Liquor Basics 101

Hello Rockstars! I'm Allie, your Rockstar Bargo, and today we are going to be talking about liquors. We're getting towards the end of the Basic 101 series, so this is exciting. We are going to talk about all those liquors out there and some of the most popular brands that you should expect to work with. First off, there are thousands of different types of liquor bottles out there. It seems like everyone in the world nowadays is creating their own vodka, their own tequila, so there really are tons of liquors out there and there's really no saying what your bar might decide to indulge in, but there are some basic popular standard brands that you should expect to see and you want to know what they are, what they taste like, etc. Before we get started, an important note about all these liquors is that it's not possible for us to cover all of them today, even when it comes to those popular run-of-the-mill brands that will be everywhere, we just can't get into every single one. So it's really important that if you've never been behind a bar, you're not really familiar with alcohol, that you start educating yourself. You can go to your local liquor store and just walk around, look at the different brands that they have in the vodka section, in the gin section, you can go to your neighborhood bars or when you hang out with friends, just take a look at what they're offering. Ask the bartender, hey, what is that? It's that weird skull-shaped bottle, what is that? And educate yourself because the more you know, the easier it will be on your first day of work somewhere, you'll have fewer questions about what it is you're looking at and what it is your bar offers. Speaking of your first day of work, I get super, super annoyed when I'm training new bartenders who are inexperienced and they ask me, oh, what's that bottle right there? I've never seen that. Liquor bottles are not mysteries. Right on the label is the type of alcohol it is, the brand, what type of flavor it might be and the percentage of alcohol that's in it, which tells you how strong something is. So when you walk into a job and you see a bottle that you're not familiar with, pick it up, read it, educate yourself, learn what you're working with so that you know what to offer your customers, you know how to make your specialty cocktails, etc. When it comes to the world of alcohol, you really have four major categories, beer, wine, liquor and liqueurs, which are also called cordials. Today we're going to be talking about liquor and in part two of the basics 101 liquor bottle videos we will talk about liqueurs and cordials. Liquors and liqueurs work together to make cocktails. Your liqueurs are the alcohols that have a high percentage of sugar and some type of flavor added to it. Your liquors are typically lower in sugar and higher in alcohol and don't really have a flavor or if they do have an added flavor, they're not very pronounced. So when I take a liquor like vodka and a liqueur like melon and put them together, I now have something that's melon flavored. Add a little pineapple juice to that and now I have a cocktail. So your liquors and your liqueurs come together to create the flavor profiles that you're looking for. You can sort of think of it as the liquor gives me the alcohol and the liqueur gives me the sweetness and the flavor. My juices or my mixers continue with adding sweetness and flavor and that is how you build a cocktail. So we'll talk about liquors today and in the next video we'll talk about liqueurs. In the liquor category you have six different types of liquor, vodka, gin, rum, tequila, brandy and whiskey. We're going to go through all six of those today, what they are, what they're made out of and popular brands you should expect. Let's get started with the most popular of those six liquors and that is vodka. Vodka is the most popular liquor because it's what you call a neutral grain spirit. It is clear in color, it doesn't have much of an odor except for smelling like alcohol and it has essentially no flavor profile, again aside just tasting like alcohol. Because of its neutrality that means that you can mix vodka with literally anything, any mixer, coke, ginger ale, sour mix, orange juice, lime juice, it really doesn't matter. It's going to go fine with those mixers. Because it can mix with anything that's why it's so popular. When you walk into your bar you are going to see that you might have three or four times as many vodka bottles as you do anything else. Vodka was traditionally made from potato but now it's usually just made from grain even though there are potato vodkas still out there and it's one of the oldest alcohols around. Just like my bar, well you'll see that aside from my well drinks and well liquors, this entire bottom row is dedicated to vodka. You should expect to see a large vodka selection at your bar. There will be popular brands of vodka and there are tons of them so that's one of the reasons why you're going to have so many vodkas. But because vodka is neutral it is the perfect vessel to flavor and there are tons of flavored vodkas out there from the expected flavors like raspberry and orange to crazy flavors like s'mores or coffee or lemon lime soda. So because there are so many possible brands and because there are so many possible vodka flavors in those brands you're going to have a huge vodka selection and you want to familiarize yourself with what your bar carries. So here we have a selection of some of the most popular vodkas that are out there and again we have a lot of options because vodka is very very popular. And these brands are probably brands that you have heard before if you've never been in a bar you've certainly heard of them. Absolut, Belvedere, Ciroc, Kettle One and Grey Goose. These five vodkas you will carry in almost every single bar. Vodka for the most part is 80 proof which means 40% alcohol by volume. What does proof mean? The short story is it's just telling you how much alcohol is actually in these bottles and how much of it is water and other stuff. So 40% alcohol by volume is a standard alcohol content for vodka and all of these vodkas are 40% alcohol by volume. I'm also showing you some of the Stoli which is short for Stolichnaya vodka from Russia also a very popular brand that your bar is likely to carry and I brought these bottles out to show you some of the flavors that they have. Stoli has a large selection of flavored vodkas and it's very