Bar Lingo 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Ordering Drinks Like a Pro
Ever been out at a bar or restaurant and felt lost in a sea of confusing drink terms? Same. Drink menus can be overwhelming, but fear not! We've put together a list of common bar terms to help you navigate your next night out.
Dirty: To make a drink "dirty," the bartender adds ingredients to change its color or flavor. For example, a dirty mojito might include gold rum instead of white rum or olive juice for a salty dirty martini.
Sours: These are drinks made by mixing a spirit with lemon or lime juice and a sweetener. (Yum 😋)
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Liquor: This is a strong alcoholic drink, such as vodka, gin, rum, whiskey, or brandy.
On the Rocks: This is a drink served with ice, which helps keep it cold and slightly diluted.
Neat: If you order a drink "neat," you'll get just the alcohol poured into a glass, without any other ingredients or ice. Whiskey is a common spirit to drink neat.
Virgin: This is a nonalcoholic drink that doesn't contain any alcohol.
Bitters: These are plant-based liquids mixed with alcohol and water, used in small amounts to add concentrated flavors to cocktails.
Liqueur: This is a sweetened alcoholic drink made from spirits and other flavorings, such as sugar, fruits, herbs, and spices. Liqueurs, such as Campari, Baileys Irish Cream, and Amaretto, have a lower alcohol content compared to liquor.
Shaken vs. Stirred: These are mixing methods. Shaking a drink changes its texture and gives it a frothy look, while stirring just chills and dilutes the drink. Mixed drinks are usually shaken, while cocktails containing spirits are stirred.
Shot: It’s a unit measurement for alcohol — a small serving of spirits typically consumed quickly, and often in a single gulp. A shot is equal to 1.5 fluid ounces, which can be doubled or tripled.
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On the Rocks: This is a drink served with ice. It involves pouring liquor over ice, to keep the drink cold and slightly diluted over time.
Neat: This means alcohol poured into a glass with no other ingredients added, not even ice. Whiskey is a common spirit to drink neat.
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Cocktail: A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink with two or more ingredients, including alcohol. The other ingredients could be tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream.
Straight Up: A drink that is served "straight up" is a liquor that has been stirred or shaken with ice, then strained and served without the ice. Classic cocktails like martinis, Manhattans, and Sidecars are often served straight up.
Dry: A "dry" drink has little or no sugar content, making it more potent and less sweet.
Chaser: A chaser, also known as a "back," is a mild drink that's consumed separately but directly after a liquor. A shot of whiskey, tequila, or vodka is often followed by a chaser or a water back.
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Now you have all the info you need to order your next drink like person wey sabi 🍸
Torinmo Salau is a writer/journalist based in Lagos. Her work has been published in Quartz, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, The Guardian and elsewhere.