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All The Bar Lingo You’ll Ever Need To Order A Drink In Style
How many times have you heard the phrase ‘shaken not stirred’ across movies and TV shows? Well, you can be just as fancy. Take a quick look at our guide to drinking vocabulary and how to be an ace orderer. Here are some words and phrases to keep in mind before you hit the bar next.
Neat
When a drink or liquor is served as in, without ice or any additional ingredients. This is the best way to enjoy the true flavours of an alcohol beverage without distraction.
On the Rocks
When a single liquor is served straight on the ice. ‘Rocks’ in this context refers to ice.
Up
Up is when a drink is prepared with ice and then strained in a glass without ice.
Shaken
A common method for your cocktails, when a drink made up of more than one liquor and shaken up in a cocktail shaker with ice, it is ‘shaken’.
Stirred
Mixing spirits or liquors together with a stirrer and not with a cocktail shaker.
Stiff
A strong drink with more than the usual amount of alcohol in the cocktail mix.
Virgin
A cocktail without the alcohol. These are also sometimes referred to as mocktails.
Shot
A neat or a mixed drink to be gulped in one go. It can be a serving of one or two ounces.
Chaser
An alcoholic or nonalcoholic drink consumed right after having a shot to complement and cover the strength or taste of the shot.
Bitters
An alcoholic preparation of herbal or botanical base which adds a peculiar bitter or bitter sweet note to the cocktails.
Sour
A mixer usually based of lime or lemon added to straight liquors and also used in cocktails.
Highball
Alcohol served with soda in a tall glass known as highball.
Dirty Martini
When olive juice is added to a martini.
Dry Martini
When a martini has very little amount of Vermouth.
Wet Martini
When a martini has sufficient amounts of Vermouth.
Garnish
Elements like olives or lemon slices added to the drink to enhance its appearance.
Twist
A ring of a lemon, peeled with a peeler or zester to garnish a drink.
Wines And Spirits Academy
Wines & Spirits Academy (WASA) is a platform that specialises in Wine, Spirits and Beer education – ONLINE! WASA offers wine and spirits MOOC’s to facilitate this learning process, and the very best in the industry will share their learnings with you. WASA has created unique associations with several regional wine and spirits inter-professionals to offer more in-depth programmes that will cater to specific needs.
