Over the years I've trained many a fledgling bartender, and one of the most important tips I pass along is that having your bar properly organized makes the difference between flailing around and being precise and efficient. This holds true whether you're in a bar or at home, and will pay dividends when you have a house party and need to produce numerous cocktails in short order. Whether you're setting up on the counter in your kitchen or you have a specially prepared spot that duplicates a normal bar, you need to think about what you plan on making first.

Organize your liquor bottles and keep them in the same order at all times. Place them within easy reach. If you have bar mats (recommended) set these right in front of where you plan on standing. Right next to the mats you can set your shaker tin/glass/strainer. Keep the jigger in the little square depression on the bar mat specially designed for that purpose.

Any juices can be arranged in a specific order near or at an angle to the liquor bottles. Fruits for flavor and garnish should also be handy. Obviously you'll need ice nearby, so it would pay to think about what you plan on keeping the ice in. If you have a real bar setup, the ice will go in an ice well designed for that purpose. If you're in the kitchen you can keep the ice in a cooler or in the sink. Always keep several small towels handy and be sure to clean up even small spills as soon after they happen as is practical.

Keeping your bar area clean is not only healthier, it is aesthetically more pleasing to your guests. Of course there's no necessarily perfect way to setup your bar, but it's a good idea to stop in a real bar and study how they have things arranged. That arrangement has been arrived at through trial and error in countless bars through time.

Fruit preparation is really a snap. All you need for most situations are limes and lemons. How you cut them depends on their size and that is about as variable as you can get. With limes I tend to slice off each pointed end and them cut through the center from that flat end. Each half can then be halved again or quartered depending upon size. Lemons can be prepared the same way, but since they tend to be larger than limes you will have to experiment to find a consistent pattern. Always use freshly sliced fruit. One thing that always aggravates me is going into a bar and being served a cocktail with day old fruit. Your guests deserve better than that. Maraschino cherries can be purchased in the grocery store and make a nice garnish in any number of mixed drinks. Also, having some sort of plastic stir sticks or straws are recommended to give your guests the feeling they are in a real bar.

Since we are heading into both colder weather and the holidays I decided to list a couple of my favorite cold weather drinks.

#1 Coffee with Bailey's and Frangelico (sometimes referred to as a Café Nelson)
One cup coffee
1-oz. Bailey's Irish Cream
1-oz. Frangelico
You can add whipped cream on top, but since the Bailey's already adds a lot of sugary creaminess that could be overdoing it.

#2 Hot Chocolate Mint
One cup hot chocolate (freshly made)
1.5 oz. Rumpleminze peppermint schnaps liqueur.

Next lesson I'll go over the special types of glassware that are available to make your nicest cocktail creations look even better. Please send questions or comments to rluck@TheSingleLife.com.

Rodger Luck is currently a software developer residing in South Carolina. He gained his bar experience while in college and has maintained his expertise over the years by working in just about every type of bar, restaurant or nightclub you can imagine.