Have you ever watched your local bartender work their magic behind the bar and wanted to know their secrets, but you didn’t want to be that person pestering the bartender during happy hour? Lucky for you, all of Florida’s best bartenders just went on break, and they’re here to answer all your burning cocktail and mixology questions. From what tools and spirits to keep stocked in your bar cart to how to mix up the perfect martini, mixologists from across the Sunshine State shared their best nuggets of wisdom in this handy dandy cocktail confessional.
Have you ever watched your local bartender work their magic behind the bar and wanted to know their secrets, but you didn’t want to be that person pestering the bartender during happy hour?
Lucky for you, all of Florida’s best bartenders just went on break, and they’re here to answer all your burning cocktail and mixology questions. From what tools and spirits to keep stocked in your bar cart to how to mix up the perfect martini, mixologists from across the Sunshine State shared their best nuggets of wisdom in this handy dandy cocktail confessional.
Read on to get your most-requested mixology questions answered by the experts.
A: If you want to make a decent drink, your home bar needs to be well-endowed with the right tools. You're going to need:
Boston shaker and strainer: For cocktails with citrus, eggs or creamy ingredients.
Mixing glass and bar spoon: For stirred drinks, like a Manhattan and old fashioned.
Jigger: Consistency is next to godliness. Don't pour with the accuracy of your crazy uncle.
Muddler: Everyone loves to smash. Use this for breaking down and extracting the oils from herbs, citrus and fruits to release their flavors and infuse them into the drink.
Peeler: You’ll typically use this for your citrus garnishes. Citrus is one of the most intense flavors used to elevate cocktails. Express the citrus oils of a lemon peel onto a gin martini or an orange peel for a negroni.
Wine key: Unless you're only buying screw cap wines, this is needed to open your wine bottles. Getting caught without one of these is always an excellent time.
If you’re just starting out, pick up this True Brands Barware Set that comes with most of the essentials!
Bartender: Alex Dalliance
Revelry | Plates & Potions
227 S. Federal Highway
Pompano Beach, FL 33062
A: Must-haves for sure are a blanco and reposado tequila. Mi Campo Blanco Tequila is a good choice at the price point. A decent vodka within reason, and a mid-range bourbon. High West Bourbon Whiskey is delicious and a favorite of mine. High West Double Rye is also a good starter. I’d also recommend having an aged rum of 8-12 years on the bar cart.
Bartender: Roger McQueen
CW’s Gin Joint
633 N. Franklin Street
Tampa, FL 33602
A: A ‘dry shake’ refers to shaking ingredients in a cocktail shaker without ice, the point being to combine those ingredients and give nice aeration to achieve that frothy mouthfeel. A great example of a cocktail that needs to be dry shaked is a whiskey sour. A ‘wet shake’ is when you shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice; point being not only to combine ingredients and give aeration, but to also chill and give proper dilution to your cocktail. In general, a wet shake is used when making any cocktail that has fresh ingredients, like a daiquiri, margarita or mai tai.
Bartender: Sarah An
Jolene Soundroom
200 E. Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33131
A: The answer is short and sweet: quinine. Quinine (which is in tonic water) has a bitter, but sweet taste that can change the profile of a cocktail completely, amplify the flavors, or brighten up a base spirit. Soda water is essentially carbonated water that I would use to give the cocktail a bubbly aspect without changing its flavor profile. With tonic, you get the carbonation and bitter citrus notes that bring balance to a cocktail. For example, tonic complements the botanicals and herbs in a gin BEAUTIFULLY! When you top off your favorite gin with tonic, it lends a touch of citrus that leaves you with a crisp, refreshing cocktail to enjoy any time.
Bartender: Lauren Reese
Trail Garden at St. Petersburg Distillery
800 31st Street S.
St. Petersburg, FL 33712
A: Whether your beverage contains bubbles or foam, is shaken or stirred, all the characteristics of the drink should bewade taken into consideration when choosing your glassware. With cocktails, large-mouthed martini glasses can enhance the aromatics of the drink, while skinny, narrow Champagne flutes can help retain carbonation. When floats and foams come into play, I prefer to use a coupe glass. Its shallow and wide features provide a copious wash line that will help showcase the cocktail’s unique elements.
Even beer should be served in specific glassware depending on the style and brewing process. Pilsner glasses are tall and slim, getting slightly wider toward the rim, influencing bubbles to rise to the top of the glass. The height creates better visibility of the clarity that a lighter style beer, like a pale lager or blonde ale, usually encompasses. The tulip glass allows the flared lip to maintain a foamy head and the bulb-like base fosters the scents and flavors of malty and highly aromatic beers like Belgian ales, double IPAs, and stouts.
Selecting the appropriate glassware for wine can be deceptive, considering they are all similar in shape. For bold, full-bodied red wine like cabernet or merlot, consider a tall wine glass with a large bowl and wide opening rim, which allows for more oxidation, producing a smoother and aroma-enhanced red wine. Light-bodied white wine thrives in a shorter glass with a smaller bowl and slightly tapered opening, minimizing the amount of oxidation, preserving the wine’s aromas, and bringing them closer to the nose. Whether your wine is red, white, or blush, a stemmed wine glass is always ideal; this allows the warmth of your hands to not alter the temperature of the wine, which could affect the taste.
I always ask myself when considering glassware, “Which option will intensify the drinker’s sensory experience by highlighting the textures and flavors of this beverage?”
