1.了解你的客户群
别为了自己或者取悦其他调酒师而创造酒单。如果你在大型酒吧工作，周六晚上伏特加配苏打水是最受欢迎的混饮，那么你花了半年研究的配有苦艾酒沫的薰衣草萨泽拉克鸡尾酒肯定不是一个明智的选择。做生意方面，没有比了解你的客户群更重要的事情了。想一想，你的酒吧里有什么类型的客人？他们喝了些什么？他们的喜好会因为今天是星期几而改变吗？

1. Know your audience
Don’t create a menu for yourself or to impress others bartenders. If you work in a high-volume lounge where Vodka & Soda is your most popular mixed drink on a Saturday night, then perhaps that lavender-scented Sazerac with the absinthe foam you’ve been tweaking for the past six months is not the wisest choice. Nothing is more important in business than knowing your audience. Think, what kind of people are visiting your venue? What are they drinking? Do their tastes change depending on what night of the week it is?

2.寻找平衡
试着创造一个全面的酒单。你不可能在同一时间满足每一名客人，但是你能往这个方向努力。问问自己，你的酒单上是否呈现了各个种类的烈酒？当然，如果你的酒吧专注于一种烈酒，那么这个问题不那么重要。但是我总会确保酒单上有一款伏特加鸡尾酒，两款金酒酒饮，两或三款威士忌酒饮，一款干邑的选择，一两款特基拉或者梅斯卡尔鸡尾酒以及一些朗姆酒饮。另外还要添加一些低酒精度的酒和开胃酒。

2. Find a balance
Try to create a menu that has something for everybody. You’re never going to please everyone all of the time – but you can get close. Ask, do you have a good cross section of spirits represented? This, of course, isn’t so important if your establishment specialises in a specific spirit. But I always ensure I have a vodka cocktail, two gin drinks, two to three whisky drinks, a cognac option, one or two tequila or mezcal cocktails and a couple of rum drinks. Then flesh this out with low alcohol and aperitif options.

3. 谨记酒单上要有无酒精或低酒精饮品
近些年来，低酒精饮品广受欢迎，这也是从烈酒时代慢慢转变过来。“仅需搅拌一下的棕色酒饮”曾是通用的鸡尾酒术语。个人而言，我等不及看到这一天的结束。感谢老天，如今人们更偏爱用起泡酒、味美思、雪莉酒、波特酒、玛德拉酒或啤酒制作的鸡尾酒，更不用说那些不计其数的阿玛罗和苦味酒，比如阿贝罗和金巴利。低酒精酒饮容易与食物搭配，并且其中也包含很多优秀的鸡尾酒。当然这些酒饮的利润也相当不错。

3. Make sure to list no-or low-alcohol drinks
Low-alcohol cocktails have become increasingly popular in recent years and it’s a welcome change from the era of strong, spirituous libations. “Stirred and brown” was a catchphrase that became part of common cocktail vernacular and, personally, I couldn’t wait for it to end. Thankfully, today, more people are appreciating cocktails made with sparkling wine, vermouth, sherry, port, madeira and beer, not to mention countless amari and other bitters such as Aperol and Campari. Low-alcohol drinks are great with food and make good session cocktails. The profit margins on them are incredible, too.

Libra at Trick Dog, San Francisco, nominated World’s Best Cocktail Menu, Tales of the Cocktail, 2014./旧金山的Trick Dog被提名为2014鸡尾酒传奇的全球最佳鸡尾酒单。这杯酒名为Libra。

4. “避免太矫情的鸡尾酒”
摩根•西克, 旧金山Trick dog:
“我们避免酒单上出现太装的鸡尾酒——我们努力将一些乐趣注入其中。我们从来不想让酒单看起来太自以为是。有的酒吧喜欢让酒单看起来比较高大上，但这不适合我们。我们避免让酒单看起来很牛逼。我绝对会注意别人在做什么，也尽可能地从别人那里偷师。但我不认为流行什么就学什么会有用。不过我们也对流行口味的变化十分敏感。我们现在的客人比过去喜欢更干、更苦的鸡尾酒，所以我们的鸡尾酒也相应做了变化。我们的职责是为客人提供满意的酒饮，因此对什么口味被认为是美味的需要有个概念。”