common for your bar to carry them. There are other brands such as Three Olives, Pinnacle, Smirnoff and Svetka that also have some really interesting flavors your bar might stock. So these are your typical most expected non-flavored vodkas and then this is an example of one brand's selection of flavors. Next let's talk about gin. Just like with your vodka you will have a house gin, some no-name gin but then you're going to have some brands that are popular that you want to be familiar with. Gin like vodka is clear in color but it is not a neutral flavored spirit. Gin is made from something called the juniper berry which gives it a really sort of odd and unexpected taste. Gin goes very well with citrus flavors like orange, grapefruit and lemon but it doesn't mix very well with ingredients such as coke. So there's a limit on the things you can mix gin with and have it still taste good. I think that gin is a little more versatile than people give it credit for but your average customer is going to be a little hesitant to want to try a gin cocktail. Your most popular cocktail is just a simple gin and tonic. Tonic water sort of tastes like bitter lemon rinds in like soda form and it goes really well with gin but there are a lot of things that go well with gin but anyway we'll talk about that when we start actually making cocktails. But what you need to know is that gin is made from juniper. It is not neutral in flavor the way vodka is. It does have a pronounced taste which limits what you can mix it with therefore your bar is not going to carry as many gins. It's just not as popular. Of your six liquors it's one of the least popular so you should really only expect to see three or four options at your bar. I brought out the most popular here which is Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire. Bombay does have a Bombay regular which is regular Bombay but the Sapphire is the most popular of the two options that that company has and there are tons of other gins out there but again your bar is most likely to carry the most popular and these two would be the most popular gins. Next we're going to talk about rum. Rum is a very interesting spirit because it is made from sugar cane. So naturally without adding anything to rum it's got a higher sugar content than vodka or gin or any of your other alcohols. Because of that it's already sweet in flavor and it's really great for making sweet cocktails. You see rum used a lot in Caribbean inspired cocktails that have a lot of juices like pineapple, orange and cranberry juice in them. So your Bahama Mamas, your Mai Tais, your Hurricanes, you're going to see rum featured in those cocktails. Again you will have a house rum, some no name rum but in terms of brand names you are almost always under all circumstances going to have these three rums. That is Bacardi, Malibu and Captain Morgan. When it comes to rum there are basically four categories that you should expect to see. Silver rum, gold, flavored and spiced. When it comes to silver versus gold rum, for example Bacardi silver versus the Bacardi gold, there isn't much of a difference. They have about the same alcohol content, they sort of taste the same but typically a gold rum has been stored in a wooden barrel giving it a gold, brown, toasted color and changing the flavor just a little bit. There isn't a significant difference between the two. Flavored rums are typically silver rums where some flavor extract has been added. Or raspberry, mango, citrus, you'll see rums with all these different types of flavors. They're pretty popular, they're nowhere near as popular as flavored vodkas but there are a lot of flavored rum options out there. I want to talk a little bit about Malibu because it is mistaken for a flavored rum. It is not. Malibu is actually a liqueur. It has too high of a sugar content to be considered a liquor. It is a coconut flavored rum based liqueur. But when 99% of the world is wrong about something, a lot of times it's easier to just do things the wrong way. So in pretty much every single bar that you ever work in, you are going to find the Malibu with the rums. It is not going to be kept with the liquors and cordials, it's going to be with the rums. So it's important for you, the bartender, to know that Malibu is very high in sugar, it's low in alcohol, it's coconut flavored, it's rum based, but it is technically a liqueur. But for all working purposes, it's going to be kept with the rums, people are going to order it like a rum, and you're going to use it in cocktails the same way you would a rum. So there's no real need to care that it's different, but just so you're educated as a bartender, you would know that it is not properly a flavored rum, but actually a cordial that is rum based. Captain Morgan is a very popular spiced rum. There are other brands out there like Sailor Jerry, etc. and these are typically gold rums that have had some spices like cinnamon, clove, or coriander added to them to give them a more intense flavor, a more spicy flavor. And then you have some specialty rums that call themselves like black rums and things like that, such as Kraken or Captain Morgan Black, and these rums are typically made not from sugar cane, but from molasses. Molasses is the product that you get if you take sugar and you heat it up until it melts and turns into a thick, sticky, dark goo. If you make your rum out of that thick, sticky, dark goo instead of regular sugar cane, you're going to get a product that's darker in color and thicker and higher in sugar content. So that's where you get your black rums from. Next we have tequila. Arriba! Tequila is made from something called the blue agave plant, and most of your tequilas come from regions where that plant grows, it's sort of like a cactus, so imagine places where cactuses grow, that's where you get most of your tequilas in the world. Of course you'll have your house tequila, but then you will have a very popular call brand tequila, this is a medium priced tequila, and that is Jose Cuervo. The most popular is the gold, but they do have a silver option, and just like with rum, the really only difference between a silver and a gold tequila is that one has been kept in a wooden barrel, and that has gotten it a nice gold color and a sort of smoky wood like flavor, but not too much of a difference between the two otherwise. You'll also have, of course, some premium options of tequila, the most popular, hands down, being Patron. So