The Bar Tour

            The bar, pub, or watering hole, whatever you may call it, is a sacred weekend place for a lot of us for relaxation and catching up with friends. It is a place that most young adults or adults, legal of age to drink, look forward to after busy week of work. It is a place where we relieve our stress and inhibitions with a drink or two. I for one religiously go to my watering hole at the end of the week to have a few laughs and unforgettable memories with my friends.

            I am assuming that most of us know what a bar is but those who do not; a bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic beverages for consumption inside the premises. Other than beverages some bars also serve food especially here in the Philippines wherein drinking is usually associated with “pulutan” or food that compliments your drink. Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go dancers, or strippers. Bars which offer entertainment or live music are often referred to as music bars or nightclubs. Bars are always present in every culture dating even to the time of Jesus albeit in olden times they call bars as taverns.

            Now that you know what a bar is I will give you a more detailed experience and knowledge of the activities, tools, and drinks that I have learned from our bar tour of Chilli’s, Greenbelt Makati.

            First off, a bar generally carries a wide variety of alcoholic beverages spawning from your locally produced beers to the most expensive imported kinds of alcohol available. You can order most of these drinks from your bartender as it is or you can opt to have a mix of drinks, called cocktails, that your bartender would personally concoct for you.

            When concocting mixes a bartender uses a variety of tools to produce only the best tasting cocktails for their patrons. Most of us think that bartenders just estimate which drinks he’ll mix to make a cocktail but as our presenter, Bryan, taught us, “mixing drinks is like baking wherein each ingredient has a specific measurement to ensure that the alcohol content of the cocktails stays within a patron’s tolerable level.”

Bartending is more than pouring a drink into a glass. How good a bartender is will depend on a lot of things, like their social skills, the actual bar they work from, their looks, but mainly it is their skills. And there is no such thing like skill without tools...

Here are the top ten tools that a bartender must have in his arsenal:

1.)    WINE OPENER

There are a zillion different types of wine openers in even more colors. It doesn't really matter what model you use as long as you are skilled with it. Probably the most common one is the "waiter's corkscrew"(left).

2.)    BOTTLE OPENER

A bottle opener is crucial for bartending. The one you use depends on personal preferences, but make sure you use it well. The simplest model (left) is made of metal and is actually quite easy to use.

3.)    COCKTAIL SHAKER

Obviously only needed when serving cocktails

There are 3 types of cocktail shakers.
The most commonly used amongst bartenders is called a Boston Shaker and consists of 2 pieces. A metal bottom and a glass (or plastic) mixing bowl. The two pieces can be sealed together when shaking.

4.)    COASTER

To keep the bar clean and not sticky, bartenders use coasters when serving the drinks. There are 2 types of coasters. One is made out of carton and can only be used so many times. The carton will become wet and eventually crack or tear. However, they are cheap, you can print advertising on them and you wouldn't mind when people take them home. As Bryan told us, “Coasters are considered to be one of the most effective advertising tools in a bar; it’s cheap and easily noticed by patrons.”

5.)    ICE SCOOP AND BUCKET

Because scooping ice with your glass is a bad idea. The ice scoop serves only 1 purpose. Get ice from an ice bucket into the glass.

6.)    STRAINERS

Strainers are used to remove unwanted ice from a drink when pouring the drink into a glass after it has been shaken or stirred. The most common model is called a Hawthorn strainer. The Hawthorn model (right) is a strange looking, circular metal tool with a handle and a metal spring on top of it. It's specifically designed to block big chunks of ice, but lets the pulp and small ice shards go through.

7.)    SWIZZLE STICKS

Swizzle sticks have 2 purposes. Foremost, they are used to stir the drink. Secondly they are used to pick up pieces of fruit or olives from the drinks without using your fingers. They literally come in all sizes or shapes and often carry a logo or advertisement at the top. They are usually made from plastic, but the more fancy places can use steel, glass or even wooden swizzle sticks.

