Brandy Drinkers

As opposed to the other food service careers, bartending is one job where personal style counts the most. The best bartenders I’ve known always have a personality to them, and some even have a little edge of attitude. Always remember that the whole point of your job is recreation.

The best bartenders are good conversationalists. Have a joke or two ready. Read up on the news daily before your shift, so you’ll be able to keep up chat on sports, politics, and business.

Working in America, don’t stress so much over knowing really complex drinks. About half of your orders will be for domestic beer, anyway. The non-beer orders will be something simple like a shot or a simple mixed drink like a vodka-and-coke. If somebody orders something really complicated, do your best to get it as close as you can and serve it. Bar etiquette nearly demands that the customer accepts whatever you pour as your version of what they ordered, and anybody who is enough of a troublemaker to ask for a Long-Island Iced Tea when you’re slammed busy with a full bar generally deserves whatever you put in their glass, and probably wouldn’t know the difference anyway.

Some environments to avoid:
A bartender can get work nearly anywhere in the world that allows alcohol, so you might as well be picky about where to work. You can work where you want, it’s your career and a matter of personal taste, but if I were you I’d avoid working in these places if I could help it:

Night clubs, rave clubs, or anyplace that requires a bouncer and caters to a young crowd. Loud music, rowdy customers, frequent fights, dumb kids trying to fake their ID on you. Additionally, young adults aren’t civilized enough yet to know how to behave in a bar, can’t hold their liquor, and don’t tip worth anything.

Big commercial chain “McBars”. I don’t want to name names, but any place that advertises on TV is about as far from a real bar as you can get and still serve liquor. Especially if it’s solid ferns and oak inside and caters to the yuppie crowd. These places tend to draw featherweight drinkers and have no personality to them, plus you’ll have an uptight management hierarchy over your head every minute.

Gambling bars or sports bars. Generally, any place with slot machines built into the table or giant screen TVs that are always on and turned all the way up just aren’t worth much. There’s too much distraction from the serious business of drinking and developing a warm relationship with the bartender which will result in a thoughtful tip. Anyplace where the focus is to encourage the customer to never make eye contact with you is deadening to work at, since you might as well be a robot for all anybody cares. The exception is if the bar is actually in a casino or hotel or has an actual live band. At least there people are likely to stay a while.

How to do all the tricks:
Get yourself a mixology pocket guide and keep it on you to avoid having to memorize every bizarre drink. But never let the customer see you checking it ? keep it in a drawer or cupboard, or act like you had to go in the back room for a second.

Glassware:
Many drinks are specific to the kind of glass; at the very least get the glass right. Keep one towel for drying and another for polishing. A stemmed glass should be used for cocktails with no ice, so that the drink will not be warmed by the hand holding the glass.

How to chill a glass:
Either put the glass in a refrigerator or fill it with cracked, shaved or crushed ice before mixing. When the drink is ready, empty the ice out of the glass.

How to frost a glass:
For frosted drinks a glass should be stored in the freezer or buried in shaved ice. To ’sugar frost’ a glass, wet the rim of a previously chilled glass with a slice of lemon or lime and then dip the rim into powdered sugar.

Ice:
You’ll use lots of ice; cubed, cracked, crushed or shaved. Always put the ice in the mixer before pouring the drink; this way the liquids are chilled as they flow over the ice and there is no splashing. For stirring or shaking use cracked or cubed ice, and for specialty drinks crushed or shaved ice.

Sugar:
As with ice, put the sugar in the mixing glass before the liquor. Usually powdered sugar is used because it dissolves quickly in alcohol at low temperatures.

How to stir:
Drinks containing liquor and ingredients require stirring with ice for proper mixing. When using carbonated drinks make sure to stir gently to preserve their fizz. Too little stirring fails to mix the drink, while too much melts the ice and ruins the drink. Also, to stir a drink containing ice cubes, poke the ice a few times; this will evenly mix any and all liquors.

How to shake:
Often drinks containing fruit juices, sugar, cream or other ingredients are difficult to mix?these should be given a quick shake. When a drink requires frothiness use a blender.

Using a strainer:
Always use a metal strainer ? the kind which clips to the edges of the mixing glass.

Pouring:
When mixing the same cocktail for a group of people, make all the drinks in one batch in a pitcher. So that no one drink is stronger or weaker than the rest set up the glasses in a row and fill each glass only halfway, then go back and finish each one off.

How to float liquor:
To make one liquor float on top of another in the same glass pour each ingredient slowly over a teaspoon held bottom side up in the glass. The teaspoon will spread the liquor evenly over the one below without mixing the two. Be sure to pour the ingredients in the right order, always adding liquids in order of descending density.

Flaming Liquor:
The trick to flaming liquor ? rum, gin, brandy, or whiskey ? is to make sure that the glass and the liquor have both been warmed. Fill a teaspoon or tablespoon with liquor of choice, heat over a flame and then set it afire. Pour the flaming liquid into the remaining liquor to light the drink.

