Mnemonic Bartending using the Container Object Method

As bartenders we have recipes with multiple groups of two or more ingredients, each group with a different amount (group 1 of 3 ingredients 15 ml each, group 2 of 4 ingredients 7½ ml each, group 3 of 2 ingredients 30ml each – PLUS glassware type, type of ice, garnish(es), rim – Salt? Tajin? Sugar? Etc., method, muddled items, dumped, strained, or double strained? Etc).

My method works quite well. No complaints. But it IS a multi step process, so bear with me please.

To start with, I arrange each new batch of cocktails to be memorized into alphabetical order. I alphabetize them so I can fill in the blank spots more easily in case I draw a blank trying to recall what’s at a station between a Daiquiri and a Diablo… I know it starts with a D, and that the next letter is a vowel – an a, e, or i.

Then I attach each drink name to a memory station in a memory palace, and keep a journal with all the stations and drink names written by each station.

That helps extremely well for memorizing a hundred or so drinks at a time.

The first step is focusing on memorizing their names and anchoring them firmly to stations in the memory palace. If I’m given a small new group of several drinks I then see if I can create an acronym out of the alphabetized list. I then can either insert the drinks in between the stations in the big list of hundreds of drinks already memorized, OR just tack them onto new stations at the end of the big list. Either way though, an acronym for small lists helps running through the drinks names mentally without referring to index cards or paper.

So NOW organize your recipes by rewriting each one yourself on your index cards.

Go from highest quantity to lowest (or the other way around) all 30ml ingredients grouped, then all 15ml ingredients, then 5ml, etc. Do this because even if everything else fails you momentarily you know the top ingredient is the most, and the bottom is the least. That will help you. ALSO add the memory palace station location to the corner of the index card, to help you strengthen that association while you’re at it.

NOW we move in to HOW to memorize specific quantities with absolute precision and certainty.

Container Objects.

Create memorable container or platform objects each with an assigned value (7½ml, 15ml, 22½ml, 30 etc) which you can populate with your individual small groupings of ingredients of the same liquid amount.

I discovered that a basic PAO (person, action, object) principle works well for developing the container objects. Let me explain by illustrating one container object and how it works.

First take something that is a container or a platform (or both) – I’ll use mine for this. One Ounce (30ml) is the T, D, or TH sound to equal 1, (30ml) so I use a Ford Model-T. It is a container object, or platform with things on it or in it, (or even in the rumble seat/dickie seat/mother-in-law seat).

Now any ingredients I put into the Model-T are 1 ounce. I can also uses a Tea (cup) as my container, and often do. But the Model-T is cool because it’s an ACTION object, and it also has a bit of personality (Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang, and My Mother the Car – Old movie and television series references). That’s where the borrowing from the PAO comes in. I discovered that people and actions were very helpful when memorizing before I’d ever heard of PAO, btw.

Now you have a container object representing 30ml (1 oz), but for the most universal ingredients (juices and syrups) I use animated characters to represent them. Here’s my list (you do your own if you need to)

Lemon Juice = Sponge Bob Square Pants (he’s yellow)
Lime Juice = The Incredible Hulk (green)
Simple Syrup = Gorilla, Monkey… I’d post a picture of why, but it works for me.
Cranberry Juice = Ralph Cramden (Jackie Gleason) from “The Honeymooners”
Amaretto = Hell Boy (“Call me Red”) “I’m a Red-O”
Agave Syrup = Mr. Magoo – an old black and white television cartoon character from the United States (the native word for Agave is Magua)
Egg White = Humpty Dumpty
…and whatever else I need – I have a whole bunch, but you’ll create your own as you need, and you should – because THIS WORKS and yes it’s work – but it is fabulous.

I can say it’s fabulous because I’ve been bartending since 1980 and have been using mnemonics since 1973-4… and ALWAYS had problems with exact quantities in drink recipes. – PS I worked as a bartending school instructor too for a few years while recovering from surgery when I couldn’t bartend for a while and the INSTRUCTORS I was working with often forgot the quantities of each ingredient themselves (!!!) and had to look them up again – and they were currently working bartenders in Tampa area clubs and bars when they weren’t teaching in the school – so WOW! …and the school taught acrostics for many of their drinks, but nothing more advanced than that because the students relied on rote.

MY ADVICE:

Create Container Objects for each quantity.
Some of Mine are:

1/4 oz (7.5 ml)
Quarter Horse, Horse Shoe, Wall Sconce (1/4 of a sphere), Amphitheater (1/4 off a sphere)
1/2 oz (15 ml)
Canoe, Viking Long Ship
3/4 oz (22 1/2 ml)
Tree (tree quarters), Baby Carriage
1 oz – Model-T, (big) Tea Cup,
1 1/4 oz (37.5 ml) – German / Tiroler hat
1 1/2 oz (45 ml) – Cereal Box
2 oz (60 ml) – Noah (major system Noah)
2 1/2 oz (75 ml) – a Noodle. 

From there, once you’re done that, start being creative and sketching out scenes with your containers and the actors in each recipe. The NAME is anchored in your memory palace – but the RECIPE is anchored in your narrative attached to that name.

Then start rehearsing every day, going over the associations in your mind half an hour before you fall off to sleep and half an hour before you get out of bed.

Pull a few Pomodoro sessions every day for 25 minutes. One in the morning, one on lunch, and another when you’re traveling home.

Do them on the grocery line, and flip your cards in your spare time. You’ll get to be incredible with your vast memory for as many hundreds of drinks as you need quickly and with perfect recall.

Don’t just use one method – use and become familiar with every method so that nothing can stop you.

PS – I also use AI now to quickly render mnemonic imagery (which is complicated because I have to give it several instructions and then modify it in layers as AI is still in the dream stage of the id and hasn’t woken up into true consciousness yet – if it ever will)

BUT THAT’s a story for another day.