The bartender’s library
Resources
Techniques, equipment, and guides to help you become a better bartender – plus quick reference tables for the whole catalog.
Techniques
19- Basing and ToppingBasing and topping are similar processes, interchangeable in nearly all circumstances. Both are indiscriminate, requiring no precision, and are used when adding ingredients that do not need to be entirely mixed.Read →
- BlendingAdmittedly, my first forays into making my own drinks were with my old Oster blender, a frozen can of Bacardi Pina Colada mix, ice, and some rum. It went over well enough to impress a girl in the library. I didn't blend a drink for about 18 years. 2018 is the year I discovered the Coconaut. That girl in the library missed out on a lot of great things, including Coconauts. Everyone I've served one too has always requested it again. This may be the one drink I've found that is guaranteed to bring everyone happiness. If anything, you should learn how to blend drinks just to make Coconauts.Read →
- BuildingI don't want to call this the lazy way of mixing, but it sure as heck is and there's nothing wrong with it. Some drinks are just so easy. Queue up one of the scenes from The Big Lebowski, where The Dude helps himself to a White Russian. In no particular order, the vodka, Kahlua, and cream goes in the glass, and a short stir occurs. That's it. Ingredients go in, a little movement to make them mingle, and up goes the glass. It's not lazy if that's the right thing for the moment. Ingredients and mingle, it is that easy.Read →
- CarbonatingWhile you can add bubbles to a drink simply by including seltzer, soda, or sparkling wine, actually carbonating mixed drinks takes it to a different level. It's like with kids. You can give them a bubble wand, or you can plug in an automatic bubble blowing machine. Only one will cause them to hell "BUBBLES!!!" until their heads explode.Read →
- Dry ShakingSo you've been shaking your cocktails and you're not getting fluffed up heads like you see at your favorite bar or on the Instagrams. Instead you get a waifish layer of bubbles with no staying power? You can't figure out what's so special about a fizz even though you gave yourself tennis elbow?Read →
- Flash BlendingBlending has been a drink mixing technique for almost 100 years. The catch is, we don't call that old school technique 'blending" anymore. The preferred nomenclature these days is "flash blending." You can blame Waring, the original manufacturer of the popular pitcher-style blender introduced in 1938.Read →
- FloatingFloating is a technique that can help you achieve not only a stunning presentation but also a burst of taste that evolves as a drink is consumed. This is achieved by delicately placing an ingredient atop the drink's surface, creating a distinct visual and flavor layer.Read →
- FrothingFrothing is another technique for aerating a drink to produce texture and foam. Unlike the various methods of shaking, frothing requires special equipment. You don't want to use a steamer, such as those used when frothing milk for a latte. Steamers will heat up your drink, which you won't want unless you're serving the drink hot.Read →
- Fundamentals of MixingDrink mixing techniques are fairly basic. Where technique gets complicated is in making it look effortless and cool. In a professional setting, bartenders have to handle multiple orders, conversations, an organized station, make drinks quickly, and make everything look easy. But if you're like me and just making drinks at home, then you really don't have to care about all that. You will, however, have to learn some basic techniques.Read →
- GarnishingGarnishes are a key part of cocktails and mixed drinks. It's easy to regard the silly lime wedge on the edge of your glass as a mere trifle or decoration. Time to get past your gin and tonic, post-college happy hours where you'd instinctually squeeze that lime wedge into your drink because it wasn't good for anything else. You were wrong then, and you'd be wrong to continue overlooking the goodness a garnish brings to your drink.Read →
- Mix or CombineRead →
- MuddlingLet's talk about a technique that can truly elevate your cocktail game: muddling. This classic bartending technique involves gently pressing herbs, fruits, or other ingredients in the bottom of a glass to release their flavorful essences.Read →
- Pouring and StrainingMaybe you've shaken your ingredients, stirred them, or put them in a blender and pulsed everything up to a smooth, icy concoction. Do you just dump the contents into a glass and call it a drink, or do you strain out the remaining ice chunks?Read →
- Reverse Dry ShakingYou want a big head of foam? Then you want a reverse dry shake. Before continuing on, I hope you've read my article on dry shaking. There, I describe what's happening when you try to create a foam and over a few tips like orienting your shaker top before sealing. Read it? Good, because this is where things get crazy.Read →
- RinsingRinsing a cocktail glass refers to the process of coating the interior of the glass with a small amount of a specific liquid, typically a type of spirit or liqueur, and then discarding the liquid before adding the main ingredients of the cocktail.Read →
- RollingRolling is my favorite technique for mixing drinks. I don't do it often, but each time I do I am reminded of the first cocktail that got me on the "classic" path, back in 2007. That drink was the Blue Blazer, a pyrotechnic display of Jerry Thomas cocktailian history that is more eye candy than delicious.Read →
- ShakingYou're going to need to learn how to shake drinks. The only more used recipe techniques are pouring and straining. Shaking is key for recipes going all that way back through the eras. Your hipster bars shake. Dale DeGroff shook at the Rainbow Room. Isaac Washington liked to shake. The Tiki gods shook. Ada Coleman shook for London. And Jerry Thomas definitely shook some drinks. That's why you are going to learn to shake a drink too.Read →
