Summer Fun and Rum Punches

Well, it hasn't really been that fun. I won't go into details, but there are lots of things I should be doing, which I'm not always on top of. This tends to ruin the fun I have when I am doing things that are supposed to be fun.

So far, I've been doing a lot of reading, and a lot of biking (I'm changing routes en-route now, and making directions up as I go along, which is cozy - thank goodness I have an excellent sense of direction!). I have also been going to Moth Up's with a friend of mine. These are events at pubs, where a few people from the "audience" get up to the mic and tell stories. Some have been prepared in advance, while some are off-the-cuff. Some are better than others, but they're definitely fun events to go to.

I'm in the process of burying (deeply) memories of the summer course I took, that ended earlier this month. Those things I'm supposed to be doing include my research assistant research, my volunteer curator supervisory responsibilities, and planning the next student conference. Oh, and making money.

Anyway, to get down to business: My friend from home introduced me to her family's traditional Barbados Rum Punch recipe, which we used to drink while watching The Tudors and eating Trader Joe's frozen foods (I miss TJ's.) The original recipe, (from memory, so it's probably not exact) goes like this:

1 shot dark rum
2 shots pineapple juice
2 shots orange juice
dash of bitters.

Mix/Stir, Serve. (If you want it fancy I'd add an orange slice or a pineapple slice, or both!)

I don't buy pineapple or orange juice, because I find I just never drink them.

I do drink Ceres' Fruit Medley mix (with tropical fruits like passionfruit, guava, pineapple). Well, I haven't been making rum punches, because I figured it would be better with the original ingredients. Until today. I tried the Fruit Medley, added a half-shot of Triple Sec for orange flavor. So my new Rum Punch - Canadian Variation:

1 shot dark rum
4 shots Ceres Fruit Medley
1/2 shot Triple Sec
2-3 dashes bitters

Mix/Stir, Serve. (If you want it fancy I'd add an orange slice or a pineapple slice, or both!)

It's marvelously tasty. I dare you to try it! Or, try both, and tell me which one you like better. 

Another Crazy Weekend and A New Drink Recipe

Last Saturday my cousin got married. The ceremony was lovely, the reception fun... and a good time was had by (well, me, at least).Not many people danced, and after the reception ended, the DJ thanked my sister and me for dancing, since we pretty much held up the dance floor. It must be awful to DJ an event at which nobody dances.

Attending the wedding involved some more crazy travels and much less sleep than I'm used to. I'm definitely ready for a boring weekend where I try to get up early and get my reading done! I flew out on Friday, and got back on Monday just in time to go directly to class, where I had to turn in an assignment. After I ate, and edited another assignment due that evening, I had another class and was feeling pretty ill, thanks to the dry, recycled air on the planes and the changing pressures during flight.

Since my siblings and I were all home at the same time for the wedding, we decided to have an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner, so we all got to eat some amazing food and share some good times with family and friends, even though it wasn't really Thanksgiving (Canadian OR American). I discovered my new favorite cocktail, which is called a Sporran Cooler (see the link for Wikipedia's definition, which matches up with my experience). For your future delectation, I will provide the recipe here:

Sporran Cooler:
2 1 msr Drambuie
1 msr fresh lemon juice
1 (approximate) tsp Grenadine
(Hefty) splash of Bitters
4 msr soda water

Msr = approximately 1 oz
(...) are peculiar to my own style of mixing.
It turns out this really pretty pink/peachy colored drink, fruity and honeyed with a bit of a tart kick.

I may have to stop by the liquor store tonight as well as the grocery store, given my nearly-empty "bar", which at the moment contains a half-bottle of Drambuie.

Well, the reading doesn't get done by osmosis, so I'd better get back to work. If you try the drink recipe, tell me what you think, and if you changed it up at all! I'd be interested to know others' takes on it.

When To Cut The Bride's Brother Off...

A funny story I forgot to tell a week or so ago, after I worked my second wedding.

The second was much more fun than the first. The wedding was Korean, and at the reception the crowd was mostly young. As in, I-should-probably-be-carding-you-but-it's-a-wedding, young.

So I made my first real Long Island iced teas. Without tequila. Still don't see the worthiness of that drink... I poured many, many shots. Of Jim Beam. And whiskey (shudder). All for the groomsmen, while my coworker poured an equal amount of kamikazes for the bridesmaids.

Late into the evening, the bride's brother sidles up to the bar, arm around the shoulders of his friend. Orders another shot of Jim Beam. I hold up my index finger in the age-old, "gimme one minute" gesture, sneak over to my coworker, who's been bartending as long as I've been alive. "How do you know when to cut someone off", I ask, not having done it ... ever, actually. His answer: "Use your best judgement..." Well, really, that didn't help. I talk to him a bit more, asking more detailed questions, until he suggests "you could tell him it's his last one." Ah! It's perfect.

So I put the glass up on the bar mat, look him in the eye, and say, "This is your last one". "Wha'?" he slurs. I repeat myself; he repeats himself. The friend says nothing, until they walk away, when he reminds the bride's brother that he's been cut off.

My coworker and I watch him weave and stumble his way off. He turns to me, says, with a little bit of a twinkle, "You made the right decision". I heartily agreed.

Can I See Your ID, Please? And Then Can I See Another?

Not sure I mentioned in my last bartending post that I worked last Friday at a full bar, only the oh, second time in my entire life, and the first time since graduating from bartending school. The whole night I had "steam coming out my ears" in concentration, as my boss told me - mostly because he was figuratively looking over my shoulder the entire night. And by figuratively I mean he stood about two feet away. Watching me. Correcting me. So I was pleasantly surprised (well, sort of surprised - I'm not that dense) when my other boss, who also works for the one who supervised my "first" foray into real bartending, told me that I'd done well enough on Friday to please Boss #1, and there'll be more shifts coming my way in future.

But I digress.

Last night I worked at the concession stand bar again, which has some of your basic rail drinks and about six cordials and liqueurs. So this little man comes up to me, about my height and just about as wide as he is tall, with a young'un who looks like his son. Orders a Heineken Light for himself, turns to his son, asks what he wants. The young man orders the same thing, and because his cheeks are smooth and he's still pretty, like he hasn't grown into his bones yet, I card him. He hands me a godforsaken Alabama ID. If you've never seen one, they don't look as fake as those from New York, but they're not as ... fake-proof as the new Virginia licenses. I can't remember why, maybe the picture didn't look like him, but I ask for a second one, or a credit card, to check his name. He hands me another (old?) ID - that has a different birthdate!! Understandably confused, I point it out to him. Also confused, he hands me his scuba diving card (scuba diving?) ... after looking at all three (three) IDs he's graciously given me, I finally hand him the beer. At some point during this exchange, his dad looks at me and says, "I'm buying" and I had to point out that he asked his son what the latter wanted to drink, as in, his son was clearly going to drink that Heineken Light.

Flirting on the Job

Last month, I decided to invest in my future career. I signed up for bartending class. Five weeks and much hesitation later, I received my bartending certification (still awaiting TAM certification). This required a test on Techniques of Alcohol Management, a written test on how to make tdrinks, different brands of liquor, etc, and a speed test. I passed all with flying colors, of course!

Three weeks after completing the course, I still haven't really started looking for a bartending job - because I already have one (sort of). Well, I work with other bartenders and have been falling far behind in accumulation of tips. Which, as everyone knows, is the reason to bartend. If one doesn't do the work for the flexible hours, the contact with people, or the opportunity to flirt, etc.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I sagely asked one of the more experienced (read 10 years +) bartenders for some advice on increasing the amount of tips I make in an evening.

Boiled down, the short answer is: Flirt.

Well. That's easy for some, I suppose. I, however, was not born with a gift for flirtation. Don't get me wrong, I can, and do, and I enjoy it ... it just doesn't always naturally occur to me to do so. Especially if I'm trying to remember how to make a drink, or putting an order on the computer at the same time. My "concentration" face does not include a smile. So you can bet I'll be practicing tonight at my second shift as a real bartender with a full bar. I have a couple new tips up my sleeve, and we'll see how they work out.