We stumbled across this funky invention (and thought we should share it) by Morskoisboy, to see how it works, check out the Youtube video: A Typewriter Bartender – tasting your words.

If you are so inclined to make one of those, the how-to is listed here.

If you just want to learn to bartend, we are happy to teach you that too. Check us out at http://www.fuzionbartending.com.

Cheers!
Fuzion Bartending – we make bartending easy!

If you’ve ran out of inspirations for tequila based drinks, other than, well, margaritas, we’ve got 11 more drinks for you to try.

Check out the first 9 here: 10 Easy Tequila Cocktails to Make (first one being margarita, so it doesn’t count!)

Check out the other two here: One Tequila, Two Tequila…

Cheers!

Want to learn more about bartending?
Check us out at Fuzion Bartending

Cheers!
Fuzion Bartending – We Make Bartending Easy

Aren’t you in luck, because the guys over at Blog.To has compiled a list of bars that just opened up this year.

Find out where those bar are here

As we check some of these bars out, we hope to see you there as well.

Cheers!
Fuzion Bartending

Are you guys too busy making drinks that you forget to enjoy one yourself?

Australian mixologist Grant Collins offers some suggestions/tips if you feel that you are stuck for cocktail inspiration.

Some tips include:

1) What drinks to offer to women (if you are man)
2) What drinks to offer to men (if you are woman)
3) Best fruity cocktail
4) Best creamy cocktail
5) Best citrus cocktail
6) Best aphrodisiac cocktail
7) Best pick-me-up cocktail
….. and lots more. We don’t want to steal the credit, so follow the link below to find out what Grant has to say.

Check out this article here: A Mixologist’s Guide to Cocktail Drinking

Brought to you by Fuzion Bartending
Offering bartending workshops across Ontario and Quebec.

If you want to be everyone’s enemy at the bar, by all means have we got some tips for you.

On the other hand, if you want to be your bartender’s best friend, don’t, we repeat, DO NOT follow these tips, BUT follow the opposite of what those tips say!

We’ll list a few tips to help you become the world’s rudest customer ever, Gina at Salt Lake Tribune also has a few tips to share. Check out her article at Bartender’s Pet Peeves

1. Use a smartphone cocktail app to try and stump your bartender.
2. Order drinks by color, i.e.: can I get a pink drink?
3. Insist on having the bartender wait a little while while you decide what you want to drink, because all you need is 5 minutes to decide which drinks you are in the mood for.
4. Refusing to open a tab, even though you’ve just use your credit card to pay for the last 5 drinks you bought.
5. Waving money to get a bartender’s attention.
6. Be a rattlesnake – make lots of sounds, slam your fist/glass/beer bug on the bar, cry,
7. Order complex drinks because you want to seem “sophisticated”.
8. Nicke and dime with the bartender, haggle, bargain for a cheaper price, complain about the drink prices.
9. Be really general about what you are ordering, i.e.: can I have a beer? can I have a martini?
10. You are always absolutely right, if you feel you are not drunk, you are not drunk – you don’t get served because the bartender is being stingy.

Any more tips you feel like sharing? Post in the comments below and we’ll add them.

Cheers!
Fuzion Bartending

If you are not sure which one’s better, read on!
Already know what you prefer? Great! But do you know why? If you want to know why, read on as well!

There have been some experiments carried out by cocktail enthusiasts, bartenders and even scientists (YES! REAL Scientists!) to dissect the difference in the end product prepared by those two methods.

Check out the conclusion by two scientists (actually a professor and a graduate student) from Harvard University here: At Boston bar, Harvard scientists find physics at work
Check out the conclusion by cocktail enthusiast Doug here: Shaken v.s. Stirred – has some delicious reference to other articles.
Check out the conclusion by yet another D.C. cocktail enthusiast here: Shaken v.s. Stirred

Short conclusion:
If you don’t have time, we don’t want to bore you with the nitty-gritty either.
Basically, if you like your drinks thicker-tasting, cloudier-looking / foamy, “getting more bang for the buck” – more volume, though that’s really just melted ice, a.k.a. water, floating along with your alcohol and colder, then go with shaken.
If you like your drinks lighter-tasting, clearer, alcoholic – the way it should taste – dry, harsh, crispy, then go with stirred.
If you don’t know and you don’t care about all these, as long as the drink looks nice and tastes nice – and that’s perfectly fine as well – just make sure you tip the bartender, because he/she deserve you a drink for which you can’t complain.

In the end, what makes a drink great is how much it appeals to the person holding the glass – a real tip by a real bartender.

