Home Bar Basics with Don Lee & Will Wilmot

Last nite was the class at Astor with Don Lee and Will Wilmot from PDT. I didn't learn much new that was essential, but I did pick up worth bits of info, since it was a basics class. But, it was a lot of fun. Don and Will are cool guys.

We made three drinks: Margarita, Manhattan, Old Fashioned (Classic).

10 Things I Learned:

1. How to pop open a shaker, which I couldn't get to work on my own. I had been hitting the shaker in the wrong place. There is a simple 6 o'clock/3 o'clock method.
2. That you add ingredients to a glass in order of expense, in case you mess up. Saves having to toss expensive booze.
   
3. You don't need to boil sugar and water to make simple syrup. (I guess knew this, but wasn't sure.)
4. The easiest way to make lime wedges.
5. A new way to hold a bar spoon.
6. That letting the drink sit after stirring is known as letting it "cook." I've done this plenty of times before taking this class, and I am not sure I am sold on it. To my experience, the drink becomes too diluted, losing the backbone of the base ingredient.
7. How much ice in the mixing glass - 4 cracked cubes, then fill with whole. (I assumed this previously from watching Don's Bacon Bourbon clip on YouTube, but wasn't sure it applied to every situation.)
8. Why flat-ended muddlers are better than contemporary textured (almost spiked) ones. The goal is to express the oils out, rather than pierce the leaf.
9. Not a hard rule, but lemon tends to go well with darker spirits (whiskey), lime with clear (gin, rum). Vodka, you ask? Neutral. Of course it works with both.
10. When using a sweet modifier, such as Cointreau, additional sugar is optional. (Not sure this applies to all recipes, but at least with classics like the Margarita.
11. How to hold the bottle, and hawthorne strainer when pouring (requires pourer).