Close your eyes first.
Close your eyes, close your eyes.
Close your eyes!
Hi everyone, I'm Xenia.
Welcome to another episode of Hired or Fired.
Today is a special day, because we are holding a party in the office.
And so, I'm going to be the bartender of the party!
In collaboration with Drinks & Co.,
they will actually be bringing the bar to us.
I honestly have zero idea how it works,
so I'm going to leave all the explanation to the boss of Drinks & Co., Greg.
Hi, I'm Greg.
I'm actually from Drinks & Co.
We wanted to be closer to our consumers,
so Drinks & Co. is about different experiences,
your branded experiences, your customised experiences, and also your personalised experiences.
So with that we came to the conclusion that,
let's do up a portable bar, that can be fitted anywhere.
I'm super excited to start, but first,
let me introduce to you my mentor for today!
My name is Rhyse.
So, we will come to your place, we'll come to your event,
we set up a bar, we bring along all our drinks and all our spirits,
and then we just make great cocktails and great drinks for you.
I think when he first walked into the room right, when I saw him,
immediately I put on the shades, and the gold chains, and then I'm like
[gangster music]
'cos he got like this bad boy vibe.
I think he will judge me if I don't know anything, which
I mean, I really don't know anything la.
Let's grab all our bottles.
So, let's put them up on the bar, I will show you what they are first.
So, Jameson Irish Whiskey.
Ok. Havana Club Rum.
Havana ooh na na~
-na~ yeah, always happens.
After conversing with Rhyse for a bit, I realised he is the complete opposite of my stereotype of a bartender.
He is quite chill, but he is very expressive.
Because he is very passionate about what he is doing,
he can go on and on about the different flavour profile of each spirits,
and the historical background of a cocktail.
And the whole time I was just like...
Is he even speaking English?
This is the sloe gin, so normally the dry gin is a...
different colour, this one has a lot more sugar and sloe berries in it.
Compared to the rest of them like, Monkey 47, just the dry gin is 47%, so...
I don't know whether you are speaking English, I don't understand a single bit of it eh.
And that's why I'm super excited for challenge 1,
because he is going to teach me 4 different drinks.
Ok. we've transformed!
Now, we're just going to do a little bit more prep, make everything ready,
and then I'm going to show you how to make drinks as well.
We'll start off with the Tom Collins.
A good way to remember it is a ratio for the sours:
3 part strong, 2 part sour, 1 part sweet.
So if it's 45ml of the strong, it's 30ml of sour and 15ml of sweet.
And then we gonna open this.
Wa, how did you do that?
I'll try and show you later on... Okay.
So we gonna open it...
Show off! And then just top if up, and then it's all good.
Good, perfect! There you go.
And then just mix all your drink up.
Perfect! Monkey 47 Sloe Gin, Tom Collins.
Ah, it's so nice! It's refreshing.
Round number 2.
We gonna make a Margarita.
Imagine this arm goes forward like that... Yup.
And then this one goes up and down.
So when we end up doing it... ah there you go!
Is it correct?
Just try and smack it, and see if you can get the metal to like bend, and this one to pop free.
Perfect, look at that! Second try!
Oops! Nope, nope, bad idea.
Cheers, Margaritas!
I would say I didn't really quite struggle with the techniques of making different cocktails,
because maybe I tried it before in episode 1.
but when it comes to describing alcohol, then our director Jon was like,
"Xenia, describe the taste."
And I was like:
It evaporates faster as compared to the first one.
It's cold, at your throat area.
Aiya.
It has this acquired taste, and for me I wasn't used to drinking this kind of drinks
and it was like a whole new level for me.
Can I have 5 minutes to memorise, like the ratio?
OI totally forgot the first one already.
Wa, I can't remember eh.
Everything is sugar, except for Margarita.
Cos... Margarita.
Margarita is extra, they use agave.
Margarita, agave.
Margarita is extra,
with the agave instead of sugar syrup.
And you strain 2 times with a lime slice.
So we're all getting excited, we're really nervous.
We've got about 20 people about to walk in.
I tried my best to absorb as much as I can already, so
Let's bring them in!
Hi! hey guys, how y'all doing?
Alright, everyone take a second look at the menu for me.
Pick the first one that you see, doesn't matter just have a look at it.
Eh, menu for my people! And just pick that one.
Remember it in your head and when you're ordering tell me, one by one by one,
and then I'll try to remember it all, ready?
What would you like? Jameson.
What would you like? Margarita.
Ahh.. 1, 2, 3 Margarita... what would you like? Jameson.
He's doing another tactic, so he's asking all of them right, and he's collating all their orders.
But I don't think I can do that, so I'm just going to go one by one.
I care about your welfare, right?
Yeah!!!
Wa, I'm a good salesperson, actually I shouldn't be bartending,
I should be selling the spirits.
Eh, eh, wait, wait! Haven't start yet!
What, I've started! No, no, no!
As soon as I walked in the door, we're on! No, no, no!
