Not every drink you mix is as straight forward as a lager top. Bartending injuries are common when making complex cocktails and drinks. From dangerous flames to poisonous dry ice, take care with these drinks to avoid any more bartender problems than you already face and stay clear of any injuries at work.
Name: B-52
What Is It?
A classic show stopper cocktail that can be created in any bar. A shot glass is 1:3 filled with Kahlua, Irish cream and Triple Sec then set alight.
Why It's A Risk: It gets set on fire and then drunk through a straw.
Being named after a heavy bomber infamously used to drop napalm throughout the Vietnam War should give you a clue about how dangerous this little drink is. Hopefully you and your customers will enjoy the smell of singed eyebrows in the morning...
Potential Injury: Setting your hair or eyebrows alight, or burning your fingers when tidying the glasses away after drinking.
If you're a fan of dramatic drink making and fancy yourself as a budding Tom Cruise in Cocktail or a drinks based Salt Bae, you'll like this next risk-fest...
Name: Goblet Of Fire
What Is It?
This is a real show stopper - but comes with a risk. A goblet glass containing blue curacao, vodka and lemonade is topped up with Bacardi 151 rum and set alight. Cinnamon is then added to cause a chemical reaction.
Why It's A Risk: Cinnamon is sprinkled onto a flaming goblet to create sparks.
Less Harry Potter - more a potential healthy and safety lawsuit. Take care if making one of these as you or your customers could easily end up in a serious mess when the flames start firing.
Potential Injury: Burns. Proper burns. And setting fire to nearby objects.
Name: Pineapple Daiquiri
What Is It?
The widely popular daiquiri but using pineapple as the base juice, rather than the easier to manage strawberry (which is also popular).
Why It's A Risk: Pineapples are tough to deal with.
Using tinned or pre-packed pineapple isn't going to add proper flavour and will be tasteless when it meets the rum. That means you need to learn how to deal with chopping up a fresh pineapple. Make sure your knife is sharp, your work surface is level and clear, and, please, take your time.
Potential Injury: Chopping up your finger instead of the pineapple.
Name: Fresh Watermelon Margarita
What Is It?
Summer in a glass. Cool and refreshing. A classic tequila-based cocktail which uses freshly chopped watermelon in a blender.
Why It's A Risk: Cutting a watermelon is a potential hazard.
The watermelon. They're cumbersome and quite big - especially behind a bar, when people are watching and the queue of customers is getting bigger. Make sue you take your time or chop up the chunks when there's a lull in custom and just complete the blending process on demand.
Potential Injury: Knife mishaps.
Name: Mint Muse
What Is It?
A refreshing long drink packed with fresh mint leaves, lemonade, finely chopped fruit. Oh, and some absinthe. Make sure you do any chopping BEFORE sampling one of these.
Why It's A Risk: Some fiddly fruit chopping.
The lime needs to be peeled after juicing and the slimy rind needs to be finely chopped. One; you might nip your finger tips with the knife. Two; fresh lime juice in a cut is a real stinger.
Potential Injury: Little lime filled knife cuts.
Name: Flaming Lamborghini
What Is It?
A lot of booze and a lot of flames. Single shots of sambuca and Kahlua are set alight in a cocktail glass whilst the customer drinks through a straw. When the glass is near empty, the bartender adds Bailey's and blue curacao whilst the customer carries on drinking.
Why It's A Risk: Close customer-to-flame relationship.
We advise making sure your customer knows the risks of this drink, even though they are part of the thrill of this cocktail. Also, make sure you use the longest straw that a customer can drink from whilst keeping their face away from the flaming glass.
Potential Injury: Your customer losing their eyebrows.
But, without doubt, the riskiest drink for a bartender to make involves using dry ice. It might be the biggest drinks craze in the past decade, but there's a dark side to those trendy smoking drinks...
Name: Nitrogen Martini (Or Anything Using Dry Ice)
What Is It?
The classic Martini cocktail intensified through the use of liquid nitrogen to cool the cocktail shaker, super-freeze the lime and garnish the finished drink for dramatic effect.
Why It's A Risk: Liquid Nitrogen is poisonous.
Smoking cocktails and dry ice effects have become massively popular in the past few years. But very few people appreciate the need to fully wait for the dry ice to fully disappear before drinking. Bartenders who use the substance risk freezing their hands to the point of amputation. Also, a bartender being a bit generous on the liquid nitrogen or a drinker being too keen can have disastrous effects. One reveller had to have her stomach removed.
Potential Injury: Honestly? Amputation, stomach removal, death...
Other Bartender Problems
Slipping with the knife when chopping a pineapple is one thing. But the chances are you're more likely to slip on the hard floor behind the bar during a busy shift. Make sure you have the most appropriate footwear, which is both stylish and slip-resistant.
At Shoes For Crews (Europe) Ltd., our slip-resistant bartender shoes provide the support you need when you're on your feet and effective slip-resistant grip against slippery floors.
Preparing for a job interview? Here's the 10 most common bartender interview questions
To increase your chances of getting the job you need to prepare for the interview. We've created a list of the most common interview questions for bartender jobs.