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‘Be Your Own Bartender’ Contest
Client — Cadbury Schweppes
Project Scope — Concept Development, and Design of Marketing/Point of Sale Collateral.
Be Your Own Bartender Book
Here to answer that question is Be Your Own Bartender. Through more than a dozen interactive flowcharts, the book poses a series of questions designed to lead readers to their own ideal drink, and with more than 151 original recipes, there's a cocktail for every mood, taste, and occasion. Are you after something tequila-based, or gin-based? Here to answer that question is Be Your Own Bartender. Through more than a dozen interactive flowcharts, the book poses a series of questions designed to lead readers to their own ideal drink, and with more than 151 original recipes, there's a cocktail for every mood, taste, and occasion. Know Your Earning Potential. As a bartender, your salary depends on many factors: the minimum wage in your state, individual tips, shared tips, the type of establishment you work in, and your skill level and seniority. Salaries can be as high as $132,000 per year for highly skilled bartenders or as low as $11,000 for junior ones. Whatever the answers, Be Your Own Bartender leads you to your destination―a cocktail effectively designed just for you. With some drinks that are truly adventurous and others that are friendlier to the cocktail novice, every recipe is created with the home bartender in mind.
Project Description — Whether you’re a retailer or supplier, even a small contest / promotion is a great chance to engage customers, create awareness, introduce a new product and get a bump in sales. The best part is you create a reason to get in front of people, generate feedback, and have a little fun doing it. For Cadbury Schweppes, we created a ‘Be Your Own Bartender’ contest featuring all of their drink mixes, a take home recipe booklet and a chance to win a mini bar fridge. The bright, fun, retro graphics drew attention to an often overlooked aisle in the grocery store, and served as a reminder that drink mixes of all kinds are available at your local grocery store. And, as part of our thorough commitment to research for our clients, we tested all the drink recipes (they were delicious).
May 01, 2020
In Drink What You Want (Clarkson Potter, June.) veteran bartender deBary takes an egalitarian stance on cocktails.
What’s the biggest mistake home bartenders make?
I wouldn’t call it a mistake, but I’d say it’s fear of failure. There’s this idea that you have to be a world-class bartender to make drinks properly, and that’s just not true. It’s like saying that you can’t make yourself a sandwich because you’re not a chef. Chevy 350 crate engine and transmission for sale. The confidence to do what you want and drink what you want is the biggest hurdle.
Your chapters begin with a basic drink with just a few ingredients before taking a deep dive into similar drinks. Why did you choose that approach?
Be Your Own Bartender
The idea of a cocktail is really broad. You don’t have to think too hard to come up with something new. Once you have an idea of the basic recipe, you can look at it and come up with ways to make it more interesting. I’d say about 90% of drinks have a deliberate and obvious call back to a simple drink like the fundamental nine drinks—margarita, daiquiri, old fashioned, etc.
Vodka can be somewhat of a polarizing ingredient in cocktails, and some bartending books omit it entirely. Yet you offer a recipe for a Cosmopolitan.
I love that drink (laughs). I think the whole vodka snobbery thing is very 2009. There was a moment when people were trying to educate the public about drinking something that wasn’t vodka, and I was definitely one of those people who was trying to introduce customers to blanco tequila, whiskey, or gin and open their eyes to other possibilities. But I think that conversation has happened. Shaming someone for their preferences is not what hospitality is about for me. Vodka may not be the best choice for every cocktail, but it’s another tool to consider.
What do you think customers will be looking for in terms of cocktails once the quarantine is over?
Be Your Own Bartender
I don’t think it’s going to be so much about the drink as it will be about the setting. When you go to a restaurant or a bar, the actual item sitting in front of you that you’re paying for is only about 20% of the experience. The rest of it is the people you’re talking to and the experience provided by the staff.
Your charity organization is especially significant these days. How’s it going?
Be Your Own Bartender Book
I’m the founder of the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, and we are focused on addressing some structural issues in the restaurant industry and advocacy, but obviously this is a unique time. We started a Covid-19 relief fund in order to provide financial relief to workers who are facing a crisis. We also work with other nonprofits providing other forms of support to restaurant workers, whether it’s financial support, mental health, or food pantries.
A version of this article appeared in the 05/04/2020 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Be Your Own Bartender