Post #255707 by pappythesailor on Wed, Sep 20, 2006 11:24 AM

Before I start: The instructor can pronounce Cointreau. He went on a tirade about people who don't know what a martini is (gin and vermouth) but then he UNdid what he had just mended by going off on how picky martini people could be about their drinks. Then he got a half point BACK by picking on the guy who got snooty about his bar not having "pomegranite vodka".

Week 2: General ramblings about being a bartender. He then read to us (ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz....)the recipes for twenty of the fifty most popular drinks (in the central MA area).

Interesting things I learned:

1. doctors, lawyers, accountants, insurance people, car dealers are the worst tippers
2. cops, firemen, construction workers and funeral directors are the best tippers
3. people are always trying to steal your corkscrew.(!) Try to keep it on your person.
4. mixers are anything non-alcoholic that you put in a drink
   a) juices: orange, grapefruit, pineapple, cranberry and tomato juice are the juices you will use
   b) I am able to control from screaming when lemon and lime are left out of the juice list
5. when someone asks for tonic, they don't mean they want soda or pop in their drink (You'll have to take my word for this. In Worcester County, "tonic" is a synonym for soda or pop, esp. with older people)
6. grenadine is cherry-flavored syrup made only by Rose's
7. rocks are ice cubes
   8)liquor proportions in drinks don't matter too much except for a few drinks like the Martini and Manhattan
8. in MA, any liquor you serve in a bar must be puchased from a licensed distributor. If the owner sends you in the back with a funnel, empty bottles & liquor from the NH state liquor store, lock the door!
9. Choosing a glass is easy!
   Any mixed drink goes in a highball glass (10 oz)
   Any drink with just hooch or teensy amount of mixer--rocks glass (5 oz)
   Small drinks go in a cocktail or "up" glass.
   Big drinks go in a shaker
   Teensy drinks go in a shot glass.
10. Most small bars fill their top shelf bottles with whatever swill they can get for as long as they can get away with it. (We all knew this but it still hurts to know it for sure...)

First 20 drinks: Black Russian, Bloody Mary, Cape Codder, Mudslide, Fuzzy Navel, Greyhound, Kamikaze, Long Island Iced Tea, Madras, Melon Ball, Pearl Harbor, Screwdriver, Sea Breeze, Sex on the Beach, Vodka Collins (made with sour mix--yum!), Vodka Gimlet, White Russian, Frozen Mudslide, Hawaiian Seabreeze and the Woo Woo.

I don't really want to go anymore.