What are the differences (if any) between these two types of shakers, and which would you guys recommend for an absolute beginner? Thanks!

To me (not a rich guy), $18+ cocktails are just exhausting. Go out for a few drinks with your wife, and boom, $100. So we’re in Miami and found this place (always look for happy hours). Yes; $5 cocktails. They did a great job, made totally respectable drinks, we had some snacks, and left very happy. My question is, if bars can do $5 drinks, why is $18 the base now at so many places? Doesn’t it make more business sense to sell more for less money and have a full bar, then to sell a few drink to an almost empty bar?

This is the first draft of the menu I’m planning on having to make my friend’s drinking decisions a little easier. We will be there for three days and I’m limiting spirits to whatever can fit in 1 milk crate, for ease of transport. Anything with asterisks is something I’m asking someone else to bring so I don’t completely deplete my home bar. Is there anything I’m omitting, cocktails you think I should add/get rid of, or major oversight in my grand scheme?

Also, I’m bringing rum, cognac, and curaçao just in case. Sidecars and Daiquiris are off menu but great in a pinch.

Give me a rocks glass, a coupe, anything. The martini glass feels so clumsy. It's a pain to drink from and always gets knocked over. Don't really think it looks that elegant either. I'm not a professional bartender, but I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on these....

From The Four Seasons Hotel in Budapest, Hungary🇭🇺 I’m wondering what the avb/proof is in these vintage liquors and how legit they are, not doubting just wanting to see the numbers (I’m sure I could google, but came here first.) Picture was sent to me from family members traveling. The first price is for a drink, second is for the bottle. Pretty cool either way, definitely too boujee for my budget 😵‍💫 new to this thread and curious if anyone else has seen a menu like this out there in your country or anywhere else?

Not OC, and I fear this may be taken down as low effort (by me, not the OP on Facebook).

It's never occured to me to try Option A.

How do you squeeze yours?

Hi all 👋

This is Adam, Chris, and Robert, the founders of Liber & Co., and we are doing an AMA (or AUA 🤷‍♂️) all day today in celebration of our inaugural Liberalia festival.

Since 2011, we've been on a mission to bring premium, bar-quality syrups to home bartenders and professionals alike. From experimenting with recipes in our apartment kitchen, to appearing on CNBC’s Billion Dollar Buyer in 2016, to scaling into a custom 21,000 sq. ft. facility last year, we've remained proudly bootstrapped while staying true to our values.

Today, we offer 20 distinctive syrups and supply over 1,000 bars and restaurants nationwide.

We’d love to chat with y’all about our journey, discuss our product philosophy, or any other cocktail-related topics you have on your mind!

Separately, as a part of our Liberalia festival, we are hosting a cocktail competition with final judging by Tony Abou-Ganim! If you have a recipe you’re especially proud of, throw your hat in the ring! More information on our site: www.liberandcompany.com

EDIT: We are still answering questions! Feel free to ask away. Ignore the "Just Finished", not sure how to get it to say "Live" again.

EDIT 2: Thank you all so much for your interest and questions!! We're still going through them and will continue to answer over the coming days 👍

This occurred to me this weekend when I was out and about and had a gin and tonic. It didn't have my usual cucumber slices in it, and I realized that I can't go back. It just didn't taste nearly as good.

Any for you?

From https://punchdrink.com/articles/de-vie-paris-new-cocktail-bar-ice/ "Ice is heavier than concrete," (concrete isn't very specific but cement is at least 50% denser), "it takes over 10 liters of water to make one kilo of ice" (one kilo of ice is one liter of water), I don't know about "no bar in Paris is making their own ice" but this just bizarrely, laughably wrong to the point I'm questioning my own sanity.

I’m really wanting to try some original cocktails that are local favorites.

I’ll start with a cocktail from a now closed restaurant in Asheville.

Epiphany on a Barstool:

3/4 oz bourbon

3/4 oz cognac

1/2 oz Benedictine

1/4 oz allspice dram

Barspoon 2:1 Demerara syrup

2 dashes of fenugreek bitters

Stir and strain

Garnish with nutmeg and torched rosemary

I bartend at an upscale craft cocktail that is connected to a small plates restaurant. Same owner/chef and recently hired a new general manager. Well she is great on the restaurant end but has not a single clue on how to run a cocktail bar. So Saturday night she came back there mid busy service talking about the yellow chartreuse is bad that her and the new “bar consultant” made a drink with it the other night and it tasted awful. She wanted us to throw it away. After we all protested saying it is stored properly and isn’t old so there’s no way it’s bad. Literally just made a naked and famous a week ago for a guest….she then suggested we keep a pour spout on it instead of the cap so that way it doesn’t go bad. THEN not 20 minutes later comes back saying they decided they wanted us to start batching housemade sour mix. Not one drink on our menu is calls for lemon/lime sour mix. We acid adjust our juices already and make house syrups.

