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I Want To Be A Bartender



  • Pick up any bartender's guide and you'll find recipes for more than 1,000 drinks, and that doesn't include the latest cocktails created to promote a product or commemorate an event. Despite this proliferation of concoctions, an increasing number of people are rediscovering the classic cocktails of another era.
  • To be a traveling bartender, you must have confidence. Confidence means you are sure of yourself and you know you have the ability to succeed. Even if you don't have all the skills right at the start, be confident in your ability to learn them.

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Ah, slingin' drinks. Giving the good folks a drop o’ the pure.

There’s something romantic about sliding some suds down to the day-weary travelers looking for a salve.

But bartenders do more than provide drinks. They’re our unofficial psychologists, healers, and masters of ceremonies. They’re also super-duper talented and can be paid quite well because of that. It’s no wonder people are drawn to the profession. But it can be a tough nut to crack.

That’s why we put together this guide. Follow the steps, and you’ll become a bartender. The steps aren’t in order, though. There is no official step-by-step process to become a bartender. But what we have here are all your potential avenues.

This bartenders guide will lay out the bartending 101 basics you need to get hired as a bartender. Or to improve your bartending if you’re already a working professional.

Understand the Reality of Becoming a Bartender

Let’s get some housekeeping stuff out of the way first. You're going to dedicate your precious time to learning how to become a bartender. Here’s what you can expect in terms of pay, age restrictions, and hours once you become a master mixologist.

How Much Do Bartenders Make?

The median annual pay reported by bartenders in the U.S. by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is $22,550. Whether or not that figure represents your future earnings as a bartender is open to discussion. The nature of tips and the different types of bars can change things.

So let’s discuss.

We know from experience that in busier bars, making $150-$200 a night in tips is considered a good night. Making $100-$150 is acceptable. We’ll work with those figures. These figures go up if you master how to upsell drinks as a bartender.

Let's take $150 as the average tips in a night (if things generally go well for you that year). We’ll multiply that by the amount of workdays in a year: 260. That’s $39,000 in pre-tax tips alone. Let’s now assume that you’re making the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour as your base pay. That’s another $15,080 pretax, which puts your total pretax earnings at $54,080.

Those earnings put you in a 22% federal tax bracket. To get a read on your bartender earnings, we need to factor in state and local taxes, which vary. So, we calculated the average state income tax for a single filer in the $54,080 tax bracket: 5.52%.

If a bartender claims 100% of their tips at a busy bar, they stand to make an average of $39,197 post-tax.

Taking home almost 40 Gs ain’t too shabby. And that’s just the average. There are absolutely bartenders who clear $100,000 a year. They exist, I’ve met them, they’re cool, and you can probably be like them if you try.

Bartender

How Old Do You Have to Be to Bartend?

Much like state income tax, the minimum legal age required to tend bar varies by state. It’s the magic of living in a federal republic. Believe it or not, most states in the U.S. only require a minimum age of 18 to bartend in on-premises establishments. That means the alcohol being sold there is meant to be consumed there, not taken elsewhere.

Here is each state’s required minimum age to bartend:

The states that require a minimum age of 18 to bartend are Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Those that require a minimum age of 19 to bartend are Arizona, Idaho, and Nebraska.

And the ones that require a minimum age of 21 to bartend are Alabama, Alaska, California, Delaware, DC, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.

States that allow those under 21 to bartend typically require the young bartender be supervised by someone 21 or older. This information, like all laws, is subject to change so please check with the relevant municipality before making any decisions. See the full list here.

What Hours Do Bartenders Work?

For the busiest, most-profitable shifts, a bartender can expect to work evenings from about 4 p.m. to midnight.

Beginning bartenders will get the lower-traffic lunch and early-weekday evening shifts. Established bartenders get most of the evenings, especially the very lucrative Friday and Saturday nights.

If you’re bartending at a sports bar, however, Sunday lunch shifts will be huge. If you have a huge patio, great weather, and you’re on a popular street, days might be better than nights. Like most things in this guide, we’re taking a high-level look at general trends.

If that all sounds good to you, and you’re ready to embrace then you’re ready to move on.

Get Experience as a Barback

The easiest way to move into a bartending position, if you don’t have experience bartending, is to transition into it from the barback position. Barback responsibilities are perfectly suited to the transition to becoming a bartender. Barbacks learn:

  • All the bartender lingo and how to communicate behind the bar
  • How to move behind the bar, which can be tricky with some bar layouts
  • How to clean the bar from top to bottom
  • How to prepare and how to stock a bar, with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic inventory
  • To deal with basic customer requests
  • The right types of glassware, garnishes, and steps of service
  • The standard liquor bottle sizes and wine bottle sizes

As a barback, you’ll do everything a bartender does but mix drinks. You’ll often work off the bartender duties checklist. Even though you’ll pick up a lot of mixology wisdom just by watching bartenders do it, you’ll still need practice. Learning mixology, cocktail recipes, and cocktail creation are the most important things for a barback to learn to become a competitive bartender candidate.

