A new destination, a new adventure. After our tour through Central America it was time for something new. We took the plane to New York to follow the International Bartender Course for a month! Check the video of our experience at school.
Our first day at school started four weeks ago, a little bit awkward and surrounded by new classmates we just met. After day 1 it was immediately clear to us, this will be a lot of studying. We have to know 72 cocktails, we have to be able to free pour (that means giving the correct number of millimeters without measuring cup), we learn flair (throwing and catching shakers & bottles), we have to know all the theory about whiskey, rum, gin vodka, beer, wine & cognac and during the final test we have to make 12 cocktails completely correct within 20 minutes.
The first two weeks consisted mainly of practicing practicing practicing and master classes about the different spirits. Every day we received 6 new cocktail recipes which we were tested on the following morning. And every Friday we had a theory test about the learned theory of that week. In week three we had our first exam of the total of 5 exams. The free pour exam was on the schedule and we luckily passed both.
The last week mainly consisted of exams, Monday the flair exam, Tuesday theory exam, Wednesday recipe exam and finally Thursday the most important the bar exam. After weeks of struggling, studying, throwing, catching and making hundreds of practice cocktails we can say that we both passed the course!!
Now of course you think that we have only studied but we have also done a lot of fun things. We went to Washington for a day, did a bottomless brunch with the whole group, celebrated St. Patricksday, played beer pong, ate pizzas, drank cocktails in fancy cocktail bars, visited secret bars and of course saw a lot of the beautiful city of New York.
After all we had a great time here in New York. First of all thanks to the fun group with which we lived together for a month and the enthusiasm of our instructors!! EBS, thanks for this unforgettable experience!
