…are not that deep, but they’re also … well, OLD.
New and modern bartenders (there’s a difference between new and modern, btw), including bar managers, don’t know the nuances of the craft that include basic tool cleaning, maintenance, everyday care, and proper use.
That’s because old bartending was taught and passed down bartender to barback, as a craft, for generations. Today they hire “no experience necessary” and a list of house drink recipes is all they get.
By walking into a bar for a job interview (or any other reason) you can tell by the wooden muddler if anyone working there has a clue.
Still today many bars have at least one wooden muddler. In older places it’s a leftover from decades before. It’s usually beat to shit, dried out, cracking, splintered, pitted, and has been run through a dishwasher half a million times. Someone bought it because it was “really cool looking” and it showed everyone the bar was “old timey” and “craft” (“we make REAL drinks with OUR flavored vodkas”).
The muddler is usually flaking what’s left of a lacquered coating, almost all peeled off now, most of it flaked off, bit by bit, into a bunch of poor saps’ muddled Old Fashioneds and God knows what else the unsuspecting drools slurped down at the place.
So this “stick” the muddler is in a drawer now and nobody pulls it out any more. It’s one of the bones in the bar’s elephant graveyard. A fossil from a brighter day, or evidence of an experiment in Craft gone horribly off the rails.
The photos below are of two wooden muddlers. The first one is my nearly fifty year old wooden muddler which I’ve toted with me to and from work since I began tending bar in 1980. It’s made out of wood. It was never lacquered or painted with anything. It’s a work tool. It started out very light in color. It’s the bartender’s “black belt” because it starts out white, and over the decades becomes darker with care and use.
The second set of pictures is a recently rescued wooden muddler – one of those peeling, cracking, lacquered muddlers run through a glass-washing machine, drying out, bleaching, water-soaked and almost too-late to save ready for trash horror stories of a muddler abused, misused, disrespected, and trated as disposable. “Craft” at its very finest.
The old muddlers were thinner than they are now. More like “Toddy Sticks” then, because occasionally we also used them to stir. The stick would knock around inside the glass a bit and could be heard by everyone in the bar.
The wide tip was good enough to crush and muddle whatever we were making. Over time the bitters and minerals in the water were slowly absorbed into the wood, making it denser and harder, giving the muddling end an almost petrified character.
The handled end smoothes out and slowly becomes more polished with handling.
A thing of beauty. Have muddler, will travel.
The Rescue: First things First. Wooden muddlers today are almost always sold lacquered. Manufacturers don’t have anyone on staff who knows anything either. THIS muddler WAS lacquered. It WAS peeling. It WAS cracking, chipping, and about to reach the point beyond which salvaging (to perform work) wouldn’t be possible.
The muddling end shows chips and cracking The Simple Rules of Care for Wooden Muddlers: 1.NEVER run them through a dishwasher or glass-washing machine. 2. Always give the muddling end a quick fresh water rinse immediately after use, dry quickly with a paper towel, and set down in a dry spot. 3. NEVER lay the muddler in a puddle of water (wood sucks up water and expands, then dries out, and cracks) 4. NEVER store the muddler in a glass with liquid in it. 5. At LEAST once a month treat your muddler with food grade Mineral Oil, and Food Grade Mineral Oil and Bee’s Wax wood conditioner if you have that too. Rub it on with a clean cloth or paper towels and let it soak in. Then wipe it dry and it’s ready for use again. NOTE: Rather than once a month, I prefer to treat mine once a week.
For a muddler in the condition I found this one, it’s best to soak the entire muddler in the food grade mineral oil for a few days by partially filling a freezer bag with the oil, and laying the muddler down in it. The resulting change and effect in appearance is dramatic.
Site Author, David J. Curtis: David Curtis, a seasoned professional with decades of Bartending and Bar Management experience began his career in Midtown Manhattan, NY, tending and managing bars before diving into Manhattan’s bustling nightlife club scene. Over the years, he has mastered high-volume, high-pressure bartending as the lead bartender in iconic Midtown Manhattan nightclubs (Pursuits, Sybils, Club 53), Coconuts Comedy Club, the Fitzpatrick Hotel, British Airways Hotel, and tended bar briefly in the Wall Street area, generating over $1,496,564.00 annually in personal drink sales. He has since extended his expertise to establishments in Georgia (Marriot Hotel) and now Tampa Florida, in an Exclusive Platinum Service Award winning club. David’s roles as a Bartending Instructor at the American Bartending School in Tampa, while maintaining a second job bartending, and his years experience of managing bars, and working as a Brand Ambassador along with his extensive professional library of over 1,000 bartending books, highlight his dedication to continually refining his craft. He holds a diploma in Bar Management, Advanced Bartending, is Whiskey Certified by DIAGIO, and is BarSmarts certified by Pernod Ricard.
