Measure the spec, then taste

A spec is a recipe written for a bar, not a cookbook. It is short, in millilitres, and it assumes you will add water with ice. The job is to hit that spec the same way at nine o’clock as you did at five.

Use the jigger

Put the jigger on the tin or mixing glass and fill to the line. Look at the meniscus. Do not use a jigger as a suggestion and then “fix it with your eye”. That is how a station drifts during a rush.

Common building blocks on Australian stations:

• 30 ml — a single, a modifier, many syrups
• 15 ml — half a jigger, liqueurs, richer syrups
• 10 ml or a barspoon — bitters-scale ingredients when you have a marked jigger
• 60 ml — the spirit in a lot of sours and highballs

If your jiggers are marked in ounces only, learn the conversions once and write the spec in millilitres anyway. The batching calculator is built on ml for the same reason.

Build in a sensible order

Cheap ingredients first, expensive last, if you are still learning the drink. That way a miss on the citrus does not waste the whisky. Once the spec is in your hands, build in the order that keeps the station fast: tin, ice at the end, garnish last.

Taste, then lock it

Measure first so you know what you tasted. Then taste. If it needs more acid, change the spec and write it down — do not invent a new drink every ticket. When you can hit the written spec without thinking, free pouring is a speed tool, not a personality.

Guests taste consistency. The jigger is how you give it to them.

All tools and technique notes