4. “Avoid overly precious cocktails”
Morgan Schick, Trick Dog, San Fransisco:
“We try to avoid overly precious cocktails – we try to inject a little bit of fun into it. We never want our menu to take itself too seriously. Some places a little pretension works in the menu. But it’s not right for us. We try to avoid making the menu too highbrow. I definitely pay attention to what other bars are doing and steal as liberally as everyone else. But I don’t think using an ingredient or a flavour or a technique because it’s trendy always works. But we are definitely sensitive to changes in popular palates. Our guests these days like a drier, more bitter drink than they did in the past so our cocktails are going that way. Our job is to give people something that they think is delicious and so being conscious of what is thought of as delicious is important.”

5. 酒单上不要有太多鸡尾酒
琳琅满目的鸡尾酒酒单曾经是主流。位于伦敦的Lab是我最喜欢的酒吧之一，拥有162款酒饮。太多了吗？当然。不过那个时候觉得还行。但是时代在改变，人们口感也在变化，我们从中汲取经验。酒单上该有多少款酒同时还取决于你的酒吧性质，正如The Dead Rabbit的杰克•麦加里解释（请看第7条），长酒单就是他酒吧的特色，对于他而言，65款酒饮完全合适宜上手。Bacchanal（我在曼哈顿新开张的餐厅）的酒单上有22款酒饮，以纽约餐厅的标准而言这颇为雄心勃勃。

5. Don’t list too many cocktails
Enormous cocktail menus used to be the norm. One of my favourite bars of all time – Lab, in London – boasted 162 drinks. Is that too many? Of course. But at the time it felt right. But things evolve, tastes change, we learn. How many drinks you have on your menu can also be determined by the kind of venue you are. As The Dead Rabbit’s Jack McGarry explains (see number seven), a big menu is part of his bar’s identity and, for him, 65 drinks is appropriate and manageable. At Bacchanal, a new restaurant I’ve just opened in Manhattan, we have 22 drinks on our list, which by New York restaurant standards is considered quite ambitious.

6. “特色制作不能过度”
乔瓦金•西姆，纽约 Pouring Ribbons:
“首先，我们斟酌现在的酒单，并决定哪些酒该去该留。我们会考虑季节性和酒饮受欢迎程度。一旦我们决定哪些酒该被去除，我们就开始填上新的酒饮，所以是添加摇壶制作的清爽金酒呢？还是搅拌而成酒迷们热爱的威士忌？还是试着根据情况设计新酒饮？我们同时要考虑到基酒种类的平衡，呈现风和酒杯选择，冰块选择，色彩和装饰的控制。我们不想要许多酒饮都加碎冰用皮尔森啤酒杯呈现，也不想太多搅拌而成的酒饮。如果酒单上有七款酒饮都需要橙皮装饰，那么总需要在一些酒饮中使用橙汁，不然就会浪费很多柑橘。而且因为储藏室很小，所以在特色制作或者需要花费大量时间制作的糖浆方面，我们一定要注意。限量的储藏导致每天能够购入的新产品不能超过现有的数量。最重要的是：保持酒饮水准，不管谁在吧台后面或者星期几，什么时候。这十分重要。你的酒饮不论在周二下午6点钟由张三制作，还是周五半夜里由李四制作，口味都应该是一致的。”

