Mixology 101

If you would have asked Honey a few days ago if he thought mixing drinks would require a similar skill set as crafting jewelry, he would have said yes. After all, both skill sets required excellent hand-eye coordination, memory, and an eye for detail. Honey would have even flippantly replied that while drinks were different, surely crafting them still shared enough similarities that he would manage fairly well with it. 

And then he’d signed up for Hops’s bartending class and discovered just how wrong he was. 

Mixing drinks was nothing like crafting jewelry at all! Messing around with a liquid was far more difficult than his jewels, wires, and metals. There was none of the stability of having tools and solids to work with. His hands had to be far more stable than normal thanks to the fact he was working with liquids and the tools felt less like tools and more like hindrances to his hands. They just didn’t feel right which made using them incredibly difficult. Everything was just so different and he realized very quickly that he was so far out of his depth it would be hilarious in retrospect but was mostly just painful in the present. And he was expected to make several passable drinks to even pass his lessons!

Honey dreaded his turn, but there was no avoiding it. Hops came to him as inevitably as the tide and declared she was ready to watch him whip up any three drinks of his choice for his test to prove he’d learned from her lessons. He wasn’t ready! He didn’t feel ready at all! Honey’s hands shook as he attempted to make his first drink of the night, an Angora Sour. He’d always been fond of the drink so surely his fondness would make it slightly easier to make…right? Right? Honey tried, he really did, but sooner rather than later he’d made a mess, spilled two glasses, and mixed some kind of concoction that wasn’t anywhere near the right color that was bubbling ominously. Honey winced and poured the drink out to start over on an attempt on another one, this time on attempting to make a Peach Hellini. Honey shakily readied another glass and let out a little startled squeak when Hops placed her hand over his. 

“Calm down Honey. Take your time. You can do it, you just need to take your time and calm down. Take a few deep breaths with me?” Honey nodded and slowly followed along to exaggerated breathing. Only once he felt calmer and seemed visibly calmer did Hops step back and let him try again. Honey set out the bat winged glass and started on his attempt. By the time he’d whipped it up, it was…better. It wasn’t an ominously bubbling concoction and it was somewhat close to the right color. Hesitantly, he offered it to Hops for inspection and she took a sip. “The taste is off but it’s passable. Next?” Honey let out a sigh of relief and grinned, ready to make an attempt on another drink.