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Bartending is an art form, it is not just about pulling pints and never has been

Bartending is an art form and a continuous learning path that never ends; it is not just about pulling pints and never has been, writes Ciara Farrell.

BARTENDING IS SO much more than a ‘just a job’. As a bartender in Ireland you have to accept that at least once a week someone in your bar will be asked one of the following questions: “Are you just working here while you study?” or “What real job will you aim for?”

Bartending has historically been seen as a dead-end job, a job for people with no brains or ambition. But this is just one of the countless things that makes bartending such a special job – a true bartender will simply listen to this, all the while knowing that they are so madly in love with and passionate about a job and a skill that the people asking these questions will just never understand.

Yes, bartending for most of us starts as an after school job to earn some money to go travelling or get our first car. Some of us have grown up in a family business of pubs and were thrown into it as soon as possible, and in reality we probably didn’t think we would do it as a job for long.

Oh, how that changes very quickly! For me it was firstly the interaction with people that I fell in love with, and then I found cocktails and any thoughts of other careers/jobs went straight out the window.

shutterstock_225472294 Shutterstock / Igor Normann Shutterstock / Igor Normann / Igor Normann

Cocktails first struck me as being cool looking and an added challenge to throw into working a busy bar, which I already loved doing. I wanted to learn all the recipes and make the best looking drinks, and do it very fast.

When it comes to cocktail-making, people learn and take on information in different ways, some people learn recipes best by sitting down and continuously writing them out or reading them out, some people learn by watching other people do it. I am a practical learner and learn by doing and remembering the movements.

So, that’s what I started doing. I would hound my managers to teach me everything they knew and let me experiment. Over the years my mind became more and more fascinated with cocktails, with the methods and mixing of flavours.

There are certain things which bartenders need to get right before moving on and I can never stress the need to know the basics enough: methods and why different methods are used, equipment and what each piece is used for and how to utilise it the best; glassware and how this effects a drink, classic cocktails and the thought process behind them, and of course the most important … reading your guest and realising what will make them happiest.

After this is nailed down then flavour profiling is the best next step. Before mixing flavours of spirits, vermouths, cordials, juices, liqueur, etc it is essential to know what they taste like on their own.

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As a head bartender a huge part of training in any new team member is letting them get to know every bottle in the bar and what is inside them before we move on to creating drinks.

Every cocktail has a base on which it is built, the same as a chef may start a dish knowing they want to use chicken and build from there, bartenders will decide some part of the drink as a starting block and let it grow in a way that works with that crucial aspect. Over 80% of the time that base is a spirit.

Spirits firstly give an alcoholic volume to the drink; they have a higher ABV than other alcohol forms and hold more flavours. However, they are much more than just alcohol. Each type of spirit has a world of character and flavor which directly impact on the mouth feel, flavour and aroma of a drink.

I got the cocktail competition bug quite quickly after competing in the Beefeater MIXLDN competition three years ago. It was through this that I found a desire to know more about the world of spirits and their role, both singly and within cocktails and mixed drinks, and this led me to my role now as Beefeater Irish Ambassador.

I now get to work with the people behind the brands that we see behind bars around the world and with the people behind bars all across the country, bringing the two very different worlds together.

shutterstock_202914193 Shutterstock / S_Photo Shutterstock / S_Photo / S_Photo

The adrenaline a bartender gets behind a bar that is five deep with people, all feeling like the world will end if they don’t get a drink from you in the next 30 seconds, and having a team with you facing that same wall of faces and all of us moving in a dance with each other around the bar, all while entertaining the guests – that feeling is indescribable.

Bartending is an art form and a continuous learning path that never ends; it is not just about pulling pints and never has been. A bartender is a host, therapist, entertainer and a distraction from normal life.

Ciara Farrell is Beefeater Irish Ambassador. Ciara recently judged the Irish final of the 2015 Beefeater MIXLDN Global Bartender competition which saw Carl D’Alton of The Folkhouse Bar in Kinsale, Co. Cork crowned the winner. Carl will go forward to represent Ireland at the global final in London in January where he will have the chance to become the brand’s Apprentice Brand Ambassador, receive in-depth training, represent Beefeater at exclusive events and travel to some of the world’s most prestigious bartender events, including the Moscow Bar Show and the Berlin Bar Convent.

