Every business and even some groups of people have a specific Lingo but what is Lingo? Well, it is just a way of speaking by a group of people. It’s like their own language or slang. Bartenders aren’t the exception to that rule. So it is important that if you are starting as a bartender, you are working at pup up bars. Or you are working in a restaurant, you should learn all the lingo or jargon related to that profession.
There are many words that bartenders know but most people don’t and we are going to be looking into the most relevant not so common lingo.
There are a lot of terms that you need to learn that are the words you need to learn. Also words to understand if you want to become an excellent bartender. The advantage is that many of these bar terms or lingo aren’t difficult to learn, most of them are self-explanatory.
Bartending service terminology
Even when the terminology of bartending services is huge. We will explain the most relevant words and terminology any bartender should know. Especially if they want to be successful in this business.
Before that, if it is important to emphasize that lingo is mostly quite general. Which means that in most cases, the words that a bartender is going to use and say in the United States, will be very similar to those that use a bartender anywhere else in the world. This makes bartending lingo a very common thing to see in every place.
However, as expected, there will be some very specific words. These words are for each area or country that bartenders use only in that specific place. Also depending on the region or country. The cocktails and drinks will vary according to the accessibility of the ingredients.
For the most part, the reality is that the words and the lingo are the same when we refer to general terms.
Most Popular Bartending Lingo
Shake: In this case, the bartender fills a glass with ice. Builds the ingredients, and then the next step is to pour everything back into the original glass.
A back: This is like a small glass of something (for example water) which is a companion for a specific drink.
Swizzle: This rum-based and tall cocktail with cracked ice. There should also be a swizzle stick or a stirring rod. One that rotates very quickly between your hands forming frost on the glass.
Box: This is when you pour out or into a shaker. This happens usually only once and it will give the drink a quick mixing without having to shake it.
Jigger: is an hour-glass measuring device where one of the sides measures 1 ½ ounce and the other one 1 ounce. However, it is important to know that jiggers can come in a variety of sizes.
Chill: If you want to chill a glass, you need to add water and ice and let both sit for at least 2 minutes. All while you are mixing the drink in a shaker. Then pour out the content of the glass and strain the drink into the glass. This term goes for the famous Martinis.
A Highball: This is simple, is any liquor that mixes with soda in a tall glass.
Free Pour: This is when you mix and make drinks without using any type of measuring device like a jigger, when you are pouring free of any measuring device, you usually do it straight from the bottle.
Rocks or On the Rocks: This term is for when we are referring to a drink served with ice, for example, the Scotch.
Build: This is one of the most basic terms because it referred to make a drink, always starting with the glass, and then you will be building the drink by adding all the rest of the elements or ingredients (juice, garnish, etc).
Other terms related to Cocktails that every bartender should know
– Officiate: This is the term used to define the art of creating cocktails.
– Bartender: We refer to the bartender as any male professional who is dedicated to the profession of bartending.
– Smoothies: They are non-alcoholic drinks that are prepared with pure natural products such as fruits or milk. They are a great source of vitamins and best of all,, their fat content is quite low.
– Boston Shaker: This is a tool that is used a lot to mix and cool the ingredients of the drink. Its body is made of glass and it has another one made of steel that both snap together. This is the most used utensil, if we want to enhance a cocktail with crushed fruits and crushed ice.
– Mise in place: It is exactly the place where the bartender does his job and where the magic happens.
– Parishioner: This is how to work with all those customers who are passionate about a bar. That is, they are all those regular customers who visit a bar every weekend and even during the week.
– Dropper: It is a glass container that has a spherical shape and precisely in the mouth of the tool. A kind of spout is located that allows a much smaller amount of liquid to fall. Less than it would fall if the dropper is no use.
– Mixology: It is the process by which drinks are mixed always using art and of course also a little imagination.
– Stick: This is a tool that has an elongated shape and is used to remove any type of long drink.
– Pouring: In these cases the term refers to the moment a drink is served.
– Dash: It refers to the movement made when tilting the bottle. Or failing that, a dropper, to serve the content in a glass by turning the wrist, while, almost at the same moment, a clipping movement is made so that too much liquid does not fall into the glass. This is the art of Cocktail making.
– Blender: This term is simple since it refers to an electric mixer in which a jug fits. Which can be made of steel or glass, thanks to its base, which is motorized.
– Salt shaker: This utensil adds amounts of salt to cocktails that prepared with these ingredients.
– Shot: It is a glass that serves small amounts of alcohol or ad distilled cocktail.
– The Cathedral: It refers to the most important cocktail bar in a big city. In a few words it is where everyone is going to go. It is the fashionable bar and where everyone converges every weekend.
– Teaspoon: It is precisely the measurement that determines as a classic coffee spoon and that is the way in which certain ingredients are measured for some cocktails.
– Bar spoon: This is a much more elongated spoon ideal for mixing all kinds of drinks in all types of glass.
– Frozen: The Frozen are the glasses prepared with ice in a blender. You can find these in Cocktails.
– Ounce: This is equivalent to exactly 28.70 grams. This is one of the most used measures when we refer to the art of making cocktails.
– Old Fashioned: It is a much shorter and wider glass that has been baptized with that name thanks to the famous cocktail known as “Old Fashioned”.
– Tip: Financial thanks for a good service. As the bartender offers a better service and a great attitude, the tips will increase exponentially.
– Bitter: It is how bartending refers to all those drinks that are a little bit bitter and they are not considered to be the kind of drink that is going to have any sweet taste.
Questions and Answers
The basic terminology of bartending is undoubtedly the same in all parts of the world, we refer to the most common terms such as shaker, Jigger, Shot, among others. However, if you have to take into account that in each area or country some terms, cocktails, mixes and ingredients may change.
The bartending lingo is elementary in every bartender’s job, simply because these bartending terms and words are use every day by the vast majority of bartenders anywhere in the world and wherever they are working.
The bartending profession is full of terms and lingoes used every day, and knowing them is essential.
Hardly, especially when we notice that there are a large number of terms related to the processes found in bartending every day and that no bartender can simply ignore or stop using.
At the beginning it will be logical for the bartender to learn all these terms and study them if possible, however, with time and practice and using them daily, it will be the way that he will not actually forget them and you will learn them easily.
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