As an observer, it has been a fascinating experience to mix and mingle with bartenders from around the country at various spirits events. While I can comprehend the thinking and planning of chefs and their dishes, drink mixing still remains a bit out of my grasp. Much like traditional cooking, there are a multitude of ingredients – bitter, sweet, spicy – as well as particular techniques to pouring libations…and I’m still trying to get the hang of it.
In an effort to better understand the moving and shaking of a bar master’s post, I arrived to the Portland Cocktail Week activities on Saturday just in time for the super stellar freepouring seminar with Vegas’s sassy shaker, Tobin Ellis. More hands-on than most culinary demonstrations, the seminar offered bartenders the opportunity to toss, turn, flip, and pour along with the session’s host. With a packed house, Ellis offered tips from ergonomically holding a bottle of liquor to how to maneuver bottles between multiple cocktails without making a mess.
![Freepouring](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/session8-e1319697490418.jpg)
![Tobin Ellis](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/session11-e1319697395924.jpg)
My favorite event of the weekend followed closely thereafter, with the presentation of Triple Buck at Davis Street Tavern. Hosted by San Francisco’s Bon Vivants, the event featured a friendly Buck Hunter Pro competition (with Milwaukee’s Mathias Simonis stealing first place) as well as a rather raucous whiskey-mixing competition. Guests were treated to stellar cocktails with a whole host of fine whiskeys to choose from, with the Bon Vivant crew, as well as Miami’s Ezra Pattek, holding it down behind the stick.
![Triple Buck at Portland Cocktail Week](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/buck6-e1319697295156.jpg)
![Triple Buck](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/buck3-e1319696457971.jpg)
Saturday evening ended with possibly the most talked about drink adventure, with Robots Versus Bartenders taking over the patio at the Jupiter Hotel. Sci-fi nerds and cocktailians alike gathered to see what our friends in the robot world could create and how their drinks stood against flesh-and-blood bartenders. With an on-stage match up, the robots surprisingly won the challenge. (Though I think I’ll stick with mixers who can carry on a conversation while they make my drink!) Who knew?
![Robots vs. Bartenders at Portland Cocktail Week](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/robots1-e1319697722337.jpg)
![Robots vs. Bartenders](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/robots4-e1319697925391.jpg)
![Robots vs. Bartenders](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/robots6-e1319697992196.jpg)
![Robots vs. Bartenders](https://dailyblender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/robots5-e1319698060280.jpg)
Phew! On to Day 3!
Missed my coverage of Day 1 of the 2011 Portland Cocktail Week extravaganza? Check it out here!
~Jennifer Heigl
*Photo credit: Jennifer Heigl / Daily Blender