BARTENDING SCHOOL

The Background.

I get bored easily. I am also amused easily, so I suppose it evens out in the end. These characteristics result in some interesting credentials, such as an email that says I am an ordained Reverend, a PhD in counselor education, and...the completion of bartending school.

The Story.

Beading class

Moving to Wooster, OH was a bit of an adjustment for me. I used to describe my hometown as a small midwestern Mennonite community. Then I moved to Wooster....which is a tiny midwestern Mennonite community. I immediately began to travel for my job as soon as we moved, so I was experiencing fun cities like Denver, Orlando, and Minneapolis (ha!) and then would return to Wooster to my lovely sun room office. My career is largely online, which makes it a little more challenging to meet people, especially in a small community where I am an outsider. I didn't have natural connections in the community and I grew bored in the winter months. I took a bread class, a pottery wheel class, two tea classes, a few classes on beading pearls and (hold the laughter) a floral arranging class. I ran out of classes.

Blooming Tea from tea class

I was introduced to Groupon and Living Social. My world expanded exponentially. I suddenly had access to information about magical, far away places like Akron, Columbus, and Cleveland. Maybe a bit too much drama there, but these two websites did increase my view about the community in which I live.

Namely, it provided me with bartending school. Through Groupon I was able to attend a 5 day course for half price at the ABC bartending school. I pricelined a cheap hotel and stayed in Columbus for 5 nights to learn how to tend bar. Yes. I got a hotel room for 5 days to learn how to mix drinks.

Bread baking class

There are so many stories I could tell you about this experience. I could tell you about how I was 5 hours early to bar tending school. I could tell you about the interesting personalities who take classes on mixology. Or I could tell you about the Ohio video we were required to watch from 1970, or the woman who taught us who still contacts me about bar tending jobs because she thinks that I would make a great barkeep despite the fact that I didn't take the test at the end of the class. She is persistant.

Floral arranging class

I enter all learning experiences with a goal. I am open to knowledge of all sorts, but I set out with a specific goal. In bartending my goal was to be able to order a drink.You see, when a waitress asks for my drink order, I freeze up. It makes no sense at all. My brain shuts off and all I can manage to squeak out is "what's on tap?" so that I am presented with a multiple choice list.

I didn't really want to know how to make the drinks, I just wanted to learn how to order them. Yes. You read that correctly. I took a 5 day class to learn how to order a drink. It turns out that there is a lot of time for practicing mixology at bartending school. So I spent my time "ordering drinks" from the students who were practicing and and making index cards with recipes on them while they were mixing my drinks (errr...colored water). Since these were students they took a long time mixing, and as a result I ended up making a lot of recipe cards. I had to buy a second set of 100 index cards.

The result? Now I carry 3x5 cards in the car so that I have drink ideas. Sometimes I carry the cards into the restaurant.

Bartending class

But good news! I have a new favorite drink (the Malibu mojito below) and we even came up with one in class that we were proud of (OK - the military man came up with it, but I was the one who added the graham cracker rim and told him he could use it as a pick up drink for pretty ladies).

I am also including a "recipe" for another mojito that I got a bit "creative" about. I recognize I just added one ingredient, but it means that I am getting more confident. That is exactly what I wanted.

The Recipes.

Made with chocolate mint! 

Malibu Mojito 

* Muddle 6-8 mint leaves with 
* 1T sugar
* Add just of one lime and mix
* Fill glass with ice
* Add 3 oz Parrot Bay (or Malibu....) 
* Top off with 2-3 oz of Sprite or 7-up. 

Smore'tini

* Chill martini glass

* mix 1.5 oz Godiva white chocolate liquer, 

* 1 oz vodka, and 

* 2.5 oz half and half in shaker with ice. 

* Shake. 

* Rim the martini glass with chocolate syrup, then

* rim the syrup with graham cracker crumbs

* Strain liquid into glass. 

Mio Mojito 

* Add a squire of fruit punch of berry pomegranate Mio into a Malibu mojito. 

The Process. 

These are drinks that I have tried as a result of the class and my index cards. Quite a number of these were tried at Samantha's graduation party where her elder female relatives were impressed with the drinks. They enjoyed my 3x5 cards and kept passing my drinks around. I had to keep ordering more as my drinks kept disappearing into the fists of aunties and step mothers. Those with an * are among my favorites. The Malibu mojito and gimlet are my favorites right now. 

• *7&7
• Rum and coke
• Old Fashioned
• Bloody Maria (Bloody Mary with tequila instead of vodka)
• Red Snapper (Bloody Mary with gin instead of vodka)
• Greyhound
• *Salty Dog
• Harvey Wallbanger
• Tequila Sunrise
• Sea Breeze
• Bay Breeze
• Sex on the Beach
• Slow Screw
• Tootsi Roll
• Banshee/Gorilla Fart/Gorilla Tit
• Pink Squirrel
• B&B
• French Connection
• Dirty Mother
• **Gimlet
• *Vodka Gimlet
• Rootbeer Float
• Long Island Iced Tea
• *Mojito
• **Malibu Mojito

The Future.

Pretty sure this is obvious: keep trying new drinks. As you can see from the list above, I have avoided the martinis and cream based drinks. It seems like I should make a move. :) 








Unrelated side note: I am having terrible difficulty with the spacing in my posts. I left my last blog for a similar reason. The spacing does not have to do with the pictures (e.g. there are no pictures under the "The Process section, yet it is double spaced). Google searches have not been helpful. If you know of any solutions please let me know.