It’s an age-old bartending question and one that has no right answer, merely opinions, so which side of the fence do you sit on the “taste your cocktails before you serve them” debate?
Acceptable:
One side of the argument states that chefs would always taste their food so why shouldn’t we? My counter to this argument is that chefs only ever taste components of the dish rather than the completed dish, so bartenders should ensure that their syrups have the right sweetness level, that their juices are fresh and that their vermouth hasn’t oxidized, though this can and should be done at the start of the shift.
When tasting with a straw there are only 2 arguments as I see it. If you are making a large round of drinks simultaneously (ie so that they are all completed and served to the guest at the same time) and want to ensure that an important ingredient hasn’t been over looked in one cocktail – say the lime in a margarita – you should taste the drink in question as it sits in the shaker.
If you are making a drink that requires a specific balance of sugar vs sweet (let’s say a Daiquiri) you may want to taste the drink to ensure perfection, especially if you are using a different rum to the one you are used to (ie with a higher brix)
A bartender that makes the same drink more than once in a night should not need to taste each one as it goes out.
Unacceptable:
There are many professionals out there that believe tasting drinks through a straw is unprofessional. Their’ arguments hold water too.
If you consider how flavour works, with aroma being its most important component, tasting though a straw is just that, tasting; this covers the ‘tastes that you experience in your mouth (sour, sweet, bitter, salt and umami) but not the aromas that are hugely important to the depth of flavour of your drink as the straw renders the olfactory system partly redundant (there is a degree of retro nasal aroma experienced through the cavity in the roof of your mouth)
There is an argument that the Japanese technique of using a barspoon to drop some of the liquid onto the back of the hand for tasting is the more effective way of checking the integrity of the cocktail.
If you are working to a specification and are either free pouring accurately or using a jigger, there should be no need at all to taste a drink as the specs have been devised for exactly this reason!
If you are one of these bartenders who uses a straw to taste each drink, let me give you one piece of advice; there is a good chance that the person for whom you are making the cocktail will be watching you, so please do ensure that the face you make after you have tasted the cocktail is one that affords the drinker a level of confidence that the drink tastes good!