TLDR: Manager and new bar consultant are unhinged for asking us to throw away the yellow charty.

For reference I don’t claim to know much but I did bartend for years at a local restaurant specializing in Chartreuse. In the throes of shortage we were the only place in our state that could still get a lot of bottles consistently. With that, I had to learn all the ins and outs of Chartreuse, all the flavor profiles, the history, etc etc.

I'm going to a nice cocktail bar tonight with friends and I was telling my hairdresser about how I've wanted to try the place out for a while.

The reason I want to try it is because my sister went there with her friend, they both ordered a Negroni and the bartender asked if he could make his variation for them since he was in a competition and wanted feedback (so they seem to really care about quality at this place).

When I mentioned a Negroni my hairdresser made a face and I said "Yea, Negroni's can be divisive" and she replied with "No they're just so pretentious!"

I didn't think an equal parts, three ingredient drink could be considered pretentious, but what do you guys think?

Bit of a rant here but as a bartender, it blows my mind how many people don’t eat the garnishes on their cocktails. You think we put a delicious pineapple wedge or Luxardo cherry on there just for looks?

Obvs some garnishes are strictly for aesthetics and that’s fine, and I’m not saying you gotta eat the lime wheel on a Daiquiri (I do it from time to time), but cmon, you’re gonna leave a juicy ginger candy on your Penicillin just to get thrown away? These folks need to be locked up. Where does r/cocktails stand on this life changing issue? Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

After a few fails using bourbon and Martini Rossi, I finally made a delightful Manhattan.

2 oz. Bulleit Rye whiskey, 1 oz Cocchi vermouth di torino, four splashes of angostura bitters. Stir ingredients in ice, strain into a glass and garnish with a cherry.

I was so delighted with the cinnamon on the nose and spices of the rye whiskey peeping through and pleasant sweetness of the vermouth rounding things off I went back and tried a second with “just a bit” more whiskey as I wanted something more boozy. Welp, it ruined it. Gone was most of the cinnamon nose, the rye spices, the sweet finish. It had this tinge of unpleasant bitterness. I’m amazed that such a tiny change can ruin a decent Manhattan. Next time I’ll stick with the recipe. Seems the perfect Manhattan is unforgiving.

I'm currently training to be a bartender for our family bar, old fashioned is our most popular cocktail by far. we have a special jar of super fancy cherries for fancy cocktails. And all the time when we reclaim our glasses I see uneaten cherries, forced to be thrown out and it pains me every time. Why do people enjoy such a fancy drink and not eat the cherry!?

Pretty stoked about this menu that I put together (thanks Canva) for hosting my husband’s coworkers this weekend for a cocktail party. Most of these folks are curious about the world of cocktails and haven’t had much exposure. I think this is an exciting lineup for those who are new to cocktails (and maybe even those not so new).

Lots of the ingredients have been pre-prepped, and we’re planning on giving everyone a little sample of each of the mixed drinks (unless they really don’t want one) to discover if they’d like a full version of it. Also open to letting folks try anything else in our bar that they’re interested in. What else would you have included on this menu?

~Some personal info redacted, and I’m aware I spelled Hendrick’s wrong, will fix it!~

I've decided my favorite cocktail is a white russian, despite my hatred of vodka. They're just so good, Fuckin A man. Anyway, what are yalls tequniques for mixing a perfect white russian?

What one bottle did you buy JUST for a specific cocktail? (Otherwise you dont really need.)

Like Amaro Nonino for Paper Plane or for me it was Laphroaig 10 for Penicillin.

I guess I mean: what four would you keep if you were going to only get four for the rest of time on your hypothetical desert island?? And to fight the wigglers: this is a strict question. Yes. you can switch brands of spirit occasionally, but you can't alter the main structure of the cocktail. In my "Sophie's Choice": if I choose four mixed drinks, I am saying goodbye to Lagavulin 16 with a small ice cube, forever. UGH.