Transition from Serving

Like the barback strategy, this approach utilizes existing relationships and related experience. Servers have one thing down pat that’s absolutely crucial to bartending: customer service. Drink pairing, menu knowledge, and ingredient knowledge are all old hat to a strong server.

The missing pieces, then, are non-theoretical mixology (i.e., making the drinks) and learning the layout of the bar. The latter is easily learned. Therefore, servers, focus on mixology and learning how to hit accurate pours. When the time comes, you’ll be as attractive a candidate for the new bartending position as any bartender out there.

Become a Master of the Pour

Knowing what goes in drinks is one thing. Accurately pouring liquor to create those drinks to hit your target pour costs is another. Which a liquor cost calculator can help with. Here are three ways to make sure your pouring is not costing the bar money.

Know Your Standard Pours

Every bar manager wants, first and foremost, bartenders that can quickly and accurately hit all manner of standard liquor pours. By not pouring too much, you save the bar money. By not pouring too little, you keep the guest experience consistent. If you’re comfortable with standard liquor pours and able to hit them every time you try, you’re a valuable bartender.

There are multiple pour volumes for different drinks and different liquors. Read the standard pour article linked to above and you’ll be on your way.

Learn Pour Counts and Free Pouring

There are, of course, jiggers. Jiggers allow bartenders to measure out pours exactly. But the problem with jiggers is that they’re slow. After you’re done pouring the liquor into the jigger, there’s a whole extra arm motion to dump the jigger in the glass or mixer. Any bartender in the weeds will tell you that jiggers are slow goings.

The alternative to jiggers is learning how to free pour. Free pouring is simply pouring straight from the bottle—usually with a pour spout for consistency. A bartender who can consistently hit standard pours by free pouring is worth their weight in gold. Because they’re accurate and fast.

A popular strategy for free pouring is utilizing pour counts. You can read more about pour counts and other strategies for practicing free pouring in the above linked to article.

Know How to Pour Wine

There’s a whole lot of serving wine at bars, especially restaurant bars. And especially wines by the glass. And with a new type of pour comes a new type of standard pour. Yes, the standard wine pour. Learn how to pour a perfect glass of wine and your bar manager will cherish you.

Like liquor pours, accurate wine pours help keep variance and pour costs down. That’s the reason for all of this standardization in the first place. If you can help your bar’s profit margin by pouring drinks quickly and to spec, then you’ll be a welcome part of the team.

Know Your Mixology

On to the fun stuff! Bartending is making drinks. Get good at it, and you’ll make some decent money. Here are the basic tools you’ll need, some information about primary spirit types, and a few collections of cocktail recipes you should know to make the most out of your well liquor.

Basic Bar Tools

Cocktail Strainer

A cocktail strainer is a metal bartending accessory that's used to strain ice out of a drink that's been shaken, stirred, or mixed in a shaker or a different glass. It's basically a metal sieve with a handle. There are two main types. The Hawthorne strainer, which is a disc with holes in it with a handle and two stabilizing prongs on each side and a metal spring around the edge. And the Julep strainer, which is shaped like a little bowl (with slits in it) with a handle. The Hawthorne is much more commonly used.

Peeler

A common citrus peeler and zester to create twists and zests.

Bottle Opener

Your standard bottle opener for opening bottled beer.

Cocktail Spoon

A 30- or 40-centimeter long metal spoon, also called a bar spoon, that's used to mix, muddle, stir, and layer cocktails.

How

Jigger

An hourglass-shaped, two-sided metal measuring tool with a large side and a small side used to pour standard shot volume accurately. The large side is typically 1.5 ounces (the standard pour for a shot) while the smaller side is .75 ounces.

Corkscrew

A standard corkscrew for opening wine. Ideally, a corkscrew with a folding knife in the handle.

Shaker

A two- or three-piece metal device used to mix drinks by shaking them. There are three primary types of shakers. The Boston shaker is a two-piece with the mixing side and the bottom inserted into each other before shaking. Each side can be used separately for mixing, muddling, or stirring. A separate strainer is needed to use the Boston. The second is the Cobbler shaker, which is a three-piece shaker that's tapered at the end and has a built-in strainer on top. And finally the French shaker,a two-piece shaker with a metal bottom and a metal cap. Like the Boston, the French shaker requires the use of a separate strainer.

