World-leading bartender gives away all his secrets to making the perfect cocktail

Chris Lowder, the bartender at the Four Seasons in Seoul, recently revealed his top tips for creating world-beating cocktails

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A world-class bartender has been praised for revealing his secrets to making the best classic cocktails online, to help those trying to grow their businesses.

Chris Lowder is the head bartender at the luxury Four Seasons hotel in Seoul.

In a Facebook post in mid-November, Lowder shared the manual that he uses to train up his employees at the Four Seasons.

“I hope that using it saves you some of the precious time that you need to run your bar/restaurant/hotel and focus on growing your business,” he wrote in his status.

Lowder wrote in the manual that many junior and intermediate bartenders share common mistakes. As most only receive basic training, they either try to memorise many cocktail recipes or focus too much of their attention on one type of drink.

The guide features a list of six core cocktail recipes from each major spirit category that he believes every bartender should know.

“I recommend that rather than go off and dig through the thousands of drinks recipes out there, my trainees instead focus their energy on mastering a small core of popular recipes that people are actually going to ask for."

Recipes include the Corpse Reviver No. 2 with gin, cointreu, cocchi Americano, an fresh lemon; the Poet’s Dream with vodka, vermouth, and barspoon Benedictine; and the El Diablo with Tequila, fresh lime juice, ginger syrup, and crème de cassis.

The post received over 400 likes on Facebook, and was shared dozens of times.

“Nice one Chris - I whole-heartedly agree with the ethos contained within too!” wrote one user.

“This is amazing. I spent the better part of my morning reading yours and comparing it to my 45 classics manual. Excellent man on so many levels. #imnotworthy #imnotworthy,” said another.

Lowder told Munchies that he chose to give the manual away because he has come to “deeply value free education” after working in restaurants as a cook and bartender for a decade.

“I went to a bartending 'school' where we started every four-hour class making buckets of coloured water. And I paid money for that. Disgusting and ridiculous, but I just didn’t know any better. That was when I decided to make my education free for everybody. I just want to help people like that who want to get started."