6. “Don’t over do it on speciality produce”
Joaquin Sim, Pouring Ribbons, New York:
“Firstly, we look at the current menu and decide what’s staying and going. We take into consideration changing seasonality and a drink’s popularity. Once we’ve determined what is off the menu, we start to look at what holes need to be filled – so, shaken-gin- refreshing, or stirred-whisky-boozy – and try to devise new recipes accordingly. We also take into consideration a balanced array of base spirits, serving styles, glassware selection, ice needs, colours and garnishes. We don’t want too many drinks in pilsner glasses with crushed ice or too many stirred drinks. If we have seven drinks that call for an orange peel garnish then there better be a couple drinks that have orange juice in them otherwise we’re wasting a lot of citrus. Because we have so little back of house space, we also have to be careful to not overdo it on specialty produce or labour-intensive syrups. Our limited amount of storage dictates how many new products we can take in without shedding existing ones. Most important: make sure you can deliver. Consistency in execution by the staff, no matter who is behind the bar, or what day or time it is, is vital. Your drinks should be identical from staffer x on a Tuesday at 6pm as from staffer y at midnight on a Friday.”

7. “酒单要成功，员工一定要对其理念表示认同”
杰克• 麦格理，纽约The Dead Rabbit：
千万别为了好看而做一份长长的酒单。你做的每件事需要有理由。我们这里有长酒单，因为这是我们的酒吧特色。当然这有利有弊：好处就是这是不错的宣传手法，并且容易成为和客人交流的话题，很多客人来这里并且将所有酒饮问个遍。弊端在于：对于客人而言，选择太多。所以我们的员工需要聪明地帮助客人选择一款酒饮，这至关重要。一定要记住在酒单上插入一小块为那些想要快速点单的提示。另外一个挑战是出于调酒师考虑，就是他们很难记住所有酒饮。但是我们试着克服这个困难：最近，我们在每个吧台后装了iPad，里面有所有酒饮的配方。在创造新酒单方面，我们挺民主。我们的调酒师都来自不同的背景。每个人在创造酒饮方面都有自己的特色，我非常喜欢这样。酒单需要反映出不同的风格以及每个调酒师的个性。”

7. “No menu succeeds without the staff believing in its vision”
Jack McGarry, The Dead Rabbit, New York:
“Don’t have a big menu for the sake of it. There has to be a reason for everything you do. Our menus are large and that’s part of our DNA as a venue. There are pros and cons: on the plus side, it’s great PR, and it also makes a good talking point for our clientele: many guests come and work through the entirety of the menu. Cons: it’s a lot for the customer to take on board, which is why it’s absolutely essential our staff are well versed to help each guest select a drink: the success of every menu depends on the staff. Always be sure to have a small insert in each menu for anyone who wants to order quickly. Another challenge, from a bartender’s perspective, is that it’s very difficult to remember all the drinks. But we’ve tried to overcome that: recently, we installed iPads with all our recipes at each bar station. Our approach to creating new menus is democratic. We have a bartender unit that comes from very different backgrounds. Every bartender has their own style of creating drinks and that’s what I love. The menu should reflect different approaches, unique strains and each bartender’s personality.”

8. 思考如何以最好的方式描述每款鸡尾酒
你的员工如何描述一款鸡尾酒将对这款鸡尾酒的销售表现起决定性作用。而这只能在培训中去解决这个问题，告诉他们如何描述一款酒饮的口感特色、质感、基酒以及调味配料。酒单上的书面描述同样重要：有的酒吧，比如芝加哥的The Aviary走的是极简风格，只用最少的词汇描述每款酒（这意味着服务员需要更加能说会道）。而现在悉尼炙手可热的酒吧Bayswater Brasserie，我们采用更诗意的风格。一杯Bramble可能会用这样浪漫的方式描述：“大量倒入必富达金酒，淋在碎冰上，新鲜压榨的柠檬以及轻柔地加糖，顶上戴着黑莓利口酒和细碎的小豆蔻”。

8. Work out how best to describe each cocktail
The way in which cocktails are articulated by your staff will determine what sells and what doesn’t. Again, this can be covered in training to ensure they know how to describe each drink’s flavour profile, texture, base spirit or modifiers. The wording on the menu is also key: some bars, such as The Aviary in Chicago, go for the minimalist approach, only using a few words for each drink (which means the floor staff need to be even more versed in how to describe each one). At the now shuttered Bayswater Brasserie in Sydney, we went for a much more poetic approach, where a drink such as a classic Bramble might be romanticised as such: “A hefty pour of Beefeater gin, poured over lashings of crushed ice with freshly pressed lemon and a whisper of sugar, crowned with wild blackberry liqueur and finished with finely grated nutmeg”.