Know Your Liquor Types

You have to be intimately familiar with the six primary types of base liquor. They are brandy, rum, gin, tequila, vodka, and whiskey. They make up the vast majority of cocktail bases and neat orders. If you know their flavor profiles, pairing options, glassware, and common recipes, you'll be steps ahead of the game.

Cocktail Recipes

Drinks Every Bartender Should Know

Here’s a list of all the drinks every single bartender must know. We included the most common cocktails, the simplest cocktails, and the most classic cocktails. All together, they’re the cocktails that you’ll encounter again and again during a bartending shift. If you know them like the back of your hand, you’ll be doing great.

The Most Popular Cocktails

Here’s some data around the most popular cocktails in the U.S. It includes which cocktails are popular in which cities, what time of day certain cocktails are popular, and more. We definitely considered it while making our list of what cocktails a bartender should know. The post has a ton of useful, interesting information for bartenders and bartenders-to-be.

Seasonal Cocktails

Some cocktails are popular only during certain seasons. Whether that’s because of their ingredients or reputations, it is what it is! Some drinks are just better when the planet leans a certain way. Here are our list of the best summer cocktails, fall cocktails, winter cocktails, and spring cocktails.

If you have a collection of tasty seasonal cocktails recipes at the ready, you’ll be able to make amazing, unique recommendations to your guests. It’s a great upselling opportunity and a great customer experience. It's customer satisfaction in restaurant industry 101.

Go to Bartending School

Bartending school can be a massive springboard for the right people. You have to at least look into it. And you’ll have to weigh the pros and cons to decide if bartending school is worth it. Here’s an annotated version to get your thoughts flowing:

Bartending School Pros:

You’ll Learn A Lot

This shouldn't be a surprise, but you'll learn a lot in bartending school. From setting up an entire bar for service, to customer psychology, liquor history, upselling, advanced mixology, inventory (like how many beers are in a keg), and more. If you're starting from square one, the amount and breadth of material in bartending courses will be great for you.

Bartending Experience

Like the above, if you've got no experience and you're having trouble getting your foot in the door, bartending school offers that experience. You'll spend days practicing bartender duties like nailing the perfect standard liquor pours, learning to handle customers, pours, and getting your hands dirty with real front-line mixology techniques.

Networking

This applies mostly to in-person bartending schools: you'll make friends. And once your graduating class starts getting hired, you'll all of a sudden know a bunch of bartenders. There is nothing as convenient for a prospective bartender than having a bunch of gainfully employed (and sympathetic) bartender friends to help you find a job.

Bartending Job Hunting Support

This may be one of the biggest benefits. Bartending school often provides post-graduate job assistance.

Bartending School Cons

Takes Time

It'll take about 40 hours of class time to graduate, and those hours are usually in the evening over the course of a few weeks. You'll be sacrificing 2-3 weeks of evenings.

Costs Money

In-person bartending school runs about $400 to $800, while online courses for bartending school are significantly cheaper: between $50 to $200.

Not Technically Required

We'll get into this below, but going to bartending school isn't required to get a bartending job. Bartending school's real value is exposing you to a huge amount of industry knowledge, giving you a chance to practice, and supporting you with networking and job assistance. If any certificate or licensure is needed to legally bartend in your area, it's often easy to get online for much cheaper than the cost of bartending school.

Get a Bartending License

Many cities, states, or counties require certificates or permits to bartend, but there isn't an official bartending license in the U.S. You’ll have to check your local laws to see what’s required. That said, even if it’s not required, it could make you a more competitive candidate for a bartending position.

Google like crazy, do your research, and find out exactly what's required and offered in your area. You’ll often find that you don’t have to go to a bartending school to get a bartending permit. You’re usually able to get any required local certificate or permit on your own through the issuing agency for much less money than attending bartending school. Some are online and take only hours to complete. Then you’ll have a nice new line to put on your resume.

But if you do go to a school, don't assume they’ll provide everything you need to get a bartending job—like local permits or certificates. They usually do, but double check.

That’s How to Become a Bartender

All of the steps in this bartender’s guide should help you learn how to become a bartender. As we said at the beginning, it’s not a step-by-step process. But, over the years, talking to and working with thousands of bartenders, we got a feel for how it’s done. Any one of the ideas in this article can be the route you successfully use to become a bartender.

And once you get that sweet bartending gig, you’ll recognize quickly what makes a shift smooth and what doesn’t. And one of those things is managing your bar inventory with a bar inventory app.