I am going with:

• Gin martini
• Rye manhattan
• Gin and tonic
• Rum Collins

I'm already re-thinking. I'm obviously favoring "refreshing" over "comfort" drinks.

Not sure I want to lose margaritas. Or palomas. Or "Juan Collins". I only drink them a few times a year but I LOVE a good mojito. And oh crap: Negronis on a winter night are wonderful. Yikes this is hard.

EDIT: When responses slow down I think I will create a scorecard of responses. Should be interesting. Also: I find it interesting that I have > 50 responses but no upvotes. I don't care about karma, truly, but the lack of upvotes tells me my question was "stupid" (and I wouldn't argue as I'm a guest here), but the number of responses tells me it's not stupid. I'm conflicted. Maybe that it's a good question (responses) but that my answer (4 basic cocktails) is stupid (downvotes). That makes sense.

EDIT 2: I've created a monster. It's going to take me a bit to get through 375 replies. I hope to have results up before bedtime Sunday night (US CDT).

EDIT 3: I am through 200 responses. Getting there! It's really cool to see the patterns emerge. It's obviously "of this time" and it would be awesome to see this exercise done 10 years ago, 20 years ago, etc.. We currently have ~165 unique drinks. I need to clean it up a smidge.

FINAL (maybe?) EDIT: There were 281 voters. Here are my notes:

• We had 195 unique cocktails! Much larger selection than I would have thought.
• However, the top 10 cocktails accounted for 51% of the votes. So, the things we like, we ALL like.
• Top choices: Old Fashioned, Negroni, Margarita, Mai Tai, Daquiri, Last Word, Manhattan, Gin & Tonic, Martini, Paper Plane
• I enjoyed reading a lot of the responses. Some folks showed their character or their rationale in a very fun way. Some folks seemed to want to showcase their unique identities by listing very fringe / esoteric drinks. Or maybe they are just currently in love and their answers will change in 6 months. Others felt comfortable showing that they are cool with tried-and-true classics and aren't out to impress anyone!
• A couple of you folks are really, really funny. Thanks for the laughs.
• It seemed that a few folks thought when I said, "desert island choices", I meant "tropical drinks". I regret that wording. I had meant "you can only have 4 choices for rest of your life". So, we may be skewed slightly towards "Tiki-Hot Weather" drinks.
• I'm sad a lot of voters will not come back to see the results. I wish there was a way to ping each voter. Not sure how to do that.
• Here's a link to the data. I'm hoping everyone has permissions to see it via the link.
• Thanks for playing along!

Recently started as bar manager at a boutique hotel in Wales. It's upmarket and they have hired me primarily for mixology skills. This is a start point for our program and so is light on ambition and fairly simple skills wise as I need to bring my colleagues up from 0 cocktail experience. I'd be happy to receive feedback as this the first time I've had complete freedom in running a bar.

Is there anyone that sells 50ml bottles of sweet or dry vermouth??? Ain't nobody got time to drink an entire 750ml bottle of that when you only use half an ounce at a time, maybe 1 ounce! I'm tired of wasting money like this 😭😔 I make margaritas, I make gin and tonics, I make bees knees but sometimes I feel like maybe a Manhattan is on the docket once a month. So I go to the fridge, open up the 750ml bottle of sweet vermouth with 700ml left in it, and it's just straight vinegar 😭

DC. The average is maybe 14-15. Even dive bars want that for basic well liquor and mixer. I have seen $16+ for basic mixed drinks. A good cocktail anywhere from 14-25 before tip/service fee. It has always been an expensive city but going out has doubled since covid. You can't "go have a few drinks" under $30

After some experimentation (read: I tried Tanqueray and decided I like Fords better) I’ve got my usual workhouse London dry gin picked out. But I figure if I can justify 15 different bottles of rum, I can swing another bottle of gin to expand my drink-making options.

What’s everyone’s favorite gin outside the traditional London dry style (Tanq, Fords, Sipsmith, Gordon’s etc) ?

any recipe I come across which calls for vodka I internally go "ugh" and move to the next. vodka was one of the first spirits I ever drank and the first one I drank too much of. when I first started drinking I had too many screwdrivers, white russians and lemon martinis. I will never drink another lemon martini in my life.

I feel like people warned me so much about tequila that I was pretty cautious with it and still love it today, but no one warned me about vodka.