Chapter 112
Tony stroked his chin at my hesitation.
"Was that too much of a difficult order? Do I need to explain it in detail?"
"…No."
It would be hard to see them as an example of a model customer, but treating even such customers with the utmost care and sincerity is what bartenders do.
Just like when the Troublemaker Detective ordered a Cold Heart last time, there are many cases where customers with a deep knowledge of cocktails order drinks using metaphorical vocabulary to test the bartender,
or where they genuinely don't know and ask the bartender for an explanation about the cocktail's background and anecdotes.
Tony was training me so that I could cope with such situations if I ended up working inside the front bar in the future,
and saying 'I don't know. I'm sorry.' here… well. It wouldn't be a very satisfactory performance.
For Tony, for me, and for the full-time employee name tag attached to my chest,
Therefore, if I didn't want to be embarrassed,, I had to get the quiz right here.
A 12-minute cocktail.
At times like this, I need to think simply.
Put simply, it would mean a cocktail that takes 12 minutes to make.
And as far as I knew… there was one such cocktail.
A cocktail notorious for taking a whopping 12 minutes to prepare a single glass,
the Ramos Gin Fizz.
"Ramos Gin Fizz
"Condolences to all the bartenders who make this demonic cocktail and to their forearms."
Creamy and fluffy, sweet and refreshing, it is a Meal Replacement.
variation: Most cocktails of the Gin Fizz variety.
*Caution: The high price is expected to cause a massive drop in the bartender's favorability. Ordering is generally not recommended."
My certainty solidified. It was definitely the Ramos Gin Fizz.
I timidly opened my mouth while recalling what I had learned in my head.
"But… isn't this a cocktail that starts with R? It's toward the back of the alphabet. Isn't that outside the scope of my progress?"
"So you don't know the recipe?"
"Uh… I might know it?"
Past me, why were you so uselessly diligent!
It would be fine to forget a little. So why has my memory gotten so much better recently that I clearly remember a recipe I've only seen a few times!
"As expected, I knew it."
And why are you accepting that as if it's a given!
I protested, feeling like he thought of me as some kind of scanner machine or artificial intelligence robot that never forgets anything it sees once, and this was the answer that popped out.
"But last time you made a Manhattan, you said you memorized it after glancing over it a few times because it's a famous cocktail, even though it was outside your alphabet progress."
"Ah…."
"Because this is a cocktail that doesn't fall behind in fame either, I naturally guessed you would have looked at the recipe and memorized this one too."
Oops!
Talk about Self-Entrapment: to think I'd get stabbed in the back like this by my past self because my own actions raised his expectations.
What was even more absurd was that Tony's guess wasn't wrong.
"So are you going to take the order or not? Tell me, bartender."
Tony urged me, saying so as I despaired.
Now that even the title of bartender had come out, I couldn't delay my answer any longer.
I was about to nod in agreement, but opened my mouth just in case.
"How about a shortened recipe, by any chance…?"
"The real, proper version, of course."
Tch.
Even if it was a cocktail that took a long time to mix, there were plenty of ways to shorten it, thanks to the dazzling advancement of science and technology.
Even so, the reason this cocktail is notorious is that the long cocktail mixing process, the labor that torments bartenders, has gained cult popularity in itself, so customers only order the version called the 'original' or 'real' thing.
I tried suggesting a shortened minimal recipe just in case, but was rejected as expected.
Thinking that I was now truly stuck making the devil's cocktail, the Ramos Gin Fizz, I spat out a final desperate struggle.
"Well… our bar is all out of eggs. Unfortunately, I think that cocktail will be difficult."
The reason the Ramos Gin Fizz is a tricky cocktail isn't just the arduous cocktail mixing process, but also the complex multitude of ingredients that go into it.
Eggs were one of them.
Making this damn cocktail involves the process of whipping a bloody meringue out of egg white.
Therefore, historically, many bartenders would politely decline with the excuse 'We're out of eggs' if they received this order while busy or exhausted.
I, too, tried to borrow the power of that tradition to tactfully gloss over it….
"Then it can't be helped… is what I would say. But this works out perfectly."
Tony smiled wickedly like a brat and pulled something out of his pocket.
The identity of the item that came out of his embrace was….
"An egg capsule…!"
I was appalled.
On Tony's hand, a transparent artificial egg white liquid was sloshing inside a transparent capsule. It was a meringue product made with a chickpea ingredient.
Just when did he bring that?!
"Yeah. Since I, the customer, happen to already have an egg, you can attend to the order without any problem, right?"
Tony's confident face as he said that seemed to say, 'There is nowhere for you to run.'
There was no way he brought that all the way from home, so he must have earlier taken an egg out separately and put it in his pocket when he was inside the bar.
That meant he had been planning to order a Ramos Gin Fizz from me since then; it was truly a meticulous scheme.
And how did he know I would use the egg excuse…!
His will to make me serve that demonic cocktail no matter what was so prominent that I had no choice but to concede defeat.
It was to the point where I suspected private feelings were involved.
Could it be because I joked at the last company dinner that Tony had to quit his job as a Net Diver because he committed a crime?
I was planning to apologize today if the timing was right, but I never thought I'd be retaliated against like this.
Seeing Tony greet me lightly as usual when I entered the bar, I let my guard down thinking, 'He must not be sulking anymore,' and that was the root of the problem.
Honeyed Words, Dagger in Heart—to think he was pretending to joke around amicably while preparing a dagger inside to finish me off!
Tony asked me as I stood frozen in shock.
"So, bartender, your answer?"
…It couldn't be helped.
There were no more excuses I could make now.
I had to do it somehow.
I had no choice but to make it sweet with the thought that it was a cocktail of apology.
At Tony's urging, I bit the bullet, found and grabbed the cocktail tools, a shaker and a jigger, and opened my mouth.
"Ramos Gin Fizz, order received."
Let's give it a try.
If it's difficult, just how difficult could it be.
Honestly, I was only avoiding it because I had heard of its notoriety; I had never actually tried making it myself.
Just the cost of ingredients alone was quite something. Practicing it alone was close to impossible.
Thinking about it, this might actually be a good opportunity to broaden my horizons while using good ingredients.
My athletic ability has improved a lot too lately, so surprisingly, it might not be that hard if I try it myself. It might even suit my aptitude?
…Yeah, there was a time when I thought like that.
Damn it.
I didn't know I would end up retracting that thought a mere 3 minutes after starting.
* * *
Click clack chack chack click clack chack chack chack….
The loud noise of shaking the liquid violently and vigorously, filled the inside of the bar.
Shaking is one of the representative cocktail mixing techniques for making cocktails.
Just like its highly intuitive name, it involves shaking to mix the ingredients.
Within this seemingly simple technique, there are various purposes such as mixing the ingredients while simultaneously introducing air layers into the liquid, adjusting the consistency, and when ice is added, floating ice shards and controlling the temperature.
I was too busy to even think about all that.
What came to mind right now.
The tools needed to do this shaking.
There were two in total.
a shaker and two arms.
Strictly speaking, it might be more accurate to say three… anyway.
The former was an inanimate object and couldn't feel pain, so it was none of my business.
The latter was the problem.
The latter was being excessively overworked. At this rate, it might lose its function.
It had already been 3 minutes since I started shaking the shaker vigorously and rhythmically and mixing the cocktail base inside it.
Three minutes might seem laughable, and honestly I thought so too until I actually tried it myself, but it was by no means laughable.
It was a whopping 180 seconds.
For 180 seconds, I had been continuously shaking the shaker filled with the beverage with all my might without resting for even a moment.
Furthermore, I wasn't very used to shaking.
The cocktails I had recently made at the bar were the Americano, the Manhattan, and the Cold Heart.
The first, the Americano, used the easiest building technique; the Manhattan used a stir, and the Cold Heart… if I had to classify it, it would be building, but
in the first place, it applied a cutting-edge ultra-high-speed cooling technology that couldn't be fully explained by that alone.
I hadn't made a shaken cocktail at the bar recently.
Because of that, my sense for it had dropped a lot.
I did practice at home in my own way, but that alone was somewhat lacking.
Also, due to muscle pain, I only had about a day or two to practice properly.
Making the Ramos Gin Fizz while in that state, the cocktail said to give bartenders the hardest time, was bound to be agonizing.
On top of that, the most terrible part was that this was merely the dry shaking to build up foam before adding ice,
and once the foam rose to a certain extent, I would have to go through the shaking process again to melt the ice after adding it.
Therefore, it had to be seen as not yet even halfway through the entire process, or barely halfway done. And I was already dying of exhaustion.
This was the shaking of that notorious Ramos Gin Fizz….
'If it's difficult, just how difficult could it be?' I wanted to curse my past self who had thought things like that.
My vision went dark. I felt like I was going to lose my mind.
"Oh, your arm speed is slowing down! You can't give out already. You have to keep shaking, that's right."
In the midst of all that, Tony's voice faintly lingered in my ears.
Have you ever seen such a demon-like human!