Liquor inventory software like BinWise Pro will streamline your bar inventory and save everyone in the building hours, which gives bartenders more time to do what they’re best at: healing our psychological wounds.

We scoured the internet. We talked to every bartender we know.

And we put together an epic bartender drink recipes and bartender drinks list. We broke them down by three categories. You don't need a bartending license to master them.

First, we included common cocktails or common drinks. These are the most popular cocktails out there. They’re common drinks because everyone orders them.

Second, we’ve got basic cocktails. These are cocktails that people love that are also remarkably easy to make. You’ve likely already stocked a full bar liquor list with everything you’ll need. If not, you'll learn the 86 meaning pretty quickly.

And finally, there are the classic drinks. These may not be the most popular or the easiest, but every bartender worth their salt knows them, and they’re profitable cocktails. They’re just in the genetics of bartending.

For each cocktail on the list, we included the ingredients, the steps, and some arguably interesting information. We also included a few quick tips to make each cocktail sing, from suggested glassware to popular substitutions. So if you’re looking for bartender drinks, here you go. These are the 18 drinks bartenders should know—from common mix drinks to classic cocktails featuring different types of alcohol.

For further mixological reading, check out our in-depth seasonal guides for spring cocktails, summer cocktails, fall cocktails, and winter cocktails.

A Note on How to Use this Bartender Drinks List

There are some terms in this bartender drinks list that aren’t standardized or are otherwise vague. For consistency, here’s what we mean when we use certain units of measurement or terms:

  • Shot: 1.5 oz. (There are about 17 shots in a fifth of alcohol, the standard liquor bottle size. The more you know.)
  • Dash: Approximately 10 single drops
  • Pinch: The amount that fits between your thumb and index finger
  • Top with: Fill remaining volume of glass with
  • Zest: Scrape the colored fruit skin off, leaving behind white pith
  • Twist: A thin piece of peel from a citrus fruit, twisted over and into a cocktail (and usually left in the cocktail or on the rim of the glassware)

See our bartending dictionary for more useful mixological terms.

Common Cocktails Every Bartender Should Know

These are the most popular cocktails in the U.S. Don’t let the word common fool you. They’re common cocktails because everyone’s ordering them. And that means they’re drinks bartenders should know. Stick to the standard liquor pour and standard wine pour to maximize the number of cocktails you get out of your well liquor.

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Margarita

The margarita is the most popular cocktail in America. It’s also the most popular cocktail in every major U.S. market except Chicago, where margaritas are strangely not even in the top 5. What’s even more remarkable is that margaritas cost almost 50 cents more than the national average cocktail price of $9 and they’re still the most popular cocktail. Bartenders can’t afford not to know how to make margaritas at the drop of a hat. Especially during afternoons and early evenings, when margaritas are most popular. They're also the perfect chance to try and upsell a customer.

Margarita Ingredients

  • 2 oz. tequila
  • 1 oz. Cointreau
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1 lime slice
  • 1 pinch salt (for salted rim)

How to Make a Margarita

  1. Create salted rim (coat rim of glass with salt) and fill with ice
  2. Add tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, and ice to a shaker. Shake.
  3. Strain into glass
  4. Garnish with lime slice

Tips for Making a Margarita

  • Shake, never stir, a margarita
  • Always use 100% agave tequila

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Martini

Martinis are probably the easiest cocktail to make in the whole wide world. They definitely deserve a spot in our easy, basic cocktails section. If not for one thing: they’re ridiculously popular. They are the 2nd most popular drink in the U.S. behind the margarita. They’re also most frequently enjoyed at night. That says a lot about the martini. Gin is included in some aphrodisiac drinks, after all. Since its invention in 1863, it’s held a sort of effortless mystique perfectly at home when darkness falls. Learn to make a perfect one.

Martini Ingredients

  • 3 oz. gin
  • 1.5 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1 speared olive or lemon twist

How to Make a Martini

  1. Pour gin and vermouth into a mixer with ice cubes, stir
  2. Strain into a chilled martini glass
  3. Garnish with an olive or lemon twist

Tips for Making a Martini

  • Chill some martini glasses in a freezer to make sure you have properly chilled glasses ready to go
  • Stir for 30 seconds
  • Cut the lemon twist over the martini glass, to capture any falling zest

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Old Fashioned

The old fashioned is the original cocktail. There was a time when there weren’t thousands of cocktails. There was just one cocktail. And it was defined in 1806 as “a potent concoction of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar.” If you had spirits, bitters, water, and sugar, you could make the cocktail. Make it with bourbon, brandy, or rye, it didn't matter. It was a simpler time. Of course, it wasn’t called an old fashioned back then. It was only after the invention of hundreds of new cocktails that the drinking community looked back at the original recipe with nostalgia. “Give me a cocktail,” they’d say. “What kind?” the barkeep would ask. “One of those old fashioned ones.”

