Coming to home video on Jan 19, 2021
BARTENDER 15th Anniversary Collector’s Edition is available for pre-order now at ShoutFactory.com

The best-selling Japanese manga Bartender by Araki Joh and illustrated by Kenji Nagatomo is a charming and heartfelt anthology series which can be served at any time of the year! When the Victoria Film Festival’s Art of Cocktail has been cancelled due to Covid-19, I had to consider where else I can get my education on fine wine, and this news arrived at the right time!

This anime has a worldwide cult following because it’s not out to promote alcoholism. It’s more so about how to help people look at life with fresh new eyes. Part of the narrative includes offering to the customer the right drink so that after sipping from it, they’ll feel reinvigorated. This acclaimed series is directed by Masaki