How do bartenders memorize the thousands of different cocktail recipes?

Question

Approximately how many cocktail recipes are there?

Answer 1

the possibilities in the art of Mixology are endless, there are always new things comin up, and we have to keep up with the trends and such.....after makin drinks night after night....u just know them...

Answer 2

How does a chef memorize all of those recipes?

The mind has a near infinite capicity to remember things we do on a regular basis.  Someone new to the trade is going to use a book, card system, or database to help them at first.  But as they get more experienced, they need to reference it less and less.

Answer 3

Not all bartenders can do that. I ordered a mojito a few weeks ago and none of the 3 bartenders behind the bar knew how to make it.

Answer 4

It just takes time, practice and a love for the mix.

Also, there are exactly 39586,857,996 cocktail recipes in the entire history of the world!

Ahem, I am only joking, really I think with the world of cocktail changing rapidly it would be impossible to name them ALL. Everyone changes this and that part of a recipe and sometimes can discover something new, or just fiddle around and make something completely new!

Answer 5

They start with the basics, and have a card index or something along that line (I suppose computers too these days) with files for just about anything you can think of.  Over time you learn them.  There's always some clown who thinks he's Mr. Cool and can order something the bartender can't make.  Not very likely in most bars.  About the only thing I've ever seen is different names for the same drink.  A friend of mine used to tend bar in a place that said if you could stump their bartenders (to include the huge Rolodex filled with drink names and recipes) you drank free.  BUT you had to write down the ingredients of the drink you were ordering and lay it on the bar upside down, so if they came up with it you couldn't make up something else on the spot.  That index was cross-referenced with alternative names for the same drink, by ingredient, pretty much anything you could think of to cross-reference by.   He worked there 5 years and never gave away a drink on the bet.