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hello rockstars! i'm aly, your rockstar bargirl and today we are going to be talking about liquors. we're getting toward the endof the basic 101 series so this is exciting. we are going to talk about all those liquorsout there and some of the most popular brands that you should expect to work with. firstoff, there are thousands of different types of liquor bottles out there. it seems likeeveryone in the world now a days is creating their own vodka, their own tequila so therereally are tons of liquors out there and there's really no saying what your bar might decideto indulge in. but there are some basic, popular, standard brands that you should expect tosee and you want to know what they are, what they taste like, etc. before we get startedan important note about all these liquors
is that it is not possible for us to coverall of them today -even when it comes to those popular, run of the mill brands that willbe everywhere - we just can't get into every single one. so it's really important thatif you've never been behind a bar, you're not really familiar with alcohol, that youstart educating yourself. you can go to your local liquor store and just walk around. lookat the different brands they have in the vodka section, in the gin section. you can go toyour neighborhood bars or when you go out with friends, just take a look at what theiroffering. ask the bartender "hey what is that? what's that weird skull shaped bottle? whatis that?" and educate yourself. because the more you know the easier it will be on yourfirst day of work somewhere. you'll have fewer
questions about what it is you're lookingat and what it is your bar offers. speaking of your first day of work, i get super, superannoyed when i'm training new bartenders who are inexperienced and they ask me "what'sthat bottle right there, i've never seen that." liquor bottles are not mysteries. right onthe label is the type of alcohol it is, the brand, what type of flavor it might be, andthe percentage of alcohol that's in it - which tells you how strong something is. so whenyou walk into a job and you see a bottle you are not familiar with: pick it up. read it.educate yourself. learn what you're working with so that you know what to offer your customers,you know how to make your specialty cocktails, etc. ok?when it comes to the world of alcohol you
really have four major categories: beer, wine,liquor and liqueurs (which are also called cordials.) today we are going to be talkingabout liquor and in part 2 of the basics 101 liquor botte videos we will talk about liqueursand cordials. liquors and liqueurs work together to make cocktails. your liqueurs are alcoholsthat have a high percentage of sugar and some type of flavor added to it. your liquors aretypically lower in sugar and higher in alcohol and don't really have a flavor or if theydo have an added flavor they're not very pronounced. so when i take a liquor like vodka and a liqueurlike melon and put them together i now have something that is melon flavored. add a littlepineapple juice to that and now i have a cocktail. so your liquors and liqueurs come togetherto create the flavor profiles that you are
looking for. you can sort of think it as theliquor gives me the alcohol, the liqueur gives me the sweetness and the flavor, my juicesor my mixers continue with adding sweetness and flavor and that is how you build a cocktail.so we'll talk about liquors today and in the next video we will talk about liqueurs.in the liquor category you have six different types of liquor: vodka, gin, rum, tequila,brandy, and whiskey. we're going to go through all six of those today - what they are, whatthey're made out of and popular brands you should expect.let's get started with the most popular of those six liquors and that is vodka. vodkais the most popular liquor because it is what you call a neutral grain spirit. it is clearin color, it doesn't have much of an odor
except for smelling like alcohol and it 'hasessentially no flavor profile, again, aside from just tasting like alcohol. because ofits neutrality that means you can mix vodka with literally anything. any mixer. coke,gingerale, sour mix, orange juice, lime juice. it really doesn't matter, it's going to gofine with those mixers. because it can mix with anything, that's why it's so popular.when you walk into your bar you are going to see that you might have three or four timesas many vodka bottles as you do anything else. vodka was traditionally made from potato,but now its usually just made from grain. even though there are potato vodkas stillout there. and it's one of the oldest alcohols around. just like my bar where you'll seethat aside from my well drinks and well liquors
this entire bottom row is dedicated to vodkayou should expect to see a large vodka selection at your bar. there will be popular brandsof vodka and there are tons of them so that's one of the reasons why you are going to haveso many vodkas but because vodka is neutral it is the perfect vessel for flavor and thereare tons of flavored vodkas out there. from the expected flavors like raspberry and orangeto crazy flavors like smores or coffee or lemon-lime soda. so because there are so manypossible brands and because there are so many possible flavors within those brands you aregoing to have a huge vodka selection and you want to familiarize yourself with what yourbar carries. so here we have a selection of some of themost popular vodkas that are out there and