8.)    MUDDLERS

Muddlers are used to make a mash of fruit, herbs or spices when they have been added to a cocktail. Muddling them releases their flavor.

Muddlers exist in all kind of shapes and material. Most common are wooden muddlers, but platic and stainless steel are taking over the market. Two examples of drinks where a muddler is a required tool are caipirinhas and mojitos.

9.)    JIGGERS

Jiggers allows bartender to measure how much they pour. This can be useful if they have to work with tight inventory control or in some states in the USA it's even obligated by law to measure how much they pour to control the alcohol content. There are many different jiggers, some have a small and big side like on the first picture, and some have indications on the side.

10.)            POURERS

There are different types of caps that bartenders can place on their bottles to control how they pour drinks.
Some just help reducing spills; some have a measuring tool to also control how much they pour. Whatever style the pourers are, they are a great help when bar tending.

Now that you know what the tools are it’s time to know what you drink. What use is a gun without bullets?  As I have stated earlier there are a wide variety of alcoholic beverages available in the world that is why it’s crucial to know the differences of what you ingest. Let us start with the most consumed type of alcohol, the Spirits or Liquor.

A spirit or liquor is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling (i.e., concentrating by distillation) ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables.  The most common types of spirit are:

1.)    Brandy

The name Brandy originates from the word Brandywine, derived from Dutch brandewijn which means "burnt wine", is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks, while some are simply colored with caramel coloring to imitate the effect of such aging (and some brandies are produced using a combination of both aging and coloring).

2.)    Cognac

Cognac is named after the town of Cognac in France, is a variety of brandy. It is produced in the wine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name.

For a distilled brandy to bear the name Cognac its production methods must meet certain legal requirements. In particular, it must be made from specified grapes, of which Ugni Blanc, known locally as Saint-Emilion, is the one most widely used at the present time. The brandy must be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Tronçais. Cognac matures in the same way as whiskies and wine when aged in barrels, and most cognacs are aged considerably longer than the minimum legal requirement.

3.)    Gin

Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavor from Juniper berries. From its earliest beginnings in the Middle Ages, gin has evolved over the course of a millennium from a herbal medicine to an object of commerce in the spirits industry. Today, the gin category is one of the most popular and widely distributed range of spirits, and is represented by products of various origins, styles, and flavor profiles that all revolve around juniper as a common ingredient.

4.)    Rum

Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels. Rum can be referred to in Spanish by descriptors such as ron viejo ("old rum") and ron añejo ("aged rum").

Light rums are commonly used in cocktails, whereas "golden" and "dark" rums were typically consumed individually (i.e., "straight" or "neat") or used for cooking, but are now commonly consumed with mixers. Premium rums are also available, made to be consumed either straight or iced.

5.)    Vodka

Vodka (Russian: водка, Belarusian: Гарэлка, Ukrainian: Горілка, Polish: wódka) is a distilled beverage composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits and/or sugar.

Vodka is a spirit that was virtually unknown in the United States prior to the 1940s. Traditionally prepared vodkas had an alcoholic content of 40% by volume. Today, the standard Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian vodkas are 40% alcohol by volume (ABV) or 80 proofs. The European Union has established a minimum of 37.5% ABV for any "European vodka" to be named as such.^[2][3] Products sold as vodka in the United States must have an alcoholic content of 30% or more.^[4] For homemade vodkas and distilled beverages referred to as "moonshine".

Vodka is traditionally drunk neat in the vodka belt countries of Eastern Europe and around the Baltic Sea. It is also commonly used in cocktails and mixed drinks, such as the Bloody Mary, Screwdriver, Sex on the Beach, Moscow Mule, White Russian, Black Russian, vodka tonic, and in a vodka martini.

6.)    Whisky or Whiskey

Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn. Whisky is typically aged in wooden casks, made generally of charred white oak.

