Message 17741 of 39188 in General Discussion

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I've been reading these posts with interest. I'm a bartender in the north of 
england and although there are a few bars still using sour mix they are the 
minority. In my bar... and nearly all others... we simply juice fresh limes 
and lemons and use simple syrup or gomme. That way I can keep track if the 
juice is fresh (adding sugar to the citrus juice can mask the fact it's gone 
off)and I can adjust all my drinks to the customers liking. Therefore I can 
make a quite sour/ quite sweet Daiquiri or Margarita etc just the way the 
customer likes it. It does not take me anymore time than it would do using a 
premade mix and the difference in quality is definitely worth the piddling 1/2 
an hour it takes to juice during my prep (we have an electric juicer... worth 
every penny). By the way we are not a little bar, very busy most of the time 
and still not a hassle.
I tend to find that for most drinks 1 shot of sour to half a shot of sweet 
creates a nice balance for most recipes... obviously you may need to adjust 
this if there's quite sweet liqueurs in the recipe also.
I highly recommend trying to go natural in your bar for a week... chances are 
you'll chuck your pre-pack E-number powder down the sink.
cheers Pete