Winter Mojito

Ingredients

• Rum
• Raspberry-Cranberry Juice
• Sugar
• Mint Leaves
• Lime

How to make it  Muddle and Shake

1. Muddle a lime wedge, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a few mint leaves in a rocks glass
2. Empty the rocks glass into a shaker tin, and add 1 oz Rum
3. Add 4-5 oz of Raspberry-Cranberry Juice into the shaker tin
4. Shake for 5 to 10 seconds
5. Fill the serving glass 3/4 full with ice, strain the drink into the serving glass

***Garnish with a sprig of mint and a raspberry

Want to learn more drinks? Check us out at Fuzion Bartending, we make bartending easy!

Cheers

First up…
Cranberry Tease

- Can you see the cranberry? Can you taste the cranberry?

Ingredient:

• Vodka
• White Cranberry Juice
• 7 Up / Ginger Ale
• Raspberry
• Sugar
• Mint Leaves

How to make it  Muddle and Shake

1. Chill the cocktail glass (or whichever glass you want to serve the drink in later)
2. Muddle raspberry, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a few mint leaves in a rocks glass
3. Empty the rocks glass into a shaker tin, and add 1 oz Vodka
4. Add 3-4 oz of White Cranberry Juice into the shaker tin, along with a few raspberries
5. Shake for 5 to 10 seconds
6. Sugar the rim of the serving glass — this step is optional
7. Strain (optionally you may double strain) into a cocktail glass
8. Top off with 7 up or Ginger Ale

***Garnish with a sprig of mint and a raspberry

Want to learn more drinks? Check us out at Fuzion Bartending, we make bartending easy!

Cheers!

We are excited to share with you all some delicious recipes that we come across. This will serve as our very first of several drinks to come! Fuzion Bartending School’s resident bartender Cliff served this drink at La Veer’s Cooking Workshop by Chef Mavis, held at Metro Square, Markham on December 8th, 2011. ***Big thanks and photo credit go to Sandra Chen, Mavis Lee, Grace Feng and everyone in the La Veer group.

It’s perfectly easy to make and will ensure your guests have a great time over the holidays! Who knows, you might even score a kiss

Kiss of Pomegranate

Ingredients:

• Vodka or Rum
• Pomegranate Juice
• Cranberry Juice
• 7 Up or Soda Water or Ginger Ale
• Sour Apple Cocktail Mix

How to make it:  BUILD

1. Put 1 scoop of ice in a red or white wine glass
2. Fill with 1 oz of Vodka or Rum – up to you!
3. Add 2-3 oz of Pomegrante Juice
4. Add 0.5 oz of Sour Apple Cocktail Mix
5. Fill the glass to two-thirds full with Cranberry Juice
6. Top off with 7 Up or Soda Water

***Garnish with Rosemary Sprigs and Raspberry sprinkled with icing sugar

Want to learn more drinks? Check us out at Fuzion Bartending, we make bartending easy!

Cheers!

Don’t you just hate how your ice doesn’t last as long as your drink? By the end of a Scotch on the rocks, a Jack and Coke or a Gin and Tonic, or any cocktails we order on the rocks we often taste more water than we do drink. It can be disappointing to the point where those last few sips get tossed in the sink or slammed down just so you can have a fresh round.

Ice is the most overlooked part of the cocktail making process. So, the Japanese came up with a VERY EFFECTIVE solution – ice balls!

Japanese Ice Balls are invented based on the physics that the more surface area, the faster the dilution rate. So crushed ice will dilute the fastest, and large flat pieces of ice (or better yet—a Japanese ice ball) will dilute the slowest. Depending on the temperature, the ice balls may last up to 2-3 hours; and one ice ball supposedly can chill a glass of straight-up (room temperature) whiskey for a good 30 minutes without diluting the spirit. Pretty cool isn’t it? Interested in making some ice balls for your next party? Thought you might be. Here is a very simple way to try making an ice ball in your own home.

1. Buy some balloons from a dollar store or party accessory store.
2. Rinse a few times to get all the powder on the inside of the balloons.
3. Tie the balloon up on the rack in your freezer
*This will create ice more in the shape of a tear drop, but it still works.

On the other hand, if you have some funds to spare, you can try the Japan Trend Shop or at Drinksology.

If you venture to Japan, you might still see Japanese bartenders perform the ice ball carving ritual in finer establishments, and most likely you will be shocked by the price.

To read up more on Ice Balls in Japan, check out the About.com article: What is a Japanese Ice Ball?

And here is yet another video for you – the ice ball making ritual…

So hopefully you’ll be trying some longer lasting cold drinks from now on.

Skål!
Fuzion Bartending