Read: I chose to put my four children through private secondary school, here’s why>

Read: Ireland’s health system is broken, we need an NHS model like the UK>

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31 Comments
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    Mute Del Haven
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:14 AM

    Bartending is rarely glamorous, it’s hard work and often thankless. There are plenty times when it’s fun but there are plenty of times when it’s hell, too.

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    Mute Brendan
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    Dec 27th 2015, 10:25 AM

    Ah shaddup moaning haven’t ya a job!
    Now throw us on a Guinness and stick it on the slate any free tayto going

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    Mute stephen
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:18 AM

    Does being a sexy blonde help, there’s a lot of creeps out there, are you single by the way?

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    Mute Del Haven
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:28 AM

    It helps being a sexy blonde if you’re working for tips.

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    Mute Patrick Agnew
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:30 AM

    She’s a right looking wee thing

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    Mute Randle P McMurphy
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    Dec 27th 2015, 9:47 AM

    Bartending in Ireland is generally beer slinging, toilet-cleaning, after-hours drudgery. I see it in one of our local bars. Bar staff constantly dealing with rude, smart-mouthed, misogynistic losers…drinking from dole day to dole day…constantly looking for the ‘free one’, the cheapest one, and if the bar person is busy, the stolen one! They arrive in at 11.20/12.20 and are considerably miffed when told 20 mins later the bar is closed…and that “no, there isn’t a slate til tomorrow and it is not the bar persons fault there are no taxis for them”. And the ‘Christmas drink’ begging culture you see many customers get so wound up about!…good God!

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    Mute Damian Baker
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    Dec 27th 2015, 2:19 PM

    The situations you’ve described are the worst customers but generally the worst customers are not the barflys who are there from “dole day to dole day”. The culprits from my experience are the ones who go out once a week/month and dont know what a bar is or how it works.

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    Mute Andrew
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:26 AM

    It really isn’t

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    Mute Ciaran Caomhanach
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    Dec 27th 2015, 11:59 AM

    Unsociable hours ,bad pay,highly stressful,Intoxicated and rowdy customers .I did this job for many years and glad I got out of it. Only in America you can make a decent living out of it.

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    Mute Erik Raftery
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    Dec 30th 2015, 5:23 AM

    Hey there! $1500 a week in tips is more than a teacher will take home in a year! Go figure!! My point is, the Bartender is the aristocrat of the working class. We are high up there amoung the towns docs, laywers, realtors and so on. We are the the social fabric of the towns and neighbourhoods. Of course prohibition put a temporary end to the bartending trade. That was way back. I really enjoy watching ‘Drunk History’ on television. It’s a recent phenomenon here in America, not forgetting Bar Rescue on Spike T.V Channel. Hope you enjoyed your Christmas!

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    Mute Dingleberrycity
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:38 AM

    Unless you have to money to open your own pub/bar then bar tending is a dead end profession.

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    Mute Steve Tracey
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    Dec 27th 2015, 9:51 AM

    Art form – NO profession YES thanks to all the barman and women who have served me over the years most of you did/do a pretty good job

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    Mute Rowe
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:05 AM

    Another name for bartender is a Drunkards Labourer.

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    Mute Rugby Champions Cup
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    Dec 27th 2015, 11:31 AM

    She does know most bar staff work in places without bouncers and janitors?

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    Mute Rugby Champions Cup
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    Dec 27th 2015, 12:26 PM

    she also probably hasn’t worked in bar further north than the Bernard Shaw

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    Mute Not_Rod_Ten©
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:17 AM

    Bar tending is just legalised drug dealing

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    Mute Fran Breen
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    Dec 27th 2015, 1:22 PM

    That opening paragraph is lifted directly from another article I read before from an American lad and I am pretty sure a lot of the rest is. Why it stuck with me was the fact I worked in a pub for 15 years and was never once asked that because it wasn’t full of pretentious idiots who would think that is an acceptable question to someone. If you were asked that I doubt you worked in a decent pub and when it is 5 deep at the bar the last person you want beside you is a cocktail maker getting in the way.