again we have a lot of options because vodkais very, very popular. and these brands are brands you've probably heard before. if you'venever been in a bar, you've certainly heard of them. absolut, belvedere, ciroc, ketelone, grey goose. these five vodkas you will carry in almost every single bar. vodka isfor the most part 80 proof, 40% alcohol by volume. what does proof mean? the short storyis it's just telling you how much alcohol is actually in these bottles and how muchof it is water and other stuff. so 40% alcohol by volume is a standard alcohol content forvodka and all of these vodkas are 40% alcohol by volume. i'm also showing you some of thestoli -which is short for stolichnaya- vodka from russia. also a very popular brand thatyour bar is likely to carry. i brought these
bottles out to show you some of the flavorsthat they have. stoli has a large selection of flavored vodkas and it is very common foryour bar to carry them. there are other brands such as three olives, pinnacle, smirnoff,and svedka that also have some really interesting flavors your bar might stock. so these areyour typical, most- expected, non-flavored vodkas. and then this is an example of onebrand's selection of flavors. next let's talk about gin. just like withyour vodka you will have a house gin, some no-name gin. but then you're going to havesome brands that are popular that you want to be familiar with. gin, like vodka, is clearin color but it is not a neutral flavored spirit. gin is made from something calledthe juniper berry which gives it a really
sort of odd and unexpected taste. gin goesreally great with citrus flavors like orange and grapefruit and lemon. but it doesn't mixwell with ingredient such as coke so there's a limit on ingredients you can mix gin withand have it still taste good. i think that gin is a little more versatile than peoplegive it credit for. but your average customer is going to be a little hesitant to want totry a gin cocktail. your most popular cocktail is just a simple gin and tonic. tonic watersort of tastes like bitter lemon rinds in like soda form. it goes really well gin. thereare a lot of things that go well with gin but anyway we'll talk about that when we startactually making cocktails. but what you need to know is that gin is made from juniper,it is not neutral the way vodka is, it does
have a pronounced taste which limits whatyou can mix it with, therefore, your bar is not going to carry as many gins. it's justnot as popular. of your six liquors its one of the least popular. you should really onlyexpect to see three or four options at your bar. i brought out the most popular here whichis tanqueray and bombay sapphire. bombay does have a bombay regular just regular bombay,but the sapphire is the most popular of the two options that that company has. and thereare other tons of other gins out there but your bar is most likely going to carry themost popular and these two would be the most popular gins.next we're going to talk about rum. rum is a very interesting spirit because rum is madefrom sugar cane. so naturally without adding
anything to rum it has a higher sugar contentthan vodka or gin or any of your other alcohols. because of that it's already sweet in flavorand it's really great for making sweet cocktails. you see rum used a lot in caribbean-inspiredcocktails that have a lot of juices like pineapple, orange, and cranberry juice in them. so yourbahama mama, your mai tai, your hurricane, you're going to see rum featured in thosecocktails. again you will have a house rum some no name rum, but in terms of brand namesyou are almost always under all circumstances have these three rums. and that's bacardi,malibu and captain morgan. when it comes to rum there are basically four categories thatyou should expect to see: silver rum, gold, flavored, and spiced. when it comes to silverversus gold rum, for example bacardi silver
versus bacardi gold, there isn't much of adifference- they have about the same alcohol content, they sort of taste the same, buttypically a gold rum has been stored in a wooden barrel giving it a golden brown toastedcolor and changing the flavor just a little bit. but there isn't a significant differencebetween the two. flavored rums are typically silver rums where some flavor extract hasbeen added. strawberry or raspberry, mango or citrus. you'll see rums with all thesedifferent types of flavors. they're pretty popular. not nearly as popular as flavoredvodkas but there are a lot of flavored rum options out there. i want to talk a littlebit about malibu because it is mistaken for a flavored rum. it is not. malibu is actuallya liqueur. it has too high of a sugar content
to be considered a liquor. it is a coconutflavored, rum-based, liquor. but when 99% of the world is wrong about something sometimesit's just easier to do things the wrong way so in pretty much every single bar that youever work in you are going to find the malibu with the rums. it's not going to be with theliqueurs and cordials, it's going to be with the rums so it's important for you the bartenderto know that it is very high in sugar, it's low in alcohol, it's coconut flavored, it'srum-based, but it is technically a liqueur. for all working purposes it's going to bekept with the rums, people are going to order it like a rum and you're going to use it incocktails the same way you would a rum. so there's no real need to care that it's different,but just so you are educated as a bartender
you should know that it is properly not aflavored rum but a cordial that is rum-based. captain morgan is a very popular spiced rum.there are other brands out there like sailor jerry, etc. and these are typically gold rumsthat have had some spices like cinnamon, clove, or coriander to give them a little more intenseof a flavor a more spicy flavor. and then you have some speciality rums that call themselvesthings like black rum like kraken or captain morgan black and these rums are made typicallynot from sugar cane but from molasses. molasses is the product that you get if you take sugarand heat it up until it melts and turns into a thick, sticky dark goo. if you make yourrum out of that thick, sticky, dark goo instead of sugar cane you get a product that's darkerin color and thicker and higher in sugar content.
