PBSA Bartending School Blog

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular drinks that people enjoy and you’ll see just how easy these simple mixed drinks are to make!

• Mimosa – This is probably one the most basic drink recipes around. In order to make a mimosa, the only two ingredients you really need are champagne and orange juice. If you don’t have champagne, you can use sparkling wine, or anything that’s dry and not sweet.

Once you have the ingredients, fill half of a glass with one ingredient, then the remainder with the other. Stir them with a bar spoon, or any other long, thin object to mix the two.

The most important thing to remember is that the perfect mimosa is cold, so the orange juice that you use should always be chilled beforehand.

• Long Island Iced Tea – As an aspiring bartender, there’s absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t know how to make one of these.

For this classic drink, you need equals parts triple sec, rum, gin, vodka, and tequila (anywhere from 1/2 -1 ounce) along with a splash of coke and some sweet and sour mix.

The ingredients should be poured over ice, shaken or stirred well, topped with the splash of cola and served with a lemon wedge in the glass.

• Highball – This isn’t a single simple mixed drink, but a series of drinks that all combine alcohol and a type of soft drink. When talking about a highball, a person could be referring to:
o Jack and Coke: Jack Daniels (or any other kind of bourbon) and Coca-Cola
o Scotch and Soda: Scotch and Club Soda
o Seven and Seven: Seagram’s Seven (or any whiskey) and 7-Up
o Gin and Tonic: Gin and Tonic Water
o Captain and Coke: Spiced Rum and Coke.

Or any of the other numerous highballs that make up favorite simple mixed drinks for people all over.

The portions of soda and alcohol for each drink differ from recipe to recipe, but 1½ ounce of alcohol combined with up to 4 ounces of the other type of drink is the general rule of thumb for many highballs. All highballs are served after being stirred well.

• White Russian – The Dude abides by it and, as an aspiring bartender, you should know that all you need for this drink is 1-1½ ounce of vodka, ¾ - 1 ounce of Kahlua, and ¾-1 ounce of heavy cream.

Pour the vodka and Kahlua over ice, stir well, top with the cream and enjoy.

• Vodka Martini – With 1½ ounce of vodka and ¾ ounce of dry vermouth, you can make this elegant, simple mixed drink in no time. The proper way to serve this drink is, of course, shaken, not stirred, so you’ll want to fill a cocktail shaker with ice and then the ingredients.

Once the drink is chilled and shaken, strain it into a chilled martini glass and garnish it with an olive for added taste.

Serve it right away and your guests will enjoy this sophisticated, easily made drink.

These are just a few easy to make drinks that anyone can make, regardless of their experience with serving alcohol.

As an aspiring bartender, these are cocktail recipes that you should have in your repertoire before you attempt to move on to more complicated drinks.

If you want to become a bartender, then you need to be familiar with a wide range of alcoholic drinks, because bar and restaurant owners want to know that the people they hire will be able to make customers feel right at home.

It’s important to be able to fill any drink request that a customer throws your way, but how can you make sure that you’re able to do that?

With bartender training that will give you the education and certification needed to work in any restaurant, pub, club, or hotel that has a bar!

Becoming a bartender is an extremely fun job because you meet all sorts of new people and now two nights of working are ever truly the same.

You already know how to make some of the most popular simple mixed drinks, so now the next step is to get the proper training that will propel you into a new and exciting career that will be putting cash in your pocket before you know it!