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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Dec 27th 2015, 3:23 PM

    Fran: You can highlight blocks of text and “search google for…” and I’m showing nothing similar. I take it the “article” isn’t available online?

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    Mute Fran Breen
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    Dec 27th 2015, 7:12 PM

    I have wracked my brain thinking of where I read it but am coming up empty. It’s not like I am making it up as an opener for the crux of my comment or anything. I am thinking it was a Buzzfeed or Cracked article. One of those numbered points pieces they like to run

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:15 AM

    Agreed… Bartenders state side are so much more quality. It’s a genuine profession, generally a number of years experience, everything about the different spirits that’s on offer or the variants of cocktails. Buying a round of drinks and soft drinks aren’t charged for, drinking alone and tip well 4th drink is on the house.

    Was at a hotel in Wexford where all the 20 something bar staff had been on ‘a cocktail course’ in Dublin but none of them knew what a martini was, how to make it or what class it went in. It’s shocking that they had been taught to make a mojito, which is really quite messy and complex but couldn’t swirl vermouth, shake gin over ice and put it in a glass.

    Seems cocktail menus in most places are added to drinks lists that they shouldn’t be these days are a novelty for the likes of hen parties or girls night out.

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    Mute Patrick Agnew
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:26 AM

    Shocking? A bit over the top

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    Mute Conor Power
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:46 AM

    Would agree the quality of barstaff esp. cocktails varies hugely in Ireland vs other countries. I guess it comes from the huge turnaround if young staff. In the states it can lucrative in a good bar so you will get a more professional approach.

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Dec 27th 2015, 9:50 AM

    It’s pretty shocking if you know a tap about bartending… Like someone going on a baking course and coming out the other end knowing how to make croissants but not knowing what bread is.

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    Mute Kevin O' Brien
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    Dec 27th 2015, 10:51 AM

    I see your point, I was once that bartender, who had experience of fruity and sweet cocktails, but no real understanding of clasics like a martini. Ive been in new york a few years now and i feel ive become far more rounded and refined as a bartender. But u have to remember also, you only need to make what your custoners ask for. If irish clientelle only want flashy pretty cocktails, then thats all its worth your while to know. I can count on my fingers, the amount of times I was for a classic Martini, after working in a number of cocktail bars in Ireland, over about 5 years. Also regarding the general standard of work in irish barstaff and their range of knowledge, i shall say this: if u pay peanuts, u get monkeys…

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Dec 27th 2015, 11:03 AM

    Is that not a bit depressing Kev… Like being an artist that only ever paints vases of flowers or fruit bowls?

    True about the pay. You like to think if the drinks cost €15-35 that some of it is going to to the bartender but often it’s the establishment being greedy.

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    Mute Kevin O' Brien
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    Dec 27th 2015, 11:13 AM

    Absolutely Drew. That’s the reason I got the hell out of dodge and I now earn a great living in Manhattan. Not only that but I actually get treated like a human being while doing so, which is always nice.

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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Dec 27th 2015, 12:50 PM

    They never say please there, that would drive me mad.

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    Mute SCO Electrical
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    Dec 27th 2015, 10:46 AM

    Don’t know why but suddenly want some Gin…

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    Mute Kacey O'Riordan
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    Dec 27th 2015, 8:32 AM

    Gasping for a drink

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    Mute Nigel Tuffnel
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    Dec 27th 2015, 10:40 PM

    Being an arsehole is an art form now is it? Just pour a pint and shut up.

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    Mute TellingItAsItIs
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    Jan 1st 2016, 6:05 PM

    “Art-form” me h*le! It’s a tough job but basically it’s feeding the habits of individuals who drink far too much.
    It always amazes me how we as a nation of pint drinkers must order another pint before the one we’re supping empties. God forbid we might have to sit in front of an empty glass for more than 2 minutes.

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