Old Fashioned Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. bourbon whiskey
  • 1 sugar cube
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
  • 1 teaspoon water
  • 1 orange slice or cherry

How to Make an Old Fashioned

  1. Place sugar cube in old fashioned glass and cover in bitters
  2. Add a teaspoon of water, muddle until sugar cube dissolved
  3. Fill glass with ice, add whiskey
  4. Garnish with orange slice or cherry

Tips for Making an Old Fashioned

  • The traditional recipe calls for bourbon, but rye whiskey, scotch, and brandy are popular substitutes for those who want less of the vanilla and caramel notes bourbon is known for
  • If sugar cubes aren’t handy or there’s no time or space to muddle, .75 oz. simple syrup can replace the sugar cube

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Mimosa

The mimosa is the 4th most popular cocktail in the U.S. It’s, unsurprisingly, most popular during the morning and afternoon. It’s said that a bartender at the Ritz in Paris invented the mimosa in 1925. It’s also said that it was invented around the turn of the 20th century in the Mediterranean. Though, that’s maybe doing some disservice to the Spaniards who have been drinking orange juice and sparkling wine for centuries. Who can really say where these things come from? It gets its name from the yellow-flowering mimosa plant. That we do know. If you have a brunch service, expect to go through many wine bottle sizes or cases of wine on this cocktail.

Mimosa Ingredients

  • 2.5 oz. Champagne or sparkling wine
  • 2.5 oz. orange juice
  • 1 orange slice

How to Make a Mimosa

  1. Pour Champagne in Champagne flute
  2. Add orange juice
  3. Garnish with orange slice

Tips for Making a Mimosa

  • Use a dry sparkling wine with sweeter fresh-squeezed orange juice and a sweeter sparkling wine with tart orange juice from concentrate
  • If you’re making pitchers of mimosas, don’t pre-mix it too far in advance or you’ll lose the carbonation; 10-15 minutes before serving is about as far in advance as is ideal

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Moscow Mule

The Moscow Mule is the 5th most popular cocktail in the good ol’ U.S.A. That was surprising to us because Moscow Mules require a set of hardware that a lot of popular cocktails don’t. To serve a Moscow Mule properly, you need chilled mugs of copper. Either every bar across the country has those or they’re not serving Moscow Mules in copper mugs. Either way, it’s okay. We’re not the Moscow Mule police. Enjoy as you would enjoy, for the Moscow Mule is enjoyable if it's anything.

Moscow Mule Ingredients

  • 4 oz. ginger beer
  • 1.5 oz. vodka
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • 1 lime slice

How to Make a Moscow Mule

  1. Combine ginger beer and vodka in a highball glass full of ice
  2. Add lime juice, stir
  3. Garnish with lime slice

Tips for Making a Moscow Mule

  • Choose a spicy, extra-gingery ginger beer to avoid the feeling of a vodka ginger ale
  • Serve the drink in a chilled copper mug

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Cosmopolitan

The cosmopolitan is credited to Toby Cecchini of Manhattan’s The Odeon restaurant in 1987. In the grand scheme of cocktails, the cosmo is young. There is a similar recipe from the 1930s that calls for gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, and raspberry syrup. Like most cocktails, there are multiple sources claiming multiple creation stories. What we do know is that it gained popularity like mad in the 1990s on the back of Carrie Bradshaw and now single-handedly represents a certain type of social sophistication.

Cosmopolitan Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz cranberry juice
  • .5 oz. Cointreau
  • .5 oz. fresh lime juice
  • 1 lime or lemon wheel

How to Make a Cosmopolitan

  1. Pour vodka, cranberry juice, Cointreau, and lime juice into a shaker with ice cubes, shake
  2. Strain into cocktail glass
  3. Garnish with lime or lemon wheel

Tips for Making a Cosmopolitan

  • Cut the lemon twist over the cocktail glass to capture any falling zest
  • Shake vigorously until the shaker is so cold your hands sting

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Bloody Mary

The origin of the name Bloody Mary, like the drink’s origins, are murky. Queen Mary I of England, Hollywood star Mary Pickford, the girlfriend of the owner of a bar called Bucket of Blood. All potential origins for the name. It’s hard to say how this cocktail got its name. So let’s just appreciate it for what it is: a cool name.

The Blood Mary is a concept at this point. Like a sandwich or a taco. There isn’t a single recipe, but some general rules to follow when making one. But whatever recipe you end up with, you’ll have a classic fall cocktail on your hands. The Bloody Mary recipe here is very simple, yet very delicious.

