1954 Practical Bar Management by Eddie Clarke

PRACTICAL BAR MANAGEMENT

each ingredient as added, and will prevent splashing or over flowing if the contents have been over-estimated. The ice must be pure, crystal clear and taste-free—many a good cocktail has been ruined with dirty or tainted ice. It is worth noting that whilst going through the process offreezing,ice will readily absorb any foreign odours. When such ice melts it will contaminate the drink. 2. Measuring, etc. To obtain perfect blending the instructions should be accurately adhered to. The correct measurements of the ingredients are essential. To make a cocktail too strong will be just as detrimental to the drink as making it too weak. 3. Shaker Space Ingredients mix more readily in a shaker larger than the quantity of the mixture, therefore never fill the shaker more than three-quarters full. 4. Shaker Action Don't treat the shaker as a muscle developer or throw it into the air like a juggler, it lowers one's prestige if things go wrong and one ends up covered in Egg Flip. Do the shake naturally, with ashort,sharp,snappyaction,butwhenmixing Noggs, Sours, etc., put a little more beef into it and shake from fifteen to twenty seconds. Remember that ice melts, and too much stirring or shaking dilutes the drink, on the other hand,too little will not mix or chill the ingredients. 5. Temperature Serve the cold drinks glacier-cold, and the hot drinks lava-hot. Pour the cocktails into chilled glasses, this will ensure that the coldness is retained in the drink, if possible keep the bottles cool also. Hot drinks must likewise be poured into warm glasses. 6. Serving Cocktails should be drunk as soon as possible after mixing, otherwise the blending will deteriorate, mainly because the ingredients, being of different gravities, will, after standing awhile,find their own levels in the drink. When pouring several cocktails of one blend into glasses, line the glasses up with edges touching, then commence pouring from one end to the other, half-fill each glass, then return to the beginning and complete the pouring. This will ensure that all drinks are of the same strength. 7. Eye Appeal Make the drink look as attractive as possible, no one would fancy drinking something which looked as though it had been scooped out of a rural duck pond. Therefore produce a 76