There’s more to it, but you’re on your way!

Originally published here.

Most of us will agree that hangovers are no fun. As we wallow in our seemingly endless abyss of hangoverdom we begin to use whatever mind power we can muster up towards discovering the ultimate way to cure the hangovers and end them for good. The good thing about all of this is that it is possible. But, in order to know how to prevent them, you have to know what causes them.

First thing that needs to be observed is dehydration. Alcohol dehydrates your body in a way which causes you to have a major loss of water throughout your entire body. This massive loss in water, through constant urination, ultimately assists in causing the headaches, dizziness and thirst you experience. So drink plenty of water when you are out. You will need it.

Second, drinking too much alcohol too fast, or binge drinking, is a major cause as well. When you put down that much alcohol in a short period of time, your body does not have enough time to supply enough substances to break down the alcohol completely which allows toxins to proceed through your body. Also, when people drink too much they tend to mix drinks as well?maybe you just don?t REMEMBER doing it?

Third, mixing drinks can easily cause hangovers due to mixing carbonated beverages such as light beers with hard liquor which takes a longer time to break down. The carbonation speeds up the metabolism in your body. Imagine a salad versus a steak. The steak being the hard liquor. Which do you think will digest the quickest? Another contributor to mixing drinks and getting hangovers would be mixing drinks with more congeners, or by-products of fermentation that exaggerates hangovers.

Congeners can be a terrible force in hangoverdom and they can be found not only in red wines and dark liquors such as brandy, bourbon and whiskey, congeners are also present as additives for flavor, such as zinc.

Drinking on an empty stomach is always a great way to get a hangover as there is nothing in your stomach to ?dilute? the alcohol in there. It is important to eat foods such as dairy products, or fatty foods (such as dishes with lots of olive oil) which tend to ?stick to the stomach? longer. This lingering in the stomach will also provide a barrier between the alcohol and your stomach lining which will, in response, lessen the nausea often experienced with less in your tummy. Do try to put something substantial in there before drinking.

Vitamin B12 is another thing that should be mentioned as it becomes deficient as the human body processes alcohol. The liver is doing an amazing job at processing the alcohol and, unfortunately, it DOES require fuel. Now the ?fuels? are a large combination of enzymes and substances in the body, but vitamin B12 is just a part of the whole process and when we drink and it lessened, we get the sleepiness and grogginess related to hangovers. Many savvy drinkers enjoy a little vitamin B12 supplement which oftentimes does the trick. I also recommend anti-hangover supplements such as Chasers. They are amazing. Find out more at The Hangover Network ( at http://www.HangoverNetwork.com ).

One more cause I would like to mention here (there are more causes, visit the site for more information) is the by-product of alcohol fermentation produced by the liver called acetaldehyde. This stuff is nasty. If it does not break down enough, it will make you ill. It is even more toxic than alcohol. However, our bodies HAVE enzymes and substances that attack this substance and turn it into something else called acetate which is non-toxic. Whew! There are, in fact, drugs out there for recovering alcoholics that stop the acetaldehyde attackers from doing their job resulting in a brutal, too terrible to mention here, kinds of hangovers you never want to have.

All of the information here is a basic summary and I recommend a visit to HangoverNetwork.com for more info. However, one thing I would like to mention is that not all people?s tolerance and substances are the same. Many people do not have high levels of enzymes which break down acetaldehyde and such and have lower tolerances. So remember to pace yourself because only you know your body the best. Do practice caution and have a great time!

Originally published here.

The Quaich is a shallow drinking cup or bowl originating from Scotland. The word Quaich is attributed to the Gaelic word ?cuach?, which is itself derived from the Latin word ‘caucus’ meaning drinking cup. The Quaich hails from medieval times when people were very distrustful of strangers and therefore carried their own cup for fear of either poisoning or watering down of their whisky!

They are wide and shallow in shape with two or three ?lug? handles and were traditionally made of wood or wood with silver banding. It is believed that the predecessor of the Quaich was the humble scallop shell which was the perfect size for holding a wee dram! From the seventeenth century the Quaich was generally made of silver or pewter and decorated with Celtic symbols. The centre of the bowl was normally decorated with a silver coin or a coat of arms. Some were made with a glass base so that the drinker could keep an eye on his companions.

The Quaich was traditionally used for drinking whisky or brandy but some larger examples have been found (one and a half pints) which were obviously used for drinking ale.

Nowadays the Quaich is often given to couples when they wed so they can share from the same cup which symbolizes their shared love and trust. The Quaich has also become a popular gift at christening ceremonies. A wooden Quaich was sometimes used as a baptismal font and has become synonymous with Christenings in Scotland as well as to celebrate births and drink to the health of the bairn.

Originally published here.