Tag: bartending
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Cocktails and the AI-Revolution
Like many people, I’ve watched the capabilities of AI unfold with wonderment. I’ve been a fan but only to the point of amusement. Chat GPT can write a long epic poem in perfect iambic pentameter, it can write up legal contracts and it can create new cocktail recipes. Bars have already ventured into featuring AI-created… Read more
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The Whiskey Cobbler: What Is It?
Unless you’re a cocktail aficionado with a penchant for history, chances are you’ve never heard of the cobbler. Cobblers were among the most popular mixed drink categories in the nineteenth century. Cobblers were made with numerous wines and spirits with the Sherry Cobbler being amongst the oldest recipes. The Sherry Cobbler appears in the 1847… Read more
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How to Become a Bartender!
There is no one route to becoming a bartender. I can tell you what I look for and appreciate in a prospective hire, but it’s not universal among bar managers. If you approach me for a job while claiming prior experience, I will ask you to make me a cocktail, and if you do an… Read more
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Another Old-Fashioned Controversy: What About That Muddled Sugar Cube?
Based on a review of vintage recipes, the “old-fashioned” historically referred to a specific way of making the now defunct-in-name “whiskey cocktail,” as there was a time when cocktail books had recipes for both the old-fashioned and the whiskey cocktail. They were essentially the same drink, except the whiskey cocktail was sweetened with gomme syrup… Read more
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What is the Craft in Bartending?
What are craft cocktails? Cocktail writers by large recognize that the cocktail world underwent a renaissance at the start of the twenty-first century. In a TED Talk, beverage writer Wayne Curtis discussed the recent evolution of the craft cocktail. He stated that in the early part of the twenty-first century, there were only a handful… Read more