Flair Bartending Lesson 57: Understanding Working Flair vs Exhibition Flair
This may be the most important lesson you learn. It’s not an exciting video to watch but it’s a hugely important concept: understanding the difference between Working Flair and Exhibition Flair.
At its simplest definition, Working Flair is any manipulation of objects behind your bar (bottles, tins, ice, etc.) that you do to entertain your guests while you are making drinks at work. Exhibition Flair, on the other hand, is any manipulation of objects (flairing) that you do as part of a performance, show, or competition and is usually longer and more choreographed.
Seems simple enough: Working Flair is done at work, exhibition flair is done at competitions, right?
Well, sort of, but it’s not just that simple. There are two very important, practical differences between the two and it’s very important that you understand this or you’ll drive yourself nuts. Simply put, working flair involves using any size/shape bottle with any amount of liquid inside. At work, you don’t get to choose what bottles you use to make a drink – the customer orders what they want – and you definitely don’t get to set the amount of alcohol in each one. There are tons of flair moves that you can use in these situations, where the bottle shape and liquid amount varies, and those moves all fall under the category of Working Flair.
Exhibition flair almost exclusively means flairing with a 750ml bottle that is less than 1/4 full. The reason for this is that for an exhibition or competition, you are usually allowed to use whatever bottles you like and set the amount of liquid in them. Bartenders will nearly always choose 750ml bottles because they can snatch or nest them within a standard cocktail shaker much easier than a 1 liter bottle. They will also set the bottles to 1-3 oz. of liquid inside so they can actually “spin” the bottles, not just “flip” them. Watch the video above at the 2 minute mark to see what happens when you try an exhibition flair move with a bottle that was meant for working flair.
So, to boil it down:
Working Flair: flair that you can do with any size or shape bottle, with any amount of liquid inside – just like the situation you would find at work.
Exhibition Flair: flair that is performed with 750ml bottles less than 1/4 full – as you would set up for any choreographed show you were going to perform.
The Discussion...
One Response to “Flair Bartending Lesson 57: Understanding Working Flair vs Exhibition Flair”
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