The Bartender’s Urban Dictionary

There is bartending jargon beyond “up” and “on-the-rocks,” but if you’ve never spent professional time behind the bar, “behind the stick” and “rolling” may sound more like questionable party games than pro-barkeep vocab. Serious Drinks dives in with ten terms you need to know including what we consider to be the most important: “buy back” (complimentary drink). By the way, “behind the stick,” means “the act of getting behind the bar and doing the work of bartending,” and “rolling a drink” is a term for mixing a drink in which “you build the drink in the mixing glass, and then gently pour it into a shaker tin or another mixing glass to mix things together” (as in a Bloody Mary). Should you be thirsty for further boozy lingo, consult the constantly growing PUNCH A-Z for so much more. [Serious Drinks]