Bloody Mary Ingredients

  • 2 oz. vodka
  • 6 oz. tomato juice
  • 1 tablespoon ground horseradish
  • 2 dashes hot sauce
  • 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 pinch celery salt
  • 1 pinch ground black pepper
  • 1 lemon slice
  • 1 celery stalk
  • 2 speared green olives

How to Make a Bloody Mary

  1. Coat the rim of a highball glass with celery salt, fill with with ice
  2. Squeeze juice of lemon slice into shaker, add vodka, tomato juice, horseradish, hot sauce, worcestershire sauce, and black pepper and shake with ice
  3. Strain shaker into highball glass
  4. Garnish with a celery stalk and green olive spear

Tips for Making a Bloody Mary

  • Any hot sauce can be used, though Tabasco is the traditional choice
  • Anything goes with garnishes: meat sticks, pickled vegetables, cheese
  • Serve with a sidecar of beer for best possible guest experience

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Basic Cocktails Every Bartender Should Know

Basic in this sense means easy to make. All good basic bartending drinks should be simple to whip up on a busy shift. Recommend them when you’re slammed and you’ll set yourself up for success. Such is the magic of basic bartending drinks.

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‍Aperol Spritz

Padua, Italy, 1919. The precocious Barbieri brothers got together to pull off their greatest stunt yet: creating a fun, refreshing alternative to the Venetian combination of white wine and soda. The great part about the Aperol spritz is that Aperol is a potable bitters. It’s good for your digestion. It’s also relatively low in alcohol, with 11%. The ingredients and the method are simple, making it a masterful basic bartending drink. All together, the Aperol Spritz is a perfect light afternoon drink for a summer lunch.

‍Aperol Spritz Ingredients

  • 3 oz. Prosecco
  • 3 oz. Aperol
  • 1 orange slice

How to Make a Aperol Spritz

  1. Add ice to rocks or old-fashioned glass
  2. Pour in Aperol, then Prosecco
  3. Top with club soda
  4. Garnish with orange slice

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Whiskey Sour

The whiskey sour is the single best summer bourbon cocktail. The great state of Wisconsin has the honor of being the first location this classic cocktail was mentioned in print—back in 1870. Thank you, Waukesha Plain Dealer.

“Sours” are a family of classic drinks and more accurately thought of as a principle of mixology. They're one of the oldest approaches to making classic drinks. It’s a simple, well-worn formula: base alcohol + sour mixer + sweetener. A gimlet, for example, is basically a sour because Rose’s Lime isn’t lime juice, but a sweetened lime cordial.

Whiskey Sour Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. bourbon whiskey
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • .5 oz. simple syrup
  • 1 cherry
  • 1 orange slice

How to Make a Whiskey Sour

  1. Add whiskey, lemon juice, and simple syrup to shaker without ice cubes, shake
  2. Strain into old-fashioned glass full of ice
  3. Garnish with cherry and orange slice

Tips for Making a Whiskey Sour

  • Add an egg white into the shaker with the whiskey, lemon juice, and simple syrup for the most traditional whiskey sour possible
  • Shake the cocktail without ice—also called a dry shake—vigorously to generate as much froth as possible
  • Use 1.5 oz. of sour mix instead of lemon juice and simple syrup if desired

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White Russian

The White Russian is a Black Russian with cream added. They have nothing to do with Russia besides their use of vodka. And vodka was created in Poland. Just one of those things, I guess.

A Belgian named Gustave Tops invented the cocktail in 1949 in honor of the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg’s visit to Brussels. We’ve now mentioned five countries in the last few sentences. You can be forgiven if you think the origin story of the White Russian doesn’t follow a logical narrative thread.

White Russian Ingredients

  • .75 oz. coffee liqueur
  • 1.75 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. cream

How to Make a White Russian

  1. Add ice to rocks or old-fashioned glass
  2. Add coffee liqueur and vodka
  3. Top off with cream
  4. Tell them 'the dude' sent you

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Gimlet

The gimlet is a product of circumstance versus creativity, though honed and perfected with time. Its origins are at sea, when limes were mandatory rations for British sailors to battle scurvy. Gin was the drink of choice for many British sailors of the time. It was also a natural complement to the limes they were required to eat. “You must eat this lime” is a phrase sadly resigned to this part of history. The gin and lime juice made each other more palatable and countless seamen avoided vitamin deficiency. It’s a basic cocktail if we’ve ever seen one. And we love it for that.

