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Best Measured Shot Pourer?
Yall
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm looking for some accurate measured shot pouters. I'm a member of a private social club that insists on using measured pourers. I was a bartender for 5 years and prefer free pour, and recently demonstrated how the cheap measured pourers they use are shorting people with regularity.
Free pouring is not an option, and neither is an expensive computer system. So what I'd like to know; Do any of you have any experience using measured pourers, and if so do you know of any that pour a consistence ounce? If I get a chance I'll see if I can determine which brand we're currently using for comparison.
Thanks!
Free pouring is not an option, and neither is an expensive computer system. So what I'd like to know; Do any of you have any experience using measured pourers, and if so do you know of any that pour a consistence ounce? If I get a chance I'll see if I can determine which brand we're currently using for comparison.
Thanks!
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http://www.cocktailkingdom.com/category-s/44.htm
Grab the 1oz/2oz and the 1/2oz / 3/4oz varieties. They have lines on the inside of them as well for 1.5oz and various other measures.
Oh Christ. No idea. The only places that use those are bowling alleys and places that get violations from the liquor commission. From what I've seen, they most all look like plastic junk and you're going to get quite a bit of variation from one brand to another and even amongst the same brand. Plus, they tend to get sticky and nasty.
If you can, try and talk them into using jiggers. Cheaper and you don't have to constantly replace them like you do those cheap things.
I'd respectfully disagree to a point about free pouring. Trained well you can be pretty accurate, but I get your point, especially when it comes to higher end liquor and fancy cocktails. We're talking old men drinking Svedka. I will bring up the jiggers though, because the cheap plastic shit you described is exactly the problem. Thanks!
A jigger is the best option short of a regulated spillstop.
Quality ones are made partially from metal (you're talking about those spigots they put on the end of bottles?) as well. A good place will also remove them at the end of the night and wash them.
You'll come close, but never to the point of accuracy that a well made cocktail deserves. It's much more akin to baking than cooking. Small variations can really throw a drink. I'm not talking rum and cokes though, more multiple (3+) ingredient drinks.
Not quite true. You wash them after a bottle runs out. If I pulled every speed pourer from every bottle every night...yipes.
Customers shouldn't regulate how much booze is going into a drink, unless they want less or want to pay extra for more. Even then, a jigger is still better than a free pour for that.
OP. Should your bosses refuse to relent, make sure that you soak and don't wash the speed pourers. The violence and high heat of the washing machine will damage those measured shot pourers pretty badly over time.
Every single bar here free pours, and every single one overpours or they lose patronage. Different areas, different expectations
Like I said, for shots and basic liquor+mixer drinks, I free pour. This sounds pretty much like the only thing that's getting ordered where you are.
Aside;
I'm assuming you are in more of a nightclub or higher end place? Our joint is like a private, unaffiliated version of an Elks lodge, and we all go behind the bar at different times to make drinks, so some of the guys have no experience and/or are raging alcoholics so free pour just is too much for them.
Also kinda like Veevee noted, different areas, different expectations. My commercial experience save for one establishment was all tourist trap/gin mill types where a stiff cocktail was expected. Rarely made anything with more than one alcohol based ingredient save for shots (kamikazes, B-52's, etc). And we were encouraged to trick patrons into thinking they were getting a great deal.
For example if someone ordered 3 shots, the ingredients of which were 2/3rds booze and 1/3rd mixer, we'd only charge them for 2 shots. Essentially giving away 5 cents worth of bug juice from the gun was worth the sense of a deal the customer got. Especially the locals whose business you went bankrupt without in the off season.
Sounds like you might be better off with the measured pourers, though honestly, if people want to put more in, they'll just tip the bottle a few extra times.
As an aside, definitely get the ones with covers or take them off when not in use. There is nothing fucking nastier than bottles with bug suicides in the bottom.
Shockingly many tenders will do up a drink stronger for someone who asks for it or will ask a customer how they like it (strong side, mild side) and then adjust the pour to get a better tip. I went through a couple months of raging arguments with a owner of an establishment on this because he couldn't grasp how someone pouring 1/8th of an ounce more per drink was costing him money.
I ended up forcing regulators on all the bottles and he suddenly stopped seeing high restock orders each month, and shockingly the servers started seeing smaller tips and got pissy with me about it.
Funny because that's almost the opposite of what is driving me to look at better measured pours.
Long story short, I can tell when when those fucking things short shotted. So I will do a 2nd tip. Three problems with this:
1. The old timers start complaining that we're "ripping the joint off".
2. After the first one is short, it's difficult to assess how much it's short by.
3. The next guy might not be paying attention, and your half pour just guaranteed him a half pour, either for himself or the schlep who got the drink.
Again, as you've noted the only guarantee is a jigger or some measuring device. I just have a feeling that might not fly, so I'm willing to settle for pourers that are at least somewhat accurate.
Been reading reviews though, and it seems like there isn't some Cadillac of 1oz. pour spouts, which is what I was ultimately hoping for.
Yeah, I haven't heard it in ages, and when I do, I generally just pretend like I didn't hear them.
I've never heard a bartender say "Would you like that stronger or milder." Ever. That's totally bizarre to me.
And @iRevert, sure, an 1/8th of an oz. here and there might not hurt, but it can turn into a serious slippery slope. And if you're working somewhere that the customers can tell if there's that much less in their drink and get upset about it? Time to find a new job.
@Yall, Yeah, they're basically all pretty cheap from what I can tell and if the owners want quality (I think I saw an Oxo one on Amazon) they're going to pay through the nose.
The easiest way to explain it I'm from Wisconsin and our state motto is Cheese, Booze, and Fat Chicks. Also AA has listed step number four as "Don't go to Wisconsin".
The phrasing is "how do you have it?" or "How do you take it?" If a customer likes it stronger or milder they will at that point inform you, or if it is someone who isn't familiar with it they will just say the normal or ask for some specific garnish on it.
Granted this is from an area where "fingers" is a accepted order size and has its own pricing. First thing I learned while traveling is that you don't order three fingers of jack unless you want a bunch of guys propositioning you all night.
Haha yeah, Wisconsin bar patrons know their shit and bartending here is an art form
ummm....from these two posts it sounds like Wisconsin bar patrons do not, in fact, "know their shit" and that the bartenders are kinda bad.
If the bartender is asking "How do you take it?" that means either the customer did not communicate enough information with his order.
I tend to agree with half of this, most bartenders at the upscale places are very knowledgeable and do know what they are doing. Sadly though most of the patrons are college kids and they do in fact have no idea what they are doing.