you will almost always work with Patron, every bar is going to carry it, so you should expect to see it. And of course they have gold options, and Reposados, which are aged versions, etc. And then other brands include like Don Julio, Herradura, or 1800. I brought out the two 1800 bottles that I have, the regular and the coconut, to show you that it is possible to have flavored tequilas, it is not very common, it is not even as common as it is flavored rums, but they do exist, they are out there, and you might find yourself working with a few flavored tequilas. Next, we're going to talk about whiskey. Whiskey is an incredibly expansive category of alcohol. There are many different types of whiskeys, and it can get a little overwhelming to start trying to understand all of them. So to simplify understanding the different categories of whiskey out there, I want you to just think about the word BASIC, B-A-S-I-C. There are five categories of whiskey, and the word BASIC will help you remember them all. B stands for Bourbon, A for American, S for Scotch, I for Irish, and C for Canadian. These are the five categories of whiskey that you will have at your bar, most likely, and we'll quickly go through the popular brands in each of those five categories. So whiskey is an alcohol that is made from corn. Bourbon is one of the most popular. It is made in Bourbon County, Kentucky, or at least that's where it started, that's a long story, but it comes from Bourbon County, Kentucky, and is made following a very specific recipe that was popularized down there. Popular brands include Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, Maker's Mark, and here we have an example of Knob Creek. You should expect to see at least three Bourbons at your bar. American whiskeys are less popular than your Bourbons. They are made basically anywhere else in America that is not Bourbon County, and those include brands like Seagram's Seven. In sort of a sub-category of American whiskeys is something called Sour Mash, and that's where we find Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels is incredibly popular. You are definitely going to carry it at your bar. Many of your customers are going to mistake Jack for a Bourbon, but you, the educator, bartender, know that it is not. It is a Sour Mash American whiskey. Another American whiskey that you want to be familiar with is Fireball. This whiskey is new to the market. I think it's only five, maybe ten years old, but it has just exploded in popularity. It's a cinnamon-flavored whiskey, which is a big deal because whiskey is not something you usually see flavored, but it is super, super popular, and there's a very high likelihood that you will work with it at your bar. That covers B and A. Next we have S, Scotch Whiskey, which of course comes from Scotland. Scotch has a very odd, sort of iodine-like taste, which makes it uncommon for just regular high-volume service, but you will get the occasional order for Scotch and Soda, Scotch and Coke, or Scotch on the Rocks. One of the most popular brands in Scotch is the Johnny Walker brand. There are different labels of Johnny Walker that correspond to how long that Scotch has been aged, but it's very popular for your bar to carry Johnny Walker Black. It's probably the most common of Johnny Walker's different categories. Next we have Irish Whiskey, of course from Ireland, and the most popular Irish whiskey is Jameson. Again, something that you should expect every bar you work in to carry. And then finally we have Canadian Whiskeys. Canadian Whiskeys are less popular. There's a chance that if your bar is very small, they may not even carry any Canadian Whiskey, but your popular Canadian Whiskey brands include Seagram's VO and the very popular Crown Royal, which comes in this really cute little bottle. And finally we have Brandy. Brandy is made from fruits such as grapes and peaches and plums, and brandy like gin tends to be on the less popular side when it comes to your average high-volume bar. If your brandy is made in a particular region of France called Cognac, then you get to call your brandy Cognac. Many times people don't realize that that run-of-the-mill, no-name bottle of brandy and the high-end, very expensive Cognac that you have at your bar are basically the same exact things in two different types of bottles. So that's important for you, the educated bartender, to know even though your customer doesn't. There is no difference between brandy and Cognac except for a really fancy address. So I don't have any brandy bottles out right now because like I said, brandy is not terribly popular in a high-volume bar, but Cognac is. Cognac can be incredibly popular, and in particular, Hennessy. This is a brand that you have heard of even if you've never stepped in a bar before. It tends to be on the higher end in your bar's pricing scale. It is not going to be a call price, it will be a premium or a top-shelf price. And again, it's just brandy in a fancy bottle made in a fancy place, but it is very, very popular and you are almost guaranteed to carry it. Another Cognac brand that you may have heard of is Covassier, there's also Remy Martin, and you will probably have two or three Cognac options at your bar, whereas you might only have one brandy option, you might not carry a plain brandy at all. So make sure that you're familiar with your Cognacs. So that wraps up our Liquor Basics 101 video part one. Definitely make sure that you immediately go and check out part two as soon as it's posted so you can learn about the liquors that you're going to use to take all these liquors and give them some really interesting flavors. Again, that is just a snippet of the options of liquors that are out there and that your bar might carry, so educate yourself, check out liquor stores, subscribe to a bartender's magazine, or just hang out in your neighborhood bars and get to know what they are offering. The faster you learn what liquors are out there and get familiar with them, the easier it's going to make your first day of work in any bar. So thanks for checking out this video, of course make sure that you like it if it was useful, comment below if you have any questions or anything you'd like to say about the liquors that we covered today, and of course subscribe, subscribe, subscribe, click on the subscribe button down below so you know when the part two liquors video is posted. As always, I will see you in the next video, bye rockstars.