Bartender: Emily Roussell
Room 27 at Fenway Hotel
453 Edgewater Drive
Dunedin, FL 34698
A: When you order a drink “neat,” it means you’ll get served a spirit at room temperature in a glass with no ice. Typically, this will be a higher-end aged spirit like añejo tequila or bourbon. If you would like it to be cold but with no ice, then ask for it “up,” meaning the bartender will chill the spirit through either stirring or shaking it with ice and straining into a glass with no ice. This can either be done with a single spirit or a cocktail, like a martini. When you order it “on the rocks,” you’d like your spirit or cocktail to be served over ice. This can be done with a single spirit and also cocktails, like negronis, margaritas and old fashioneds.
Bartender: Rensel “Ice” Cabrera
The Sylvester
3456 N. Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33127
A: “Bitters” refers to a type of aromatic liquid made from botanicals (such as herbs, roots, and citrus peel) infused in alcohol. Bitters are used in small amounts to add flavor and complexity to cocktails. A well-known example of bitters used in a cocktail includes Angostura bitters in an old fashioned. When making an old fashioned, there is a large variety of whiskies to choose from; a few I like to use are Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky, a classic Japanese whisky, or Hirsch, a well-blended bourbon, or even Writers’ Tears, a true Irish whiskey. For my sweetener, I typically use Demerara sugar and add in a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters; remember less is more. And, as we all know, it’s not a true old fashioned without a Luxardo Cherry as a garnish accompanied with an orange twist.
Bartender: Lesley Fabian
The Moderne
1241 E. Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32803
The Ravenous Pig
565 W. Fairbanks Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32789
A: The first thing I try to dial in on when choosing a spirit for a new drink is what kind of vibe I want my cocktail to have. There are many genres, from rich tiki to classic Prohibition, so you must figure out your direction from the start.
If you’re going for a lighter cocktail and want to use soft ingredients like citrus or cucumber, you’ll want to choose a lighter spirit, think vodka or gin. This lets the delicate flavors in the spirit shine through.
If you’re crafting a cocktail with more spice and depth, I find myself coming back to rye whiskies when I need a home run. They're fantastic for building drinks because they're less sweet than bourbons and give you plenty of spice for depth and backbone, allowing you room to build layers of flavor. High West Double Rye is my current go-to, a nice rye that is delicious as a base for a tiki concoction or a more refined spin on a classic. Find a rye you love, and it will forever live in your box of tricks!
Personal Tip: If your cocktail comes out thin and you want to add some body or texture, try a half or quarter ounce of white crème de cacao or velvet Falernum. They both play well with other spirits and impart more weight and depth than flavor in small amounts.
Bartender: Madeline “Maddie” Kaye
Haven
2208 W. Morrison Avenue
Tampa, FL 33606
A: When I first started bartending, someone told me ‘No citrus, no shake,’ and, for the most part, it's a good basis to utilize.
Cocktails without citrus are going to get stirred. I use a nice, solid mixing glass to stir my cocktails. You're also going to need a trusty cocktail spoon and a strainer. I like to use a Julep strainer, but a normal Hawthorne strainer will also work. Old fashioneds, boulevardiers, negronis, classic martinis, vespas, mint juleps and sazeracs are all good examples of cocktails without citrus that I stir when I create them.
If we look at cocktails with citrus that need to be shaken, it's time to grab your tins. I add my ingredients to the larger tin, starting with juices, sweeteners, cordials, then spirits. This way, if I do make a mistake, I haven't wasted alcohol. After I have added my ingredients in the larger tin, I fill the smaller tin with ice, close the two together, then shake. Margaritas, gimlets, cosmos, daiquiris, whiskey sours and most of the tinis all have citrus and require shaking.
Anything that needs foam needs a good shake, like espresso martinis and white Russians. When using egg whites, you'll want to do a dry shake to emulsify the egg whites with the other ingredients, then add ice and do a secondary shake to chill the cocktail. Lastly, never add soda to tin and shake, and don't add hot drinks and dry shake; both create pressure and can cause the tin to pop open.
Bartender: Jonathan Frank
Akira Back Delray
223 NE 2nd Avenue
Delray Beach, FL 33444
What more information on shaken vs stirred, check out our video on The Science Behind What Happens When Shaken or Stirred.
A: At its core, one should order a martini however they will enjoy it most! Here’s a full martini glossary to get you started:
Vodka vs. Gin: The martini is a straightforward cocktail with minimal ingredients, so your base will definitely have an impact on the final product. Vodka will let your other ingredients (vermouth, bitters, brine) come to the forefront, while gin will bring in more botanical flavors and layer with those ingredients to produce a more complex martini.
Dirty: A dirty martini is made with olive brine, resulting in a savory/salty cocktail.
Dry: A dry martini indicates little vermouth added to the martini, normally around half of an ounce.
Extra Dry: Extra dry indicates little to no vermouth. Many times, bartenders will rinse and toss vermouth in the glass for an extra dry order.
Wet: With dry meaning lack of vermouth, wet indicates a larger presence of it. Many people enjoy 50/50 martinis, indicating one part gin (or vodka) to one part vermouth.
Stirred vs. Shaken: This refers to the technique in which the martini will be prepared. A shaken martini will result in a slightly more diluted and aerated cocktail, while ordering it stirred will preserve the texture, resulting in a velvety, luxurious martini.
Garnish Style: There are so many fun ways to garnish your martini! If you order your martini dirty, the obvious garnish is an olive, but there are different styles of olives and olives stuffed with different fillings. A Gibson will be garnished with a cocktail onion, but most people order their martini ‘with a twist.’ If unspecified, it will almost always be a lemon twist, but you can use all varieties of citrus. I’ve had martinis garnished with tomato, cornichon, and even various oils. The weirder, the better!
Personal tip: REFRIGERATE YOUR VERMOUTH! It slows down the oxidation process to extend the life of the liquid and preserve the flavor.
Bartender: Wade Murata
The Mandarin Hide
231 Central Avenue N.
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