Gimlet Ingredients

  • 2 oz. gin
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1 lime wheel

How to Make a Gimlet

  1. Add gin and lime juice to shaker with ice cubes, shake
  2. Strain into chilled cocktail or martini glass
  3. Garnish with lime wheel

Tips for Making a Gimlet

  • Use a lime cordial like Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice instead of the fresh lime juice for sweeter drink
  • The gin can be switched out for vodka, creating the popular vodka gimlet

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Daiquiri

The daiquiri is a family of cocktails and holds an esteemed position in the basic cocktail pantheon. It's one of the “six basic drinks” inThe Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, an epic and influential 1948 cocktail book. The name is from a Cuban iron mine where an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox was stationed in Cuba in the 1890s. And that iron mine takes the name of the nearby beach, Daiquiri Beach.

The drink found its way to the NYC bar scene in the early 1900s and stayed under the radar until the 1940s. Rum was much easier to come by during WWII than whiskey and vodka. FDR’s “Good Neighbor” policy increased trade incentives between the U.S. and Latin America.

Daiquiri Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. rum
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • .5 oz. simple syrup
  • 1 lime twist

How to Make a Daiquiri

  1. Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice cubes, shake
  2. Strain into chilled cocktail glass
  3. Garnish with lime twist or wedge

Tips for Making a Daiquiri

  • Make your own simple syrup using 2:1 cane sugar to water in a saucepan
  • Shake until the shaker tin frosts on the outside

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Classic Drinks Every Bartender Should Know

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Boulevardier

Credit to Erskine Gwynne, an American writer based in Paris, for the creation of this perfect classic cocktail in the 1920s. With the completion of the redesign of Paris’s urban environment in the late 19th century, there appeared across the city huge, wide-open boulevards. For one of the first times in history, a city was designed to be experienced instead of simply lived in and used. The folks who took to leisurely strolling these new boulevards and open spaces were known as flâneurs or boulevardiers. They embraced a sort of fashionable urban exploration.

The original boulevardier recipe is made with bourbon. But most bartenders today recommend rye because the spice creates a rounder flavor with the sweet vermouth. And rye boulevardiers are fantastic, no doubt. But around here we stick with Erskine’s original recipe.

Boulevardier Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. rye or bourbon whiskey
  • 1 oz. Campari
  • 1 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 1 orange twist

How to Make a Boulevardier

  1. Add whiskey, Campari, and vermouth to shaker with ice, stir
  2. Strain into rocks glass with a few ice cubes in it
  3. Garnish with orange twist

Tips for Making a Boulevardier

  • Serve in a lowball glass for maximum class
  • Like the other famous cocktail with whiskey and vermouth, the Manhattan, a cocktail cherry can be used as a garnish for a sweeter, more playful version

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Gin Fizz

The defining feature of a fizz, which is a family of cocktails, is the combination of acidic juice and fizzy water. Created in New Orleans around the 1870s, the drink became popular in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. It got so popular, in fact, that bars needed to hire entire teams of bartenders to take shifts making the darn things.

And then around 1950, the domestic U.S. popularity couldn’t contain itself. The drink went international. The rest is history. Folks usually put gin, whiskey, and in fizzes, but gin is the most popular. It’s certainly one of our favorite classic cocktails.

Gin Fizz Ingredients

  • 1.75 oz. gin
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • .75 oz. simple syrup
  • Club soda
  • 1 lemon wedge

How to Make a Gin Fizz

  1. Pour all ingredients in a shaker with ice cubes, shake
  2. Strain into an 8 oz. glass with no ice in it
  3. Top with club soda
  4. Garnish with lemon wedge or twist

Tips for Making a Gin Fizz

  • The more fizz, the better. To maximize the froth, shake once without ice, then add the ice and shake again.
  • Add an egg white into the shaker for the traditional gin fizz
  • To make a Tom Collins, strain into a highball glass full of ice

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Sazerac

If you’ve ever heard of Peychaud’s bitters, you’ve heard of the apothecary who is credited with creating the Sazerac. Antoine Amédée Peychaud came to New Orleans from the Caribbean islands in the early 19th century and set up shop selling bitters from a proprietary family recipe. A local barkeep used imported Cognac to make a cocktail that a local apothecary had created. And it grew evermore popular with the years.