You're not going to make them wait, are you? Haven't start right?
Aw, she's gonna make them all wait! C'mon, ready? Wait, wait, wait.
3, 2, 1, okay, what do you want?
Walao eh, cheater siol! Margarita? Margarita!
Monkey Collins, no worries, enjoy. Monkey Collins.
Wait, someone had a Daiquiri in this group, Margarita. Daiquiri? Margarita.
Alright, I'm actually done with the drinks.
You're done already? Yeah.
I mean, what do you want me to say?
When I'm making my first or second drink, he already finished eh, and like, the other team was already cheering.
Cheers!
Very noisy ah, this is an office ah, please keep your volume down.
Xenia, what's happening?
I'm trying my best.
He basically gave everyone a drink already.
Obviously I feel sad!
So in my mind right, I was just thinking,
'How can I redeem myself?'
I'm going to do what I'm best at, and that's entertaining the crowd.
Because like what Greg says, it's all about 'Customer Service'...
Experience!
Yes, 'Customer Experience'.
For the both of you right, I'm going to do a trick that I've never done before.
I'm going to take this right, going to put it inside.
What you're going to see is me throwing right, then catching, throwing then catching.
But all I need you to do, is to. Is to!
Close your eyes first.
Close your eyes, close your eyes.
Close your eyes! Yeah close your eyes ok.
I'm goint to throw... yup! Throwing!
Caught it! Yup, throwing, caught it!
Havana ooh na na~
Ok done!
There we go, got it.
C'mon.
Help.
You ready?
There you go.
Thanks! Thank you!
Xenia, 10 drinks baby, owww!
Before this shoot, Rhyse actually asked me what I like.
And I told him you know, I like dark chocolate, lychee, chamomile, and baby's-breath.
And he actually made his own concoction and brought all these ingredients on set for this challenge.
So, I'm just going to wing it and make it look beautiful.
That's all, that's my game plan.
I would like to make a drink that hits all sorts of bits and pieces of your palette.
I'm going to use Tequila Reposado as my base spirit, a little bit of citrus, and then those chocolate flavours are going to be my sweetest sort of notes.
I want it to be sweet and also bubbly.
I'm going to do something really extra.
I'm gonna just coat the rim of the sample cups with salt.
At least win by appearance and aesthetic.
That's my game plan. Yo, beat it Rhyse!
Zula.
Subscribe.
Which one did you pick?
A. A.
Er, B. Why?
Huh? A too strong already la, who can drink sia!
A is better.
A is better?! A is good.
I vote... B.
I picked B.
Why? 'Cos I feel like if you go to Zouk it's worthed your money.
The better drink was obviously Xenia's drink.
I don't know who the better drink is, but as long as it's Xenia's drink,
it's better.
So, do we have the results, director?
Alright. The winner is...
Drink...
A.
It's me eh, it's me eh!
Are you serious?!
I just really wanna thank everybody.
So when I created this drink right, it's based off my experience here in TSL.
It's sweet and it's bubbly and it feels like first love because everybody love what you are doing here.
Thank you my mum and dad! So sweet!
And also, thank you my mentor!
I can't believe that I won!
One thing that you guys don't know about, was Rhyse constantly trying to help me better my drink.
Just making it very, very conducive when it comes to me as a beginner learning how to bar tend,
even though it's like, very competitive on the outside.
My initial impression of being a bartender was that, it's just a very cool profession.
So I always see them making cocktails using very fancy methods,
I don't really think about the science behind it.
Things like orange peel, lemon slice,
I always thought they were just optional garnishes to the drink,
like the ikan bilis to my ban mian (chinese noodle dish).
But, they are not eh!
All the ingredients are paired intentionally not just for it's taste, but also for the smell.
And, we're going to make the party better by bringing the bar out.
Guys, it's happy hour!
Yay, good day!
So how do you think I fare? Maybe we start with the speed challenge first.
So, there's quite a number of different things that you have to know about.
To pick that up in a couple of hours, you did really well.
Ok, what about the second challenge?
Ey, you did amazing there, obviously! She beat me! Aiya!
I can't believe you started stirring straight away like that, it was your first time.
And then opening the tins as well, it always take someone a little longer.
Before we started like setting up, you were helping with the bar, you were helping all the dirty work,
I kinda thought you will just gonna do your makeup and stuff like that and then come behind the bar.
But no, you were more than happy to get your hands dirty,
and that's kind of what it's about, you wanted to get in there and help.
It was really nice, it was cool to see.
I would definitely hire you, you are in for sure!
Oh my god! I haven't even ask eh! For sure!
Oh my god, I'm hired, yay!
Thank you Drinks & Co. for making all of this possible, and letting me try being a bartender for a day.
If you want to hold you own party at the office or at home, do check out the link in the description box below,
you can also buy alcohol from them.
So if you liked this episode, do remember to...
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There, there.
There! There.
Yes! Bye! Cheers!