Today’s flair lesson is more garnish flair. Bottle and tin flair is great fun, but garnish flair can be really effective 1) when you don’t have lots of extra time to flair bottles but still want to give your guests a little something extra, 2) as a perfect way to end a longer sequence or flair routine, either for your guests or at a competition, or 3) when you’re new to flair bartending and need some easier-to-learn moves.
The Tin Garnish #4 works with almost any garnish: limes, lemons, oranges, cherries, etc.
Hopefully, by this stage in the tutorials, you are comfortable with the basic behind the back throw. This is really simple adaptation of that move, just using a garnish – like a lime or cherry – and the drink you’re about to serve to the guest. Nothing too ridiculously difficult or challenging here – however, guests often get a big kick out of it. On that note, as a flair bartender, it’s important to vary up your flair. I tend to rely a lot on bottle/tin flair, but sometimes just doing a simple garnish flair move like this will make my guests smile even more than the most wicked bottle/tin routine.
The most important thing here is to be sure you are NOT SPILLING the drink at all. Two tips to avoid spilling:
1) Practice the throw until you are ridiculously consistent. Be able to hit your target (the glass) every time without moving it at all.