One of this days i was doing a day shift in the pub I work, movement was a bit slow, which normally happens after lunch time, the weather outside was pleasant, i had some mellow music on the background and was a bit bored to be honest so I decided to crack on and try some new Cocktail recipes that i made up. The reason why i called it Casual Friday was simply for the fact that it was Friday and this refreshing drink was invented to drink slowly and for no special reason, if I make myself understood. Here's a picture of the final product Click the button underneath for the recipe. Gimme some feed back about it.
Another Ankrah original, and at first dubbed the Maverick Martini after a shady club in Capetown, South Africa, then renamed the Pornstar Martini, because of all the passion Ankhar would put into this drink. The idea is to eat the passion fruit first, then drink the Champagne and then enjoy the lavish Passion Fruit Martini drink.
AAAhhhh the refreshing Mojito, a Cuban drink that actually some historians believe that the drink came from the Africa slaves working in the Cuban sugar cane fields in the 19th Century, Guarapo the sugar cane juice often used in Mojitos, was a popular drink amongst the slaves who helped give the name of the sweet nectar, funny enough it never contained lime juice.
Many of us working behind the bar, have had at least one situation when the customer comes back to you and say that you been given a 50$ bill instead of a 20$, that you didn't pour alcohol into their vodka and red bull, that the measure of wine on the wine glass isn't big enough, the spirit, liquor or whiskey isn't the one they asked for and so on... Well how do we act in this situations? Specially when 99% of the times you know YOU ARE RIGHT. I've learned how to deal with different types of complaints along the last years and i always give the benefit of the doubt, but it's not easy to argue with someone that is clearly pissed, to be honest when that happens the first thing it comes to my mind is "I know i'm right, because i haven't been drinking all night!" . Share with us what you do in this situation. Is the customer actually always right?
"The cocktail may be considered an American concoction, but its roots stretch back to 18th century London. Jared Brown reveals the drink's curious, homegrown origins."
Fermented beverages been around for ages, in the 17th century London turned from drinking ale and cider practically overnight. Do to a "health problem" a lot of people left the country, bringing the profit down. The first places that start issuing hard alcohol was the Pharmacy, the second medical patent, issued in 1712, was for Stoughton's Elixir, an alcohol-based medicinal bitters. It wasn't long after when public houses start delivering and introducing it to large public, mainly gins, it is thought that 1 in every 4 public houses had their own distillery, growing more and more the consumption of alcohol. The most common use of the term “cocktail” at the time was in reference to a horse with its tail cut short to indicate it was of mixed breed. One colic remedy found in veterinary manuals from the period blended water, oats, gin and ginger. We are in the midst of a new Cocktail Renaissance, the like of which the world has never seen. There are more great bars and bartenders now than at any time in history (many of them point London as inspiration). America stakes its claim to the cocktail’s surge in popularity in part through the work of Jerry Thomas, a Connecticut native who in 1862 wrote the first book to contain a section of cocktail recipes. Historians have gone so far as to call the American the father of modern bartending, but he actually worked in London prior to penning this pioneering tome.
In 1869, the first British book containing cocktail recipes was published: William Terrington's Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks. Reaching back to that first use of the word cocktail, his first recipe was for a Gin Cocktail made with brandy or gin, ginger syrup, aromatic bitters, and a splash of water.
This refreshing cocktail is believed to be invented around in 1987, when a Bartender called Ted, working in Confetti's Bar, in Florida, USA... He had the idea of mixing Vodka, Peach Schnapps, orange juice and grenadine, when asked about the name of the cocktail, he remembered why people go to Florida for, Beach and Sex, so he said: "Sex On The Beach" ... There may be loads of different variations of this Cocktail, but if you click on "RECIPE" i'll give you its original recipe ( i hope )
So today marks the start of a new step for me! Today I launch let the bartender handle it.
This is a motto I came across a few months back that I feel has become deeply embedded in my everyday life and my passion for bar tending. So much so the image you see with this post has recently been tattooed on to my body along with the title of this blog.
so for now, Keep Calm and let the bartender handle it!
Diogo Teixieira is based in the Algarve, Portugal and has spent over 12 years working behind and managing bars. His passion is everything bar tending and he wants to share his extensive knowledge and day to day with others.