9. “忠实于真实的自己”
贾斯•斯科特，爱丁堡Bramble bar：
“我们每一个季度更新一次酒单，这是对季节性的配料价格变动作出相应调整，同时也可以创造机会让新产品一旦上市就可以让消费者接触到。不同鸡尾酒带来的盈利不同。我们的目标是百分之七十的毛利。有的鸡尾酒低于这个目标值，有的超出。但我们永远不会引导顾客点毛利高的鸡尾酒。我们确保他们得到想要的鸡尾酒——简单如此。”

9. “Not every cocktail generates the same revenue”
Jas Scott, Bramble bar, Edinburgh:
“We change our menu quarterly to adjust to the cost of seasonal ingredients and give ourselves the opportunity to list new products as soon as they hit the market. Not every cocktail generates the same revenue. We aim for 70 per cent GP. Some fall under that, some over, but we never try to push customers towards higher GP cocktails. We make sure they get what they want – simple.”

10. “顶级酒单引导潮流，而非跟随”
兹旦尼克•卡斯塔内科，新加坡香港街28号：
成功酒单的关键因素就是真正了解酒吧定位、目标和顾客。简而言之，我们有八种基酒种类以及两种基本酒饮：餐前酒饮和餐后酒饮。我个人属于欧洲的老派调酒风格，所以不管何时，只要编写酒单我都会确保含有这两大种类。也不是说每款酒中都需要有“开胃酒”或者“消化酒”。你需要用自己的风格，让酒单变得创新有趣，直白新颖，同时对于大部分客人而言还简单易懂。我推崇简单至上。超过25款酒饮的酒单对于客人来说太容易迷糊，而且这还会耽误速度和持续性。客人们总希望能尽快喝上自己最爱的酒饮，并且每次尝起来味道一样。当年在布拉格的时候，我和帕维尔•司马为Black Angels酒吧创作酒单，酒单上涵括了24款酒饮。人们觉得我们两个疯了一样。那个年代，这个城市里其他的酒吧都有超过100款的酒饮。但是我们坚持了自己的想法。现在再去看看布拉格的酒吧吧！我非常欣赏大卫•安伯里六款基本鸡尾酒的理念。也许六款酒饮无法创造一款世界级酒单，但是，你知道其中的涵义在于：构思全面又简约的酒单会是长久的潮流。不要盲目的跟随潮流。顶级的酒单需要引导潮流，而非跟随潮流。对于每种潮流，我们尝试并评价，并考虑它是否适合我们酒吧。不过，正如我所说的，重点还是在于了解自己酒吧的特色，并且坚持你的原则。也许有些酒饮技巧很酷，但是它并不一定适合你的酒吧。”

