To earn a master's degree in cocktail making, bartenders first must master art of mixology

Nation's Restaurant News, May 17, 2004 by Gary Regan

My wife and I recently were guests of a question-and-answer forum on egullet.com, a Web site dedicated to all things edible and imbibable. One of the members there asked us if there was "a certain repertoire of cocktails that you think every mixologist should master." Now that's a question worth pondering. It took me a couple of days to come up with an answer, but I'm really happy that someone thought to ask it.

Obviously, every bartender should know how to make a Dry Gin Martini and a good Manhattan--the king and queen of cocktails, perhaps. For both of those drinks the bartender learns how to modify a distilled spirit with vermouth, and although many people use very little dry vermouth in martinis, the aromatized wine adds an herbal complexity to the drink that can't be found in any other single ingredient.

In the case of the Manhattan, bitters, too, one hopes, are added to the mix, and so the bartender is educated in the use of bitters, an ingredient on the brink of extinction just a few years ago that seems to have made a successful recovery behind the bars of America.

I also suggested that bartenders should be able to make a Rusty Nail--scotch and Drambuie--and a Godfather, made with scotch and amaretto. The fact that scotch is the base of both those drinks wasn't the reason I chose them. I was more concerned that the bartender should be able to modify a spirit with a liqueur. And both of those cocktails can be made with varying ratios of the two ingredients, depending on which brand of scotch is being used or the customer's personal preference. That means bartenders have the opportunity to open a discussion with the customer when those drinks are called for.

Since scotch was on my mind, I decided to throw in the Blood and Sand, a drink that dates back to the 1930s and calls for a seemingly strange list of ingredients: scotch, sweet vermouth, cherry brandy and orange juice, usually in equal amounts. If a bartender knows how to make that drink properly, he'll be able to suggest something a little different to customers who aren't quite sure what to order. And if he turns the cocktail into a highball by adding more orange juice, he'll be a big hit at brunch time with people who want something a little different from a Bloody Mary or a Mimosa.

I believe that bartenders also should know how to make a Black Russian, vodka and Kahlua; a White Russian, the same drink with cream added; and a Mudslide, a White Russian calling for Irish Cream liqueur rather than fresh cream. That trio of drinks illustrates how one formula can be adjusted by the addition of cream and the fact that substituting Irish Cream liqueur for fresh cream is an easy way to come up with a whole new drink.

I then decided, somewhat arbitrarily, that every bartender worth his or her salt should be able to build a good Negroni--the divine mixture of equal parts Campari, sweet vermouth and gin. It is a great aperitif and is fairly low in alcohol--at least when compared with a Dry Gin Martini. Although most bartenders do seem to know the drink, in 2004 many seem to think that vodka should be used instead of gin, and so I'm always very careful to specify a brand of gin when I order Negronis these days.

The 10th drink I suggested that bartenders should be able to make was the Champagne Cocktail, but I didn't add that one because the formula--a bitters-doused sugar cube topped with champagne--doesn't teach bartenders anything in particular. It's merely a drink that must be known by all those who set foot behind the bar. And the same goes for the Pina Colada, one of the few tropical drinks that catch my fancy, but not a masterpiece from a cocktailian point of view.

I thought that I'd be able to tell you about all the drinks I suggested to the good folk at egullet.com in this week's column, but I'm afraid I'm just halfway through the list, and so I'll let you know about the others next time. Meanwhile, you might want to check and see if all of your bartenders know how to fix the drinks I've mentioned so far. They really should, you know.

You can write to Gary Regan at gary@ardentspirits.com.