- StirringStirring seems so pleasantly simple, like all you have to do is put some ingredients together with ice and twirl it around quietly in a glass. It's deceptive. Whereas shaking is brutish, nearly impossible to mess up. Stirring actually takes more effort and is more persnickety.Read →
- SwizzlingSwizzling often seems to confound people. I think the culprits of confusion are the swizzle straw and swizzle stick. If you look at either one of these, they don't seem to offer much utility other than to hold a garnish or to blow pathetic bubbles into your drink. Until you see a traditional swizzle stick (“le bois lélé”), a real stick and not your garnish holder, swizzling just seems like a mellow form of stirring. But that's entirely wrong. It is more of a hand-powered, old-school stick blender, but it is a real stick.Read →
Equipment
11- Breast Milk Storage Bags"Here rots the guy who gave the cocktail world breast milk bags." I hope it's a long time before that ends up on my gravestone, but when it does, I'll have a rigor mortised smile of pride. No piece of bartending equipment, no recipe book, no mind-blowing cocktail, nothing has had a greater, sustained impact on my drink making than breast milk bags. It was quite disheartening.Read →
- Cocktail PicksWhy bother with garnishes? Garnishing requires you to use your knife skills to make interesting shapes, grow special pots of herbs, or precisely place bits and pieces just so they look neat. It can seem like a lot of trouble for something you can't drink. I don’t like to chew on fresh grapefruit peel - that’s just a personal preference of mine. So why bother with garnishing when most garnishes get thrown in the trash?Read →
- GlasswareRead →
- Home Bar EquipmentBuilding out a bar should start with liquid ingredients. You can make decent if not good drinks with ingredients, and basic kitchen items you should already have. You don't need much more than a glass, a chopstick, and measuring spoons/cups. And good recipes, which Tipply can help provide.Read →
- Ice MoldsIce is exceptionally important to cocktails and mixed drinks. Cocktails are served either cold or hot, rarely hot, and almost always ice cold. Excluding the hot drinks and a small grouping called Scaffas (where ice is excluded in the recipes), good drinks call for good ice. You don't need to hand carve diamonds into crystal clear ice or harvest your own Nunavut snow to press into ice molds. But you do want ice that doesn't stink, ice that is easy to measure volumetrically, and which has an estimatable melting speed. Ice that looks nice is a bonus and not hard to do.Read →
- JiggersBuy a good jigger. Being able to accurately and precisely measure ingredients will make the biggest improvement to your mixed drinks. Even if you’re making built drinks or stirring/shaking drinks in a Mason jar, a jigger will improve your results more so than anything else you can buy! The more ingredients you have in a drink, the more you’ll need to measure, which leads to a high chance of you mismeasuring. Of course, if you want to stick to recipes with minimal ingredients, Tipply’s filters can help you with that.Read →
- JuicersCitrus juice is a very common ingredient in a lot of mixed drink styles. What's a Daiquiri without a squeeze of lime, or a Sidecar without lemon juice. While a Mimosa without orange juice is still a good time, fresh squeezed juices are a holy pairing to spirits and liqueurs.Read →
- Mixing VesselsBuy a good mixing vessel to concoct your drinks in. This will allow you to expand your recipes and drinks with different textures, dilutions, and ingredients. You can use a Mason jar as a shaker. It'll work okay. Likewise, you can just make built drinks or stirred drinks in whatever glass you have. But similar to a jigger, the right equipment helps you to be more efficient, to make repeatable drinks, and to generally have a more enjoyable time.Read →
- MuddlersAh, the purpose of muddling and the array of muddlers at your disposal. Let's dive into this fascinating world, my friends. Muddling serves a noble purpose in the art of mixology – it's all about extracting the essence and flavors from fresh ingredients like herbs and fruits.Read →
- StrainersIf you’ve gone through all the work to make a great drink, straining is often the right way to finish it. Yes, you can put a chopstick, metal straw, or handle of a barspoon across the mixing vessel to hold the ice back as you pour the drink out, but often a cube will slip through and you’re left fishing it out. But what about pulp, ice shards, or muddled spices? A Martini with a few shards of ice floating on top will taste great, but it sure does look better without the shards. A Daiquiri without pulp definitely looks more refined. There are three types of strainers that will help you make better mixed drinks, which can be impacted visually and texturally by ice, pulp, and other ingredients.Read →
- StrawsThere are people that are anti-straw in a drink. I suppose they think it's a little phallic or that they are worried they might throw the straw into the trash and kill sea turtles and dolphins. Certain drinks are purposefully served with a straw, often because of chilling, dilution, or if you suck the overproof rum float off the top you won't know what hit you.Read →
Guides & Articles
3- Recipe CategoriesCategorizing recipes is complicated, with each category often having a handful of exceptions. Tipply, by using applying robust schemas for ingredients and techniques, is able to categorize recipes more effectively.Read →
- Tips for Foamier DrinksWhen you need to give your drink a foamy top, dry shaking and reverse dry shaking are great methods to use. What if you want to do something different or you want to try making the foamiest drink ever seen?Read →
- What Bottles To Buy FirstI've been asked a lot about how to start making drinks at home. What bottles should I buy first? Do I need Midori? What strainer do I need? Where should I buy a tiki mug?Read →
Reference
Look up anything in the catalog at a glance.