Contrary to the popular belief, bartending is far more complex than taking orders and pouring drinks. From setting up your bar and maintaining inventory to making mixers and prepping garnishes, there is a lot going on behind the bar. Here are some easily implemented hacks that will help you up your efficiency while prepping without sacrificing finesse.

Chilling drinks on the fly

It may seem obvious, but making sure your drinks are cold is an elemental, and sometimes stressful, part of bar service. If you run out of cold beers, what are you going to do? Definitely not serve them warm or tell customers to wait 30 minutes until they get cold.

What if you someone orders a $100 bottle of Chardonnay and the only one you have is un-chilled in the liquor room?

Here are two great ways to get bottles cold in a hurry:

1. For bottled beer or soda, wrap the bottle in a damp paper towel and put it in the freezer. In 10-15 minutes, the beer will be cold enough to serve, saving you a great deal of time and grief. (NOTE: avoid putting wine in a freezer. While it may help cool the wine down, if you freeze it for too long you can easily ruin the wine’s structure and taste.)

2. For both beer and wine, put the bottle in a large bucket of ice and add salt. The salt helps to cool the ice faster and allows you to get the bottle to the customer faster.

Ice hacks

Ice, while overlooked by most, plays a significant role in the composition and presentation of a drink. As pro bartenders know, the type of ice cube you use can make or break a drink and prepping for this needs to be executed flawlessly.

One easy way to make your ice look clean and crisp is by boiling the water before you freeze it.

This removes the dissolved gas, making it clear and not cloudy. Clearer ice allows the colors of your cocktail to flourish. The best example of this is in an Old Fashioned, which uses one big ice cube, and the clearer the better.

Using crushed ice will also help take your cocktails to the next level. Many summer-time drinks thrive when served with crushed ice. Make your own as needed by taking a ziplock bag with your cubed ice and beating it with a rolling pin or strong muddler. Simple as it may seem, your patrons notice the details, especially when they enhance the drinking experience.

Making syrups

No bar is complete without mixers and syrups, but they don’t grow on trees. Bartenders spend countless hours prepping before their shift, making their syrups and mixers. Here are some simple tips for enhancing your mixers and making them last longer.

There is no bar without simple syrup and, as any bartender can tell you, it’s an easy recipe: combine equal parts sugar and water, and boil until the sugar is dissolved.

The real trick here is about making it last; by adding a splash of vodka, you can extend the life of your syrup.

Everyone knows about the bar staple, Rose’s grenadine, but you don’t have to use the brand-name stuff. Making your own grenadine syrup is an easy task. Whether you’ve run out of your Rose’s or want to use your own version, simply boil one part sugar in one part pomegranate juice to achieve the classic taste, then add your own twists to put a spin on it.

To change it up, and add some pizzazz to your drinks, use a jam-like mixture instead of syrup. Marmalade or raspberry jam are perfect examples that will sweeten up your drink and add a little viscosity; add a tablespoon to 2 oz of liquor and 3/4 oz of citrus (lemon, lime, grapefruit juice).

Garnish like a boss

Garnishes should bring a cocktail’s ingredients together, not be used carelessly as decoration. From an olive in your martini to a bourbon cherry in your Manhattan, there is rhyme and reason for every garnish, so make it count!

Here are some garnish ideas that will bring the wow factor you’re looking for:

• Adding edible flowers to ice can enhance your cocktail’s flavors with its fragrance while also creating an aesthetically pleasing accent. The key here is using the right flower and quantity without going overboard, so be sure to play around with the technique.

• Sticking a rosemary sprig or an aromatic leaf, like mint, to the top of a cocktail can bring out the sweet and earthy tones in your drink that previously had gone unnoticed.

By placing the herbs on the top of the drink, you can take advantage of both its smell and taste, adding another layer of complexity to your cocktail.

• To add a bit of flare to your cocktail (pun intended), burn the outside of an orange peel to give your drink some sharpness and unique character.

Chase the taste away

While most people will ask for a soda or juice to help eliminate the burn of a shot, offer a homemade pickleback as a chaser to change things up. The salty, acidic taste will instantly take away the taste of alcohol and add a distinctive note that will bring customers back.

Try making a traditional pickleback with cucumbers and something hotter, like pepperoncini or jalapeños, for those who want a bit of burn. If you need somewhere to start or some inspiration to get you going, check out this pickleback recipe.

We hope that these tips and hacks will help make your life behind the bar easier. By using a little bit of foresight, some creativity, and a few tricks, you can take your game to a new level and transform any old drink into an artistic cocktail creation.

And if you’re finding yourself short on time, check out  Bartending Hacks: Managing Your Time →

You might also like…

Bartending is a balancing act, which requires the ability to juggle several responsibilities while under some serious pressure. So, that’s why December’s hacks series is all about tricks of the bartending trade and we’re kicking it off with some time management tips that will make your life so much easier!

Keep a cheat sheet behind the bar

While most bartenders should have the typical recipes down pat, there are those times that the mind skips a beat and you forget. There are also those particular customers who want their esoteric, rarely-seen cocktails that can take a bartender off their game.

For this reason, have a handy cheat sheet to help you instead of taking precious minutes to ask someone else or look it up on your phone.

Whiskey, on the fly

Bartenders are responsible for a plethora of knowledge, the most basic of which is knowing their liquors. Here is a quick guide to the variations of whiskey to help you quickly explain a particular type to a customer:

USA: “Spicy-oak firmness”. Tennessee whiskies tend to have a caramel taste.
Canada: “Light, new, perfect for mixing”
Ireland: “smooth, spicy, fruity”
Scotland: “smokey, peaty” (if Islay). “Sweet and fruity” (If Speyside). “Spicy, salty” (if Cambletown).
Japan:“quality, perfected” Japanese whiskeys are detailed and carefully crafted for structure.

Acknowledge customers ASAP

As many of us know, when you’re bartending, you can’t always get to everyone as soon as they want a drink. When that’s the case, simply acknowledging your customer can go a long way. It assures them that you’re aware of them and that you’ll be right there.

It may even clue them into the fact that they are not the only customer at the bar…crazy!

This little trick will buy you some extra time, relieving some of that pressure we’re all too familiar with. Plus, it will do wonders for your customer satisfaction. And your tips!

When in the weeds, breathe

Your bar is piling up with guests, you’re in the middle of making six different drinks, trying to handle a credit card payment and need a new bottle of well vodka. Welcome to “the weeds” my friend.

All of us who work, or have worked, in the industry has experienced it at least once. So, what to do in this situation: just breathe. It’s almost counter-intuitive but absolutely effective because the best thing you can do is slow yourself down.

Taking 2-5 minutes to step away, collect yourself and regain your thoughts will help immensely. Despite leaving your responsibilities for a couple minutes, you will benefit in the long run by returning to work with a clear head.

Don’t know the drink? This Hail Mary will save you

Say someone comes in and orders a drink you’re unfamiliar with. What do you do? For some, this can cause a major brain fart and send you into a tizzy trying to figure out the ingredients and how to properly mix the drink. A quick fix for this:

“I’m sorry, we actually don’t have all the ingredients to make that here.”

While this is a cop out, it’s a handy last resort that can save you from getting backed up and spinning out of control. When taking this route, be sure to be apologetic and have a go-to suggestion to tell the customer.

Most importantly, while working behind the bar, keep your cool, keep your pace and help yourself to manage your time with these sweet and easy tricks.

You might also like…