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A bartender carefully pours ingredients from a graduated cylinder into a large glass demijohn labeled 'Negroni Batch - 10 Servings.' The wooden bar counter is set up with precise batching tools, including a digital scale, a notebook full of calculations, and a laptop displaying a spreadshee

How to Batch Cocktails: The Math, Dilution, and Bar-Ready Steps

Batching cocktails means preparing multiple servings in advance so service is faster and more consistent. Done well, it reduces ticket times, smooths busy shifts, and makes specs easier to execute across a team. Done poorly, it creates flat drinks, wrong dilution, and “mystery bottles” that nobody trusts.

A professional bartender in a dark apron expresses a fresh orange peel over an Oaxaca Old Fashioned cocktail. The drink, a rich amber-gold liquid, is served in a rocks glass with a single, crystal-clear large ice cube.

Oaxaca Old Fashioned: The Classic Tequila and Mezcal Old Fashioned

The Oaxaca Old Fashioned is an Old Fashioned-style cocktail built on agave spirits. It uses a split base of tequila and mezcal, a small amount of agave sweetness, and bitters. The result is spirit-forward and aromatic, with gentle smoke and a dry finish.

A high-quality educational cover image for a gin article featuring a clear glass bottle with a botanical label and the word 'GIN' in the center. The bottle is surrounded by raw ingredients: juniper berries, coriander seeds, dried herbs, citrus peels, and fresh lemon and grapefruit. In the background, a copper alembic still and a technical distillation diagram add a didactic, artisanal touch

Gin for Beginners: What It Is, Types, and How to Choose and Use It

Gin can look simple on paper: a clear spirit with botanicals. In the glass, small differences in style and strength decide whether a drink tastes crisp, perfumed, sharp, or flat. This guide keeps it practical so choosing and using gin becomes easy.

A three-panel photographic collage shows the process of making sparkling jasmine tea. The left panel features a bowl of dried jasmine tea leaves next to a carafe of water. The center panel shows the jasmine tea leaves infusing in water within a large glass jar. The right panel contains a SodaStream bottle filled with filtered, carbonated jasmine tea.

Cold Brew Jasmine Tea Soda: Recipe, Carbonation, and Fixes

Sparkling jasmine tea soda is exactly what it sounds like: jasmine tea with bubbles. It can be a soft, elegant refreshment on its own, and it can also behave like a “non-alcoholic topper” behind the bar, adding aroma and lift without heaviness. The catch is that jasmine is unforgiving. Over-extract it and it turns bitter or overly perfumed. Under-extract it and the bubbles feel thin and pointless. Carbonate it warm or cloudy and the result often foams, goes flat fast, or tas

A smiling bartender in a rustic, easy-going bar wearing a denim shirt and a tan canvas apron, sitting behind a wooden counter and reading a book titled 'The 6 Cocktail Families That Explain Almost Every Drink.' The background shows a cozy pub interior with patrons, shelves of bottles, and vintage posters on the walls

The 6 Cocktail Families That Explain Almost Every Drink

Most cocktails look complicated only because the names change faster than the underlying structure. Cocktail families solve that problem by grouping drinks into repeatable templates. Learn the template once, and it becomes easier to

A man with a beard, wearing a white lab coat, carefully pours white foam from a silver siphon dispenser into a stemmed glass containing a red liquid. He is in a laboratory setting, with stainless steel shelves filled with numerous brown glass reagent bottles behind him. On the counter are beakers, a balance scale, jars of white powders, a bowl of clear gelatin sheets, and other lab equipment.

How Do You Make Foam for Cocktails? A Beginner Guide to Methods and Troubleshooting

Foam is not just decoration. Done well, it adds aroma at the rim, changes mouthfeel, and can rebalance a drink by softening sharp edges or carrying a top-note flavor into every sip. Done poorly, it collapses fast, tastes “eggy” or bitter, and makes service inconsistent. This guide explains what cocktail foam is, why it forms, the main foam styles used in bars, and how to make foam reliable in real service. It is technique-only and focuses on stability, workflow, and troubles

A professional editorial photograph on a minimalist kitchen counter featuring the components of mead making. In the center, a large glass carboy contains a pale, fermenting honey-water must, sealed with a clear plastic fermentation lock (airlock). To its right, a finished bottle of golden, clear mead with a black wax-sealed cork. In the foreground, a small ceramic bowl holds raw honeycomb and a wooden honey dipper. The lighting is bright and natural, creating a clean and artisanal aesthetic.

Idromele: What It Is, History, and a Beginner Mead-Making Recipe

Idromele is one of the simplest fermented drinks on paper: honey, water, yeast. In practice, small choices decide whether the result tastes clean and elegant or flat, overly sweet, and unstable. This guide explains what idromele is, where it comes from, and how to make a reliable first batch at home, with beginner-safe fermentation advice and clear troubleshooting.

The Double Strainer | Year One: Mixology Techniques, Recipes & Bar Systems (Free)

I started The Double Strainer because too much know-how lives in back offices and paywalled PDFs. This project exists to keep the craft open, practical, and free — from milk washing to menu engineering — so you can bring clarity to prep, service, and training. Today’s post is both celebration and instruction: a precise recap of the year, the people who inspired us, and the practical guides, worksheets, and recipes you can put to work tonight.