Being in the hospitality industry, bartenders don’t like to grumble. But there are certain drinks they hate to make.
The primary reason a particular cocktail earns bartenders’ ire is the time it takes to make. On a busy night, with patrons three-deep, most bar professionals don’t want to spend five minutes muddling mint leaves.
Other dreaded orders are popular drinks that have no accepted, consistent recipe; the martini is a classic example. These invite the customer to say the drink was made incorrectly, no matter how it was mixed.
It is not always the drink itself the bartender hates; sometimes it’s the timing. Even the most simple shaken cocktail is a hassle during Friday-night rush hour.
But some drinks are the bane of bartenders at any time of day. Here are five examples.
The Lemon Drop. This very common cocktail can come as a shot or in a martini glass. It’s a combination of vodka (commonly citron-flavored), fresh-squeezed lemon juice and sugar that threatens to leave you with a hangover.
People love Lemon Drops because they’re fruity, sweet and often come in a glass rimmed with sugar. However, this drink is time-consuming to make and leaves the bartender with sticky hands.
Paschal Smith, bartender at the Bitter End in
If the bar is busy and you crave that citrus flavor, consider having a Kamikaze, which doesn’t include that bothersome sugar.
The
Bartender Eric Berchtold of the Cinch in
Some insist on bourbon, others on Canadian whiskey or rye. Some people want cherry juice or Cointreau added.
Berchtold has had patrons order the drink because it makes them seem debonair, yet when it arrives, they decide they don’t like the taste of bitters.
When ordering a
The Cosmopolitan. The popular Cosmopolitan carries the same pitfalls as the
While fresh lime juice is usually preferred, some people insist on Rose’s Lime Juice. Others want sweet and sour mix added to sweeten the cocktail and give it a pinker hue. Sometimes Cointreau, a more expensive orange liqueur, is substituted for triple sec.
Without specific instructions, every bartender makes Cosmos differently. If you want it made your way, you have to specify.
The Mojito. Mojitos are delicious — they’re minty and fresh, and they provide a strong buzz.
But, to most bartenders, the Mojito is the quintessential “it takes too long to make” drink.
The Mojito embodies every reason a bartender hates to make a cocktail. First of all, it requires fresh mint, which must be muddled — mashed with a special tool to release its flavors. This alone takes a few minutes.
Sugar and fresh lime juice — two sticky ingredients many bartenders dislike — are added, along with rum and soda water.
To top it off, Mojitos must be shaken.
Bartender Noah Esperas of le Duplex in
He warns, “Honestly, if I am slammed at
Specialties of another bar. Just because you had a Lavender Martini at the Redwood Room in
The Bitter End’s Smith says, “I hate making stuff I’ve never heard of, which are most drinks these days.”
If you must have a designer drink, you’re going to have to know the recipe yourself. It won’t help to bark a crazy name at the bartender and then get upset when she’s never heard of it.
That said, most bartenders like to experiment. Pick a time when the bar isn’t busy, describe the drink you had, be willing to pay for whatever the bartender concocts, and you just might re-create your vacation drinking experience.
Finally, a nice tip can turn any of these cocktails into a drink your bartender loves to make.
Source - Bartender’s Most Hated Drinks
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Tags: drinking, drinks, odd, weird
Responses to “Five Drinks That Bartenders Don’t Want You To Order (Bartenders Most Hated Drinks)”
November 23rd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Relax chris tucker. Almost everyone dislikes parts of their job.
You can still order these drinks, but the bartender might not enjoy making them. That’s fine since you’re not there to be his friend.
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:21 pm
What a douche. This jerk needs to get out from behind the bar and back washing dishes and bussing tables, where he came from.
If you can’t stand the drinks, stay out of the mixer!
November 24th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Five Drinks That Bartenders Don?t Want You To Order…
[…]Check out this story why bartenders behave like this?[…]…
November 27th, 2007 at 1:23 am
i was a bartender for years and had to serve drinks that, when i smelled them, made me want to hurl.
when i’m a customer paying around ten bucks for a lemon drop martini, i expect to get it and it better be damn good.
too bad about whiny bartenders.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Manhattan’s dont have bitters in them, they are just whiskey and sweet vermouth. A cherry is a garnish, but most people are wimps and want cherry juice added. Cointreau is just as lame, the people just want to sound impressive adding cointreau - its basically a sweet liqueur, to take away the bite of the whiskey.
Old Fashioned is the name of the drink that has whiskey, vermouth AND bitters. you also are supposed to put an orange slice or two in the bottom, with sugar, and crush it with a mortar. (from a Mortar and Pestle set, not the weapon.
)
If you like whiskey, you drink Manhattans, if you like to look impressive but don’t really like whiskey that much, order and Old Fashioned.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:35 pm
I must be a horrible customer, my two favourite drinks are on this list: martinis and manhattans. And yes, I’m definitely picky about how they’re made.
On the bright side, I tip extremely well and I do tell the bartender exactly how I want them made (crown royal manhattan, hendrick’s gin martini). I also typically go to bars that aren’t overly busy so the bartenders do have time to make my drink without pissing off the next person in line.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:56 pm
“Bartender Noah Esperas of le Duplex in San Francisco says, “Go to a restaurant if you want a real Mojito.” ”
Gotcha - if I want drinks, don’t go to a bar.
I agree with the other posters here - I was expecting to see drinks like a Pumpkin Blaster or Long Island Icedtini - stuff that’s exceptionally complex or painful (or silly, like rum & coke). But to list mainstays of modern bartending and whine about them is like a chef at Morton’s bitching about “people who order steaks”
December 1st, 2007 at 11:57 pm
[…] Five Drinks That Bartenders Don’t Want You To Order (Bartenders Most Hated Drinks) […]
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:03 am
OMG. QQ moar!
Look. You don’t want to do your job and mix drinks? Fine. Then don’t. But don’t bloody well expect me to tip you a buck or more for popping the cap off my bottle of beer.










November 23rd, 2007 at 1:24 pm
zOMG, if the don’t like making it go freaking work in a beer bar, ala zeitgeist or toranado. WTF, bartenders are there TO MAKE DRINKS!!!111ELEVEN.
Oh yes I forgot it’s SF and here beggars are required by law to be the f*cking choosiest c!nts on the planet. If you don’t want to mix drinks, gasp, don’t be a bartender.
Geez are people just getting stupider and stupider? Idiocracy in 50 years not 500.