that's where you get your black rums from.next we have tequila! arriba! tequila is made from something call the blue agave plant.most of your tequilas come from regions where that plant grows. it's sort of like a cactus.so imagine places where cactuses grow, that's where you get most of your tequilas in theworld. of course you will have your house tequila. but then you will have a very popularcall brand tequila, a medium priced tequila, and that is jose cuervo. the most is the goldbut they do have a silver option. and just like with rum, the really only differencebetween a silver and a gold tequila is that one has been kept in a wooden barrel and thathas gotten it a gold color and sort of smokey wood like flavor. but not too much of a differencebetween the two otherwise. you'll also have
some premium options of tequila. the mostpopular, hands down, being patron. you will almost always work with patron. every baris going to carry it. so you should expect to see it. of course they have gold optionsand reposado which are aged versions, etc. other brands include don julio, herradura,1800. i brought out the two 1800 bottles that i have, the regular and the coconut, to showyou that it is possible to have flavored tequilas. it is not very common. it is not even as commonas it is flavored rums but they do exist, they are out there, and you might find yourselfworking with a few flavored tequilas. next we're going to talk about whiskey. whiskeyis an incredibly expansive category of alcohol. there are many different types of whiskeysand it can be a little overwhelming to start
trying to understand all of them. so to simplifyunderstanding the different categories of whiskeys out there i want you to just thinkabout the word basic. b.a.s.i.c. there are five categories of whiskey and the word basicwill help you remember them all. b stands for bourbon. a for american. s for scotch.i for irish and c for canadian. these are the five categories of whiskey that you willhave at your bar most likely and we'll quickly go through the popular brands in each thosefive categories. whiskey is an alcohol made from corn. bourbon is the most popular. itis made in bourbon county kentucky. or at least that's where it started. that's a longstory but it comes from bourbon county kentucky made following a very specific recipe thatwas popularized down there. popular brands
include jim beam, wild turkey, maker's markand here we have an example of knob creek. you should expect to see at least three bourbonsat your bar. american whiskeys are less popular than your bourbons. they are made basicallyanywhere else in america that is not bourbon county. and those include brands like seagram's7. in sort of a sub category of american whiskeys is something called sour mash. and that'swhere we find jack daniel's. jack daniel's is incredibly popular, you are definitelygoing to carry it at your bar. many of your customers are going to mistake jack for bourbonbut you the educated bartender know that it is not. it is a sour mash american whiskey.another american whiskey that you want to be familiar with is fireball. this whiskeyis new to the market i think it's only five
maybe ten years old but it has just explodedin popularity. it's a cinnamon flavored whiskey which is a big deal because whiskey is notsomething you usually see flavored. but it is super, super popular and there is a veryhigh likelihood that you will work with it at your bar. that covers b and a. next wehave s for scotch whiskey. scotch of course comes from scotland and it has a very oddsort of iodine like taste which makes it uncommon for just regular high volume service. butyou will get the occasional order for scotch and soda, scotch and coke or scotch on therocks. one of the most popular brands of scotch is the johnny walker brand. there are differentlabels of scotch that correspond to how long that scotch has been aged. but it's very popularfor you bar to carry johnny walker black.
it's probably the most common of johnny walker'sdifferent categories. next we have irish whiskey of course from ireland and the most popularirish whiskey is jameson. again something you should expect every bar you work in tocarry. and then finally we have canadian whiskey. canadian whiskey is less popular. there'sa chance that if you're bar is very small you may not even carry any canadian whiskeybut your popular canadian whiskeys include seagram's vo and the very popular crown royalwhich comes in this really cute little bottle. and finally we have brandy. brandy is madefrom fruits such as grapes and peaches and plums. and brandy like gin tends to be onthe less popular side when it comes to your average high-volume bar. if your brandy ismade in a particular region of france called
cognac then you get to call your brandy cognac.many times people don't realize that that run of the mill no name bottle of brandy andthe high end, very expensive cognac that you have at your bar are basically the same exactthings in two different types of bottles. so that's important for you the educated bartenderto know even if your customer doesn't. there is no difference between brandy and cognacexcept for a really fancy address. i don't have any brandy bottles out right now becauselike i said brandy is not terrible popular in a high-volume bar, but cognac is. cognaccan be incredibly popular and in particular hennessy. this is a brand that you have heardof even if you have never stepped in a bar before. it tends to be on the higher end inyour bar's pricing scale it is not going to
be a call price it will be a premium or topshelf price. and again it's just brandy in a fancy bottle made in a fancy place. butit is very very popular and you are almost guaranteed to carry it. another cognac brandyou may have heard of is courvoisier. there's also remy martin. and you will probably havetwo or three cognac options at your bar whereas you might only have one brandy option, youmight not carry a plain brandy at all. so make sure you are familiar with your cognacs. so that wraps up our liquor basics 101 videopart 1. definitely make sure you go and immediately check out part 2 as soon as its posted. soyou can learn about the liqueurs you are going to use to take these liquors and give themsome really interesting flavors. again this
is just a snippet of the options of liquorsthat are out there that your bar might carry. so educate yourself, check out liquor stores,subscribe to a bartender's magazine, or just hang out in your neighborhood bars and getto know what they are offering. the faster you learn what liquors are out there and getfamiliar with them, the easier its going to make your first day in any bar. so thanksfor checking out this video. of course make sure that you like it if it was useful. commentbelow if you have any questions or anything to say about the liquors that we covered today.and of course subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. click on the subscribe button down below soyou know when the part 2 liqueurs video is posted. as always, i will see you in the nextvideo. bye rockstars!
