Bar Tips: Smart Drinking Habits for Better Cocktails and Tastings

When you're at a bar or hosting a tasting, bar tips, practical, no-nonsense advice for enjoying drinks without the common pitfalls. Also known as drinking etiquette, these are the small choices that make a big difference in flavor, comfort, and even how you feel the next day. It’s not about fancy glasses or expensive bottles—it’s about what you do before, during, and after that sip. A lot of people think tasting wine or mixing cocktails is all about the drink itself. But the truth? It’s mostly about the habits around it.

Take wine tasting, the process of evaluating wine using sight, smell, and taste to understand its character. Also known as wine evaluation, it’s not a race. If you show up with coffee in your system or a sugary soda in your belly, you’re not tasting the wine—you’re tasting the residue of your earlier choices. Water is the only thing that clears your palate without interfering. And if you’re swirling, smelling, and sipping, you need to know how many glasses to expect, how long to wait between pours, and why holding the glass by the bowl ruins the temperature. These aren’t rules from a snob—they’re science-backed moves that let you actually taste what’s there.

Same goes for cocktail making, the craft of combining spirits, mixers, and flavors to create balanced, enjoyable drinks. Also known as mixology, it’s not just following recipes. The most annoying cocktails to make aren’t the ones with 12 ingredients—they’re the ones you rush. Shaking too hard, using warm ice, skipping the garnish that changes the aroma—these are the quiet killers of flavor. And if you’re drinking spirits, you need to know why gin or vodka might hit harder than beer. It’s not just alcohol content. It’s congeners, sugar, and dehydration. The best bar tips don’t tell you what to drink. They tell you how to drink so you actually enjoy it.

And then there’s the stuff nobody talks about: what you eat before, how you store your bottles, whether you’re using the right glass, and why that ‘fun’ shot of tequila with salt and lime might be the worst thing you do to your palate. These aren’t just bar tricks—they’re the hidden layers of every good drinking experience. Whether you’re sipping a Margarita at home, tasting wine at a friend’s place, or just trying to avoid a hangover, the right habits turn a good drink into a great one.

You’ll find all of this in the posts below—real advice from people who’ve tasted too much, made too many mistakes, and learned what actually works. No fluff. No jargon. Just what to do, what to skip, and why it matters.