Sazerac Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. Cognac
  • .25 oz. absinthe
  • 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters (here's a little primer about what bitters are made of and used for)
  • 1 teaspoon water
  • 1 sugar cube
  • 1 lemon peel

How to Make a Sazerac

  1. Rinse chilled old-fashioned glass with absinthe, set aside
  2. In mixing glass, muddle bitters, sugar cube, and water
  3. Add whiskey or Cognac to mixing glass, stir
  4. Strain into old-fashioned glass, garnish with lemon peel

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Tips for Making a Sazerac

  • Add a combination of Angostura and Peychaud’s bitters for a more complex flavor profile
  • Substitute the Cognac with rye whiskey for a slightly spicier, drier cocktail

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Negroni

James Bond, in the stories and movies, has at least twice ordered an Americano cocktail. It’s Campari, sweet vermouth, and sparkling water. And Bond prefers Perrier in his Americanos, thank you very much.

Sounds like a pretty refreshing drink, the Americano. Imagine coming home from a hard day’s work and sipping on one. Pretty good. Now imagine coming home from a really hard day’s work and sipping on one. Could probably be a little stronger.

That’s what Pascal-Olivier de Negroni thought when he was enjoying his favorite cocktail after a hard day’s work as a general in the French military. When you spend your days worrying about all sorts of men-at-arms, armored cavalry, and the looming Prussian threat, you need a little something more than Campari to take the edge of. He asked a bartender to throw a shot of gin in his Americano, and the Negroni was born.

Negroni Ingredients

  • 1 oz. gin
  • 1 oz. Campari
  • 1 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 1 orange peel

How to Make a Negroni

  1. Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice cubes, stir
  2. Strain into rocks glass full of ice
  3. Garnish with orange peel

Tips for Making a Negroni

  • Don’t rub the orange peel on the glass rim
  • Use a full-bodied, bold gin to compete with the very flavorful Campari for a balanced flavor

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Manhattan

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Frisian island of Fohr was known for its whaling community. It’s not far from mainland Germany, but has access to the whaling bounty of the North Sea. The pursuit of whales took these folks all the way to America—New England to be precise. That's where much of the whaling industry had consolidated.

At the tail end of the whaling era, mixing rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters became popular in New York City. And it spread to the rest of the region—Hartford, Connecticut, specifically. The whalers from Fohr picked up the habit there. Heading back to their homeland because work dried up, they brought the recipe and their appetite for it with them.

To this day, the little island of less than 9,000 people is in love with it. They drink it for lunch, for dinner, as a nightcap, for special occasions. Pictures of it adorn restaurants and menus. Bartenders specialize in it. And people seek it out constantly.

Manhattan Ingredients

  • 2 oz. rye, bourbon, or Canadian whiskey
  • .75 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 1 dash Angostura bitters
  • 1 cherry

How to Make a Manhattan

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  1. Pour whiskey, vermouth, and bitters into a shaker with ice cubes, stir
  2. Strain into chilled glass
  3. Garnish with cherry

Tips for Making a Manhattan

  • Shake with cracked ice to get a better mix; crack the ice cube in the palm of your hand with the back of a bar spoon
  • A maraschino cherry is best, though a lemon twist can be used instead of the cherry for a dressed-down version

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‍Mojito

Mojitos may seem like a newer, trendy drink, but their history reaches back many centuries. Native Cubans used mint leaves, sugar cane juice, and lime for medicine. The European presence in the Caribbean around that time encountered it and it soon evolved into a recreational drink with the addition of rum. The combination of cool mint leaves in mojitos complements the punch of citrus exquisitely. Making a mojito isn’t difficult, but making an excellent one is, so practice! There are worse fates in the world than disposing of practice mojitos.

Mojito Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. rum
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 6 mint leaves
  • Club soda

How to Make a Mojito

  1. Muddle 4 mint leaves with sugar and lime juice
  2. Fill glass half full with crushed ice, add rum, and stir
  3. Top off with club soda
  4. Garnish with leftover 2 mint leaves and optional lime wheel or wedge

Tips for Making a Mojito

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  • Slap the mint leaves with your hands before putting them in the glass to muddle; it releases the mint leaves’ essential oil
  • Stir gently to avoid mint leaves ripping
  • Use dark rum to create a deeper flavor profile

A Solid Bartender Recipes and Bartender Drinks List

These are the most popular cocktail recipes bartenders should know. They teach them in bartending school, no doubt. They are, in fact, must-know drinks for bartenders—or those learning how to become a bartender. Whether at a sports bar or a cocktail bar, bartenders cannot escape these drinks. And for good reason. They’re all delicious, popular, and worth knowing. That’s why we put them in this bartender drink guide. If you offer them in your bar, you'll go through liquor so quickly you'll never find out if liquor can go bad. You can also check out some of the best bartending books for more inspiration.

Discount them as one of your happy hour ideas, or tweak them with signature recipes for a bar promotion idea. Learn them, know them, mix them in your dreams. Then grab a copy of our bartender duties checklist to master the other bartender duties.

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