Bar basics
What comes before any recipe.
- Measures: ml, oz, dash and bar spoon
- Ice and dilution
- Shaking, stirring, building and muddling
- Single and double straining
- Glassware and garnishes
- Syrups and basic preparations
Online training
Academy
Short video lessons, drink by drink: the spec, the technique and the mistakes everyone makes at the start. The tracks are in production. The written material is already online.
The IBA 102
One video per cocktail, grouped by family, so you learn the logic and not just the recipe.
- Sours and daisies: Daiquiri, Margarita, Sidecar
- Stirred aromatics: Negroni, Manhattan, Dry Martini
- Highballs, collinses and fizzes
- With sparkling wine: Spritz, Bellini, French 75
- Tropical and tiki: Mai Tai, Zombie, Piña Colada
- Creamy drinks, flips and hot drinks
The Author's Menu
How a classic becomes the house drink.
- Tasting and adjusting: sweet, sour, bitter and alcohol
- Twists: changing one ingredient at a time
- The signatures: Hot Blondie, Amansa Patroa, CaipiRave
- Batidas and cachaça drinks
- Building your own menu at home
Working flair
Short moves, done at the pace of service. The full list of moves is further down this page.
- Grips and the pour cut
- Tin spins and tool flashes
- Bottle flips
- Stall, tin roll and bump
- Two- and three-move sequences
For teams
The business version: training on your own venue's menu.
- Mise en place and station setup
- Spec sheets and consistency
- Speed: building six drinks at once
- Cost per drink and waste
- Service: how to suggest a drink
Working flair
The moves, from the grip to the shadow pass
Flair is the handling of bottles, tins and accessories with spins, throws and balances while the drink is being made. Working flair uses short moves, done with full bottles and at the pace of service, while exhibition flair is the kind done for shows and competitions, with choreography, nearly empty bottles and high throws. Start with working flair: it teaches grip and control, does not slow down the order and is the base for everything that comes after.
Before you practice
- Practice with a plastic practice bottle. Glass only comes in once the move is automatic.
- Practice over a soft floor: grass, a rug, an exercise mat or EVA foam tiles. The bottle will fall many times.
- Start with the bottle empty. Once the move is solid, add a little water and increase it gradually, because the weight changes the spin.
- Keep the space clear. No glasses, light fixtures, screens, people or pets within range of the throw, including overhead.
- Never do flair with fire without training from a professional. Burning alcohol splashes and the flame is hard to see.
- At the bar, glass and guests come before the show. Do not throw over the bar top, over the ice or toward people. If glass breaks near the ice, discard all the ice.
Hold the bottle by the neck, with your thumb and first two fingers forming a ring and the palm loose. This is the grip that pours, cuts and flips all start from.
Practice picking up and pouring with the regular grip and with the reverse grip (thumb down) until you no longer need to look at your hand.
Hold the tin by the base, with your fingertips and thumb, keeping your palm off the metal. A loose hand lets the tin spin and release cleanly in the moves that follow.
Pass the tin from one hand to the other without looking, always landing in the same grip. Consistency comes before any spin.
The clean cut of the stream of liquor at the end of the pour. A quick turn of the wrist lifts the spout and stops the liquid without a drip.
Practice with water and a pour spout, counting the time and checking against a jigger. With a standard spout, four counts usually give close to 30 ml, but calibrate your own count.
With the tin lying on its side on your open palm, the fingers give the push and it spins one full turn in the plane of the hand, like a propeller, without leaving the palm.
Hand flat and relaxed. The fingers push one side while the thumb pulls the other.
Small effects with accessories: the napkin is tossed spinning and lands in front of the guest, and the straw does a turn in the air before dropping into the glass.
They are light and do not break, good for building rhythm and confidence. Always pick up the straw by the end that does not go in the mouth.
The bottle leaves the hand, rotates half a turn in the air and comes back to the same hand. If you were holding the neck you end up holding the body, and vice versa.
The rotation comes from the wrist, not the arm. Throw low, at chest height, and let the bottle fall into your hand instead of reaching for it.
During the pour, the bottle rises away from the tin, stretching the stream of liquid, and comes back down before the cut.
Start the stream close to the tin and only then go up. Keep the spout aimed at the center of the tin and practice with water.
The bottle makes one full rotation in the air and comes back to the same grip on the neck, ready to pour.
Pick a fixed height, near eye level, and repeat it the same way every time. A constant height gives a constant spin.
After a low flip, the bottle lands and comes to rest balanced on the back of the hand, instead of being caught.
Lower your hand along with the bottle to cushion it, as if you were catching an egg. A still hand makes the bottle bounce.
The tin rolls on its side along the forearm, from the hand toward the elbow or the other way, and is caught at the end of its path.
Arm straight and slightly tilted. It is the tilt that makes the tin roll, not a push.
The bottle is thrown low and meets the forearm or the bent elbow, which sends it back up with a short tap, and it returns to the hand.
Use the fleshy part of the forearm and move with the bottle on contact. The tap is upward and soft. A hard knock costs you control and hurts.
The tin with ice makes one turn in the air and comes back to the hand without dropping the ice, which is held at the bottom by the force of the spin.
A fast, low spin: it is the speed that holds the ice. Start with two or three cubes and only move on to a glass once you no longer miss with the tin.
The bottle comes out of a flip in one hand and is caught by the other hand with the tin, which takes the bottom of the bottle inside it.
Bring the tin to the bottle and move down with it to cushion the catch. A hard landing dents the tin and, with a glass bottle, can break it.
The bottle is thrown behind the back with one hand and caught in front by the other.
Practice the pass alone first, with no spin, using the plastic bottle. Turn your torso slightly and look at the spot where the bottle will appear, not behind you.
Waiting list