Recently, there are many people who want to learn how to make cocktails on WeChat public accounts. Since most of the content requires a certain level of basic knowledge to understand, the fan group is mainly composed of professional bartenders. In the recent cocktail videos, many people also left comments, asking what the powder is for this cup and what the base liquor is for that cup? In fact, the purpose of the video is just to let everyone understand the techniques of professional bartenders and the details to pay attention to. The specific ingredients are not very important.

In the new column, we want to turn ourselves into beginners in bartending, starting from scratch, with nothing, getting the ingredients needed for bartending one by one, and completing cocktails one by one. We hope that everyone will continue to pay attention.

In fact, everyone’s mentality and ideas are quite similar at the beginning. Those with enough budget will want to buy everything they might need at once, but most people will choose to buy it step by step. I think this is better. After all, cocktail making is like many interests. Some people regard it as a hobby, while others regard it as a little fun in life. It would be a bit stressful to buy everything at once.

Many fans of the official account have so many wine collections at home that they can easily open a bartender. Through chatting, I learned that they also started from knowing nothing, to their first bottle of wine, their first set of tools, and then slowly accumulated experience before finally enjoying the process of making cocktails. If you are a bartender with some experience, this series of articles can be used as a review; if you are a beginner interested in learning how to make cocktails, you can consider following along and completing the most attempts with the least budget. If you have some experience, you can continue to follow along.

Before starting this column, I assume that you already have the following equipment where you live:

‧Washing equipment: Either the kitchen or bathroom sink can be used, the key is to be able to wash and drain

‧Refrigerator: It is best to have a double-door refrigerator (with a freezer). If you don’t have one, you need to buy extra ice cubes before making each cocktail.

‧Ice tray: Common ice trays are fine, no need to buy special ones.

Are you ready? Let’s start building a bar counter at home!

It's easy to start making cocktails. First, you need a bottle of vodka .

Why start with vodka? Because vodka is alcohol and water, which is the closest to ethanol. No matter what kind of wine you mix, it will always have the taste of alcohol. So, let's start with this bottle.

For those who don't drink often, when they first come into contact with vodka, they will definitely think of industrial alcohol in the laboratory or sterilized cotton in the health room. Yes, it is that smell, exactly. So what is the charm of this thing? Well, actually I can't explain it. Maybe you will understand it when you become a drunkard.

If you have never drunk vodka and don't have a particular preference for a brand, I recommend you choose a bottle of vodka from the mid- to low-priced range. I would recommend Russian Standa:

Russian Standa is not a classic old factory product, but a vodka that is marketed with a lot of hype, claiming to be made with the recipe of scientist Mendeleev. In fact, Mendeleev has nothing to do with Standa. However, for vodkas of this price, Standa is indeed a good choice. It has a solid body and low alcohol pungent smell. It is just a standard Russian vodka.

No matter which vodka you buy, open the bottle when you get home, pour a little and try it out, what does ethanol diluted with water taste like? Remember this feeling, if you can't remember it, drink a little more, don't drink too much, otherwise your mind will be blank the next day, and you will have to do it again at night~

I know that for people who don't drink often, drinking vodka directly is really too much, but this is a necessary process. You may miss it in the future, and you may feel that one day you once felt the spicy taste of alcohol!

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev is a great scientist who created the periodic table of elements. When you search for his photo on Baidu, you can't help but wonder why his hair is always so long?

Because this person has a very strange insistence, he believes that he can only cut his hair once a year, and it must be in the spring, even if the emperor (the Tsar) wants to meet him. Cool, the most powerful legend in the 19th century is probably Mendeleev. In order to earn points and compete for upgrades, he once wrote a paper on the reaction between alcohol and water. He believes that one molecule of ethanol diluted with two molecules of water is the most perfect balance of vodka, so he recommends that the dilution ratio of vodka in the production process should be 38% alcohol and 62% water (volume capacity).

The quick-witted Standa Distillery immediately stole this joke and insisted that their recipe was inherited from Mendeleev. They also forged the handsome signature of Long Hair on the bottle. I don’t know why the police didn’t catch him. In fact, Long Hair just wanted to tell everyone how much water should be added to dilute vodka to make it taste better, and the molecular balance in it would make him feel better (see my mood and tone).

Where did Standa get the formula? Maybe he asked Mendeleev through meditation. Anyway, everyone believed it. This story successfully connected a young winery with the scientific myth of the late 19th century. It was not until 2009 that scholars discovered it through archaeological research. Ah! XX~ We were deceived~~~

The law that dilutes vodka to 40% was promulgated as early as 1843. At that time, vodka in Russia was a state-owned enterprise. In order to facilitate the calculation of liquor tax, it was stipulated that vodka must be 40%. If you dare to make it thicker or thinner, you will be dragged to the Red Square and shot. Ah... What was Mendeleev doing in 1843? That year, Xiaofu was only 9 years old. Not to mention long hair, even the mysterious hair had not started to grow... In short, the case is closed and there is no appeal! (banging the gavel), don't believe in unfounded claims!

Now that you have vodka, you can start trying 1 on 1 cocktails.

What is a 1 on 1 cocktail? It is a drink made by mixing one alcoholic beverage with another soft drink, or both ingredients can contain alcohol. Soft drinks refer to non-alcoholic beverages, such as juice, soda, tea, coffee, etc.

The most famous 1 on 1 cocktail of vodka is of course the Screwdriver. Just buy a bottle of orange juice and add the existing vodka to complete the first cocktail - the Screwdriver

The first cup recommended is the whiskey glass, which is also called the old-fashioned or rock cup. Many people should have it at home because it is the most common cup type for wine gift boxes.

There is a less commonly used unit of measurement called Finger, which refers to how many fingers of liquor is poured into a glass. Generally speaking, 1 Finger is about 1 ounce, but the size of the glass has a great impact, and the thickness of the finger also varies from person to person. It is a very casual measurement. Before I got my hands on a measuring tool, I used my eye to estimate how much vodka I poured into the glass.

Then fill it with ice cubes and orange juice, insert a straw and stir evenly (cut a regular straw in half to use as a short straw for stirring)

Cocktail Mission

Cocktail-001/Screwdriver

Another vodka 1 on 1 cocktail you should try is the same as the Screwdriver, except that the orange juice is replaced with cranberry juice.

Cocktail Mission

Cocktail-002/Cape Cod

Why do we choose Cape Cod? Because its base is actually the cocktail that women love - 👉 Cosmopolitan , which is made by adding lemon juice, syrup and orange wine to vodka + cranberry juice, and shaking and mixing. First feel the base of this 1 on 1 cocktail, and then you will discover the power of Cosmopolitan!

The first time you try this method of drinking, you may feel that it tastes like medicine. It is easy to make a mistake when drinking juice directly with vodka (it may not be noticeable to drunk people). In short, this is the simplest way to drink it. Try it now~

After adjusting the screwdriver and the cape cod, the next article will show you how to get some tools that you will need next.

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