10. “Top class menus should lead, not follow”
Zdenek Kastanek, 28 Hong St, Singapore:
“The key to a successful menu is truly understanding the identity and goals of your venue and your guests. At its simplest, we have eight basic spirit categories and two fundamental types of drink: pre-dinner and after-dinner. I’m from the old, European school of bartending so whenever I write a menu I always try to cover those two bases. I don’t mean every drink needs to scream ‘Aperitif!’ or ‘Digestif!’ Give it your own style; make it interesting; innovative but transparent, adventurous but humble and clear to the average guest. I’m all about simplicity. Anything over 25 drinks becomes confusing for the guest and you begin to compromise speed and consistency. Guests always want their favourite drink to taste the same and be with them as fast as possible. When I was writing the menu at Black Angels in Prague with Pavel Šima we had 24 drinks on the menu. People thought we were crazy. At the time, other bars in city had 100-plus drinks. But that was our idea and we stuck with it. Now go and look at bars in Prague today. I’ve always been a fan of David A. Embury’s idea of six basic cocktails. Six drinks probably won’t make a world-class menu but, you get the point, simple, well thought-out menus go a long way. Don’t follow trends slavishly. A top-class menu should lead, not follow. With each trend, we examine the practise, evaluate it, and decide if it has a place in our bar. Again, the key is to have a true understanding of your venue’s DNA and the discipline to stick to it. Just because some drink technique is cool, doesn’t mean it’s right for your bar.”

11. 为所有的酒饮拍照
是的，所有。在这数码时代，有这样的杂志，也有不断增长的在线博客和社交媒体，如果你要在激烈竞争中保持不落后，你必须花钱请专业摄影师。如果你能在酒吧中提供世界级的酒饮，那么总会有人想把这一消息分享给别人。如果这时你已经准备好了照片，这不仅让你本身看起来很专业，也会让媒体感到你十分配合而回来找你。

11. Photograph all your drinks
Yes, all of them. In this digital age, with magazines such as this one, as well as the increasing number of online blogs and other media outlets, you simply must spend money on a professional photographer if you want to stay ahead of the competition. If you put out world-class drinks across your bar, then there is always someone, somewhere that is going to want to tell other people about it. If you have top quality photos ready at the click of a button, then not only will you look professional, but these publications will come back to you again as a result.

Blind Pig, London, nominated for Best New International Cocktail Bar, Tales of the Cocktail, 2014./伦敦Blind Pig被提名为2014鸡尾酒传奇最佳新国际鸡尾酒吧。

12. “为每款酒找到一个兴趣点”
加里斯•伊文思，伦敦Blind Pig：
“好的酒单应该紧凑、容易理解，且看起来有趣。我们将鸡尾酒的配方与鸡尾酒一并列在酒单上，最后为这款酒找到一个兴趣点——不论是与杯子还是与呈现有关的，这会引发客人感到好奇。所以Rye n’ Air这款酒就是‘关税已付’，Cuba Pudding Jnr这款酒就是‘酸奶粉’。”

12. “Give each drink a point of interest”
Gareth Evans, Blind Pig, London:
“A good menu should be short, accessible, easy to understand and fun to look at. We list our drinks with the ingredients and then add a point of interest at the end – something referring to the glass, or serve, something that makes people ask questions. So, for Rye n’ Air, it’s ‘Duty Paid’, for Cuba Pudding Jnr, it’s “Yogurt Powder’.”

13. 不要低估公关的重要性
酒单完成以后，用社交媒体来推广：脸书、推特、Instagram、微博、微信。这些社交媒体平台的推广作用可不能小看。尝试每天推广一款不同的鸡尾酒。如果你在做促销活动、开心时间、推广新品或者新酒单，这些社交媒体就会是带动业务发展非常有效的工具。

13. Don’t underestimate the power of PR
When your menu is finished, use social media to promote it: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Weibo, WeChat – the power of these social media platforms to sell drinks can’t be understated. Try to promote a different drink every day. And, if you’re running any drinks specials, happy hours, promotions or launching a new menu, then these can be very effective tools to drive business to your venue.

奈伦·扬是居住于纽约的调酒师及记者，他曾为全世界范围内多家酒吧创造鸡尾酒酒单。如今他在曼哈顿Bacchanal吧台后工作，如今他也许正在细品一杯内格罗尼呢。Naren Young is a New York-based bartender and journalist who has created cocktail menus for dozens of bars around the world. You’ll now find him behind the bar at Bacchanal, New York, probably sipping on a Negroni.

Bartender interviews: Alexander Barlow