Imbibism Bartender’s Dictionary

By Ryan Musch

It's a busy Friday night and you're in the weeds. Drinks are dying in the window and a Mikana VSOP is on you like phylloxera. The point is sloppy, nothing is mise en place and you just realized you clopen. All you want is a quick staff meeting and reset to zero. You see a soul stealer walk in but its ok because they will camp out at a table and not the bar. All is good because you read this Bar Dictionary and understand...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ryan Musch
• Release date: Mar 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215170571

Book preview

THIS SHORT BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY KIDS WHO ALWAYS SAY THEY’LL GET AROUND TO READING DAD’S BOOKS. I’M GUESSING A BAR DICTIONARY WILL BE THE LAST ONE THEY READ AND I’LL BE DEAD BY THEN. SO IF YOU’RE MY KID, READING THIS NOW, AND I’M DEAD. HAHA, I WAS RIGHT…

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BARTENDING is just like any other trade; we have our own language, slang, and history. This piece of literary work may not win a Pulitzer. It may not be what the world wanted, but by golly, I think its what the world needed. Why should psychology, engineering, literature, and the likes get their own trade dictionary and bartending not? Not, no longer, I say. It was time for bartending to have THE REAL MCCOY [a phrase in this book because it has everything to do with alcohol].

I planned on doing this for years. Unfortunately there was always something more important to do for all those years. Perhaps I should check to see if someone else did this in the meantime? Dang, I hope not, I’m 80% into it at the timing of writing this preface. Regardless, every TV mom says finish what you start. The importance in any trade lies always in learning. Evolve or die. It’s a win/win. I guarantee you’ll learn something in this dictionary and with your purchase, I’ll be able to get a cup of coffee. We both come out ahead.

This book is special to me because it rounds out my three planned IMBIBISM pieces. The IMBIBISM Bartender’s guide, the cocktail book, and this. My illustrated children’s book HOW TO MAKE WHISKEY [FOR KIDS] doesn’t count. That book, however, COMPLETELY justified purchasing the Apple Pencil.

So why should you purchase a bar dictionary when you can just google everything? Shit, I don’t know. I love google. For starters, it’s cool to have a bar dictionary in your digital or real life bookshelf. It makes you feel and look smarter. Whipping out a book for a customer and/or friend is much more sophisticated than staring down the barrel of a phone. Bonus points are awarded if you have a pipe in your mouth; even a bubble pipe. Second, sometimes you don’t really know what to look up. So just read the damn thing from A to Z [at the time of this writing, I don’t currently have any  Z’sand I’m a little worried I’m going to have to stretch some jargon a bit.

This is definitely the book I wish I had when I began bartending. There would have been a lot less headaches trying to figure out terms and shop talk. Is this book the bible of bartending terminology? That would be cool but I am only one man; and a bartender to boot. If you want to see this grow, shoot me an email at [e-mail] with your submission of terms or thoughts. Feel free to correct me too if you think something’s not quite right. I’m not that proud of a person. I fuck up daily; being human, you know?

Some of the terms in here will be super sized science, some will be bar slang, there will be historical facts, and there will be everyday terms. The biggest thing with this book [and bartending in general] is to simply have fun with it. The only thing that’s worse than a bartender who doesn’t try is a bartender who takes themselves too seriously. If you are a self described COCKTAILIAN; look in the mirror, smile, and tell yourself to lighten up.

Heads up; I’m American. There is an E in my whiskey. I mean no disrespect to my friends in Canada, Japan, Scotland, and other parts of the world who do without that silly letter. I just put the E in there for uniformity. There isn’t anything technically different about the spirit because of the letter added or subtracted. Ye, Yeezy, Yeezus, and Louis Vuitton Don are all Kanye West. Whisky and Whiskey are Whisk[e]y.

Additionally, as a bartender, this is going to be cocktail forward. There will be wine and [gasp] beer terms and information in here but for the most part, the focus is on cocktails. Some definitions will have key words that are capped and [If you are reading this in color, in magenta. Magenta is actually a pretty cool color. The terms are in orange because orange is an awesome color. When you see a magenta word that just means there’s a definition for that within the pages as well.

I hope you have fun reading this and learn a lot…

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The author of this book was tired of looking up terms and phrases. Too often he would think what the hell does that mean? This led to a lot of research. That’s ok though because he likes to learn. After 12 years of bartending, managing, developing, writing, and drinking; Ryan has finally decided to put all his notes and learnings of those years into a dictionary so other bartenders didn’t have to do this [it was quite tedious]

Despite winning awards and being told he’s a really good bartender, Ryan has much to learn. We all do. Once you think you know