Whisky is a strictly regulated spirit worldwide with many classes and types. The typical unifying characteristics of the different classes and types are the fermentation of grains, distillation, and aging in wooden barrels.

            These types of beverages all have its culture and heritage and in the words of a famous Russian distiller, “Every drink has its age… and its history” – Legend of Kremlin Vodka. But my favorite drink of all is neither a liquor nor spirit but is the world’s widely consumed alcoholic beverage and third-most popular drink overall, after water and tea, and that is beer!

Beer in the Philippines is managed by two breweries: San Miguel Corporation, which produces San Miguel Pale Pilsen, and Asia Brewery, the second-largest brewery in the country.

Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the Philippines and amounts for a 70% share of the domestic alcoholic drinks market in terms of volume during 2005. Between 2003 and 2004, the Philippines showed the fastest growth rate in the world of 15.6%. With a consumption rise from 1.22 to 1.41 million liters, it was the 22nd largest beer market in the world in 2004. A Filipino will drink an average of nearly 20 litres of beer a year. Beer is a Filipino drinker’s best friend and enemy, I blame beer for my belly, but still I can’t resist its alluring ice cold call for a good time with friends.

Beer is produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat. Unmalted maize and rice are widely used adjuncts to lighten the flavour because of their lower cost. The preparation of beer is called brewing. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included.

Now that you know the tools and drinks that is found in a bar it is time you learn the skills that bartenders employ behind the bar to serve and entertain patrons known as flairing.

Flair bartending is the practice of bartenders entertaining guests, clientele or audiences with the manipulation of bar tools and liquor bottles in tricky, dazzling ways. Used occasionally in cocktail bars, the action requires skills commonly associated with jugglers. It has become a sought-after talent among venue owners and marketers to help advertise a liquor product or the opening of a bar establishment. Competitions have been sponsored by liquor brands to attract flair bartenders, and some hospitality training companies hold courses to teach flair techniques.

Flair bartending is sometimes referred to as "extreme bartending" or contracted to "flairtending." The word flair became popular among practitioners in the mid-1990s. "Flair" is also used as a verb referring to any trickery used by a bartender in order to entertain guests while mixing a drink. Flair can include juggling, flipping (bottles, shakers), manipulating flaming liquors or even performing close-up magic tricks (also referred to as "bar-magic").

Flair is showmanship added to bartending that enhances the overall guest experience. The ideas behind mixology and drink-oriented or service-minded bartending can still be upheld with the correct application of working flair. Recently, there is a noticeable rise in bartenders combining prominent mixology knowledge and working flair skills all over the world. Working flair and Exhibition flair are very similar on the grounds that they both require precision and practice; however the use of exhibition flair has become a competition oriented style where significantly greater risks are being taken. Working flair, which is much more common, focuses more on delivering drinks to customers while still ensuring visual entertainment.

Most bartenders like the staff of Chilli’s, Greenbelt, actually study a lot of aspects related to alcoholic beverages such as  the maximum alcohol content that a person can tolerate, mixology (art of mixing drinks), and even flairing techniques  before being allowed to handle the bar. Honestly, I was surprised to learn that bartenders study the ratio of the body type of a person to the amount of alcohol they can tolerate and they reserve the right to refuse to serve alcohol to a patron who they think is at their maximum tolerance. I used to think that they would just serve alcohol to anyone who orders but now I know I was wrong. Kudos to the bartenders at Chilli’s for this entertaining and delicious learning experience! With this I end my bar tour for you, the next time you go out for a great experience for great music, friends, and a genuinely service with a smile visit Chilli’s, Greenbelt, you know you’re in good hands!

How to earn and learn to start your own selling business in simple steps 8

1.) Creating an image
• The first step in starting your own selling stint is to visualize your own image. When I say image I am referring to what you want your clients to see you as. What you see yourself as is what your client will perceive of you. Be confident and practice talking, the way you project yourself can spell the success or failure of your potential deal.

2.) Invest in contacts
• In the selling business, making friends is the key. Invest in meeting clients, even if they are unsure of buying from you; show them that you value them. A simple gesture as buying them coffee or simple gifts like food will work wonders. Even if they don’t buy from you they could still refer you if ever they meet people who are interested, which translates into free advertising.

3.) Never be afraid to ask!
• How do we learn? We learn by asking. May it be a client or your supplier asks! Ask your client what it is they are looking for. Ask about their preferences. Hell! Even ask them what they think about you!

4.) Value your client’s opinions
• This is something I learned from one of my best teachers in marketing and has been a great tool in selling, “Opinions are like assholes everyone has them. “ People love sharing their ideas. If they say something bad be optimistic use it as a way to improve your selling point or yourself.

5.) Learn about your product
• How will you sell your product if you don’t even know what it is? Use the internet as your advantage. Research about opinions of others, that’s what reviews are for. Use the advantages that your product offers as your selling points and the disadvantages as a comparison to the competing products.
• If you know your product well enough your client can clear out his doubts about what you are selling, a customer’s enemy is doubt.

6.) Answer “YES and BUT” to any rejection
• I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you are selling a phone and the customer tells you that the other store is selling the same phone at a much cheaper price and is coaxing you to lower your prices. What do you do? Answer in a manner that you acknowledge what he is saying but you have confidence that the product you are selling is better than the other store even though you are selling the same item, the words “YES and BUT” are the key. “YES sir! They are selling at a much cheaper price… BUT are you sure that their product really came from *whatever country*?”
• Filipinos are notorious at haggling, once a seller succumbs to what the customer is saying he has already lost the potential to earn something from the buyer.

7.) Always deliver to an agreement
• Once you have successfully agreed upon a deal never break it. If you agreed that the delivery of the product will be at a certain date and place make sure it comes through! A trait of a great salesman or businessman is never going back on his words. Not only will you able to please your client but also build a great rapport for future transactions. “Trust” is the core of any deal.

8.) Learn to be thankful
• After a deal has been accomplished be mindful to give a simple gesture of appreciation for the business, go beyond the call of duty. You not only show that you are a principled businessman but will also leave a lasting impression on your client further improving your rapport and chances to be referred to other clients.

*These are things I learned from years of selling and from school as a marketing student I do hope it helps you in whatever business venture you want to undertake.* Miguel N. Monzones

My Love Cry

Waking up to you
is like waking up outside
to a sweet smelling dew
Your love shines like gold
It's with you that I want to grow old
Can this be real?
If it's not then what's this I feel?
I give all I could and do all I can
Couldn't I see you had a man?
I know your love for him I can't replace
But for me you keep making space
I want to overcome this love but how can I?
This is my love cry... 

* A poem I made way back in 2005. I found it in an old blog of my Nephew. http://mflorez.blogdrive.com/archive/5.html *

Book Club 2000 a Haven

 A trip to Makati Medical Center for my sister's check-up leads me to a simple adventure that opened my eyes.

Going home I passed by an old house at Balagtas St., Makati, that had books on display. I've actually passed by this house countless times since I was a kid but I have never noticed the sign they had hanging in front of their house.

"A good book is easy to find. FREE READING TO THE PUBLIC."

This instantly piqued my curiosity. I don't know why but the words kept circling my mind. I didn't stop when I saw the sign but the words were like buzzards gawking at me, after three blocks I hit the brakes and circled back to the house. The proprietor was looking at me from afar smiling, it was as if he knew I would come back. I parked my car in front of a "Sari-Sari" store beside them and well enough the proprietor walked to me as I opened my door. He welcomed me with a smile and a hand shake afterwards I asked him if I could browse his books. At that moment he interrupted me and said, it's "the". I was baffled, thinking that my grammar was wrong but then he continued

"These aren't mine, these are everyone's."

Hearing these words made me admire him. You see at first glance I thought that the proprietor was just a "tambay", to be more exact he looks like an uneducated person who just bums around the area but lo and behold when he started talking I felt as if I was speaking to a scholar. He spoke with authority and a diction that would put a Brit to shame. Just goes to show... "Do not judge a book by it's cover", pun intended. haha

As I browsed the collection and picked a few books I asked him how much does the books I picked cost and again his answer surprised me,

"Knowledge is priceless and so are these books."

I asked him again in disbelief. "I am holding ten books and everything is for free? I can take them home?" He just smiled and told me,

"Books are like pets, they do not exist to be locked up. If you lock them up then you are removing their reason for existing. Just think, how much sacrifice it takes to give birth to a living being? The same goes for books, the author sacrifices time and effort  writing them, the trees sacrifice themselves to create the paper, workers sacrifice their sweat and time to produce the papers and ink, a lot of sacrifice has been done to give birth to these books the least I can do is help them achieve the purpose of these books." I thought to myself, "Damn! Aristotle is that you?"

The proprietor's name is Hernando Guanlao. He is the guy in this picture(left) wearing a sando. *I wasn't able to take a picture of him since he was quite shy that he's not dressed properly*

Due to my fascination on this project of his, Reading Club 2000, and trying to find more books I can get (hehe), I spent a few hours browsing "the" collections and chatting with him. The very first thing I asked him when we sat down for a beer (I love this guy! He gave me free books and a beer! New bestfriend! haha) was how he started the project and why. Again smiling at me, like a child who was just given a bag full of candies, he told me the story of how his project started. 

"I started Reading Club 2000, back in year 2000 (hence the 2000 in the name) with just four shelves of books. I went around the houses, schools, and even the local municipality to ask for books that they want to throw away. At first it was hard since I have to go around commuting to collect the books that people are donating but in time people started coming to me dropping off their books. Even people from Paranaque came all the way here to donate their collected books. The truth is, the inspiration to start the project came to me when the onslaught of the computer age started in 2000. I figured since a lot of people are starting to put down books in exchange for the internet might as well collect them than let them rot in storage. I love reading, the nostalgic smell of old books are like ecstasy to me; one whiff sends shivers down my spine. In this day and age where people would rather read from their computers and handhelds I want to provide an avenue for the books to still have a reason to exist. Books exist to be held by people and to be read, they're not created just to be displayed. Right now I have 7 of these book stalls around the country, most of them in rural areas where books are very rare but also the very places that need these the most. My goal is to inspire people to read and help them inspire others to learn how to love reading." - Hernando Guanlao

With this answer my admiration for manong "Nanding" was cemented. We talked about a lot of things, my mind was racing with questions. I was like a preschooler asking the teacher to teach me the alphabet. During my stay about three people came to donate their books one even came all the way from Pampanga just to personally see manong Nanding. During my stay I met a local writer/editor who was a frequent visitor of manong Nanding, Sir Danilo S. Meneses (right). Surprisingly I didn't notice that one of the books I picked out from the collection was his(bottom), when manong Nanding told me I instantly ask Sir Danilo if he could sign my book! It was really an overwhelming feeling to be around great men. As I chatted with them, they shared with me a lot of wisdom. Wisdom not just as a lover of literature but life itself. Before I left Sir Danilo and Mang Nanding each gave me a parting wisdom.

 

Sir Danilo, "Ang libro ay parang Nanay, kapag malungkot ka kaya kang pasayahin, kapag na tatakot ka kaya kang agapayin, kapag na babagot ka kaya kang bigyan ng pagkakaabalahan, tinuturuan ka nito ng kung ano-ano na maari mong magamit sa buhay."

Manong Nanding, "Sa susunod dala ka pulutan kami na sa beer at kwentuhan!" 

Parting wisdom from great men hahaha! I'll definitely comeback!

*If you want to donate your books you can contact me and I'll gladly pick them up or drop them off at Balagtas St. Makati City.* :)