Danielle Fague on BarSmarts

 LUPEC Seattle member Danielle Fague is participating in the BarSmarts program. I asked her if she would send me a short write up about it for our blog and she was nice enough to do just that. Read on!

                                                                             

Bar Smarts part 1

A couple months ago I was at one of the bars I love to frequent Liberty.  Andrew Friedman the owner and a buddy of mine was there and had these cards for an event called Bar Smarts.  Looked pretty cool.  A class dedicated to the art of bartending and classic cocktails.  Sounded like fun but I figured this is an event folks in the industry, not for me. 

Andrew said no way that I should totally sign up so I did.  I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Bar Smarts kit last month and one day when the UPS man buzzed my unit I knew that’s what it was.  When I got home that night I was like a little kid on Christmas.  I couldn’t wait to open it up and see what was inside.  It had lots of great stuff:  A whole basic bar kit including a muddler, a nice backpack and our training DVDs and book. 

I went and found a highlighter and started reading!  Unfortunately it was around 1:30 and probably past my bed time so low and behold after a few pages of reading and highlighting I fell asleep with my highlighter in hand and glasses still on.  Woke up to a beautiful yellow spot on my duvet cover L

Since then I’ve been reading my workbook and making note cards for the classic cocktails we need to know.  Seeing as how I know very little about bartending and classic drinks I have some catching up to do.  Part of the Bar Smarts final test is making some of these drinks for the Bar Smart Folks!

Last weekend I completed 2 of the 4 sections and took and passed my quizzes.  Everything I’m learning is really neat.  Like the advantages of using a continuous still as opposed to a pot still.  Or that Mezcal is much smokier than Tequila because the Agave (which is not the same type used in Tequila) is baked in pits in the ground often times for several weeks giving it its very smoky flavor.  I’ve learned that Rhum (the French way of spelling it) is made with cane sugar while Rum is made from molasses and that Calvados has both apples and pear in it. 

So far I’ve enjoyed all the learning I’ve done and am excited to finish the final two modules and practice making some drinks!

                                                                           - Danielle

Thanks Danielle for sharing your experience with us and good luck on your exam later this month! Who else is taking the BarSmarts exam?

Find out more about BarSmarts here