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For many years, I’ve occupied two worlds: not only have I been behind the bar full-time for the past 20 years, but also I’ve been writing about it for well over a decade. People like myself, who not only publish their thoughts on spirits and cocktails but also work behind the bar on a daily | Read More

Ask Your Bartender: Job Insecurity

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So after much deliberation, I decided to print this question and my response, as it’s a question that I get from you guys at least once a month. And therefore I think it’s important. So here we go: Hey Jeff, I’m new to the bar, but not our company’s restaurant group. I’ve done my research | Read More

Build a Better ($5.63) Muddler

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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

I Wrote a Book!

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So, for the past couple of years I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people who have visited this site, and many of them read something like this: To: Jeffrey Morgenthaler Subject: Web Form Submission From: Some Loudmouth Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”UTF-8″ Message-Id: <20140412235755> Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2013 16:57:55 -0700 (PDT) Hey Asshole When are | Read More

How to Take Inventory and Calculate Pour Cost

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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

Bar Tools for Your Feet

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Our good friend Erick Castro recently posited a question on Facebook about bartenders’ footwear of choice, which got me thinking about mine. So I thought I’d share my experience with you in the hopes that folks could chime in and build a discussion that might be of help to other bartenders out there. About thirteen | Read More