Before we get started on the continuation of your goal of being a good bartender, I'd like to address publicly a great point brought up by one of our Slashfood readers.

Suzy pointed out in the comment field in the last post that as an alternative to becoming a barback, another way to get your foot in the door is as a cocktail waitress. Great point, and I'd elaborate that to include anybody in the restaurant business. If you're a server and your restaurant has a bar, try asking if you can step behind the bar and train. This is how I got into bartending. Now, ordinarily, this will mean you will be back there for free. Again, this is how I got in. I put in several volunteer hours until I was asked to cover a shift and until finally getting my own shifts. The point is, any way you can get yourself behind a bar and start learning, paid or not, do it.

In fact, I'll go so far as to say that starting as a server is probably the optimal way to go, though the process will take longer. As a barback, you'll get behind the bar quicker and your learning curve on how to work a bar will be shorter, but you'll be missing what I consider a key element of bartending, namely, service. Going through a server training program through a restaurant gives you an eye for the details of good service, an element I think is lacking in many bartenders today. A server in a restaurant would never skimp on the basics such as a) providing water for your guests, b) acknowledging new guests right away with menus and c) patiently explaining the product being offered if asked. I cannot tell you how many bars I go to that skip the bare minimums of good service, as if the bar were a rarefied plane of existence in which these standards don't apply. Good bartending means good service. Period.

Okay, stepping off my soap-box and moving right along . . .

If you're just tuning in, I am in the process of teaching my wife how to become a good bartender. She has been putting in some free-time behind the bar, and has been perusing her cocktail books. What comes next? Understanding the spirits that line the wall behind every bartender.

Here, of course, are the ingredients you get to play with. It is impossible to move forward without understanding what they are. There are thousands of different spirits and liqueurs to know, and the only way I know how to understand them is to taste them, write notes and study their production techniques and individual characteristics. This means you're going to have to push aside your own biases and learn to at least appreciate their own charms. Love vodka but hate gin? You still need to know the differences between, say, Tanqueray 10 and Gordon's and between Hendrick's and Bombay Sapphire. Can't stand tequila because of a bruised night long ago when you were underage? Get over it. Margaritas taste wildly different depending on the tequila you use, and it's up to you to understand how and why. You need to understand the differences between the varying rums found throughout the Caribbean, and you need to know why Bourbon whiskey is different from Tennessee. The list goes on and on and it is crucial for you know your spirits.

Why? Because you'll get asked. Every night, several times a night.

My suggestion is to set aside a different night at the bar you're working and sample a flight of a specific spirit. Line up a row of glasses and taste the entirety of your gin selection side-by-side, noting the differences in proof, in botanicals and flavoring characteristics, hopefully with literature by your side outlining production techniques, history and the tasting notes of others. Take down your own notes.

This type of tasting is regularly done in restaurants with wine as part of service training, and I see no reason at all why it shouldn't be part of a bartender's training. Just as a server should know how a Chardonnay tastes as opposed to a Sauvignon Blanc or how a Chardonnay from California differs from one in France, so should a bartender know the subtle differences between the various whiskeys and be able to translate that to your guests.

As for the enclosed picture, that is my wife, Christine, in one of her first bartending moments; pouring shots of Tequila Por Mi Amante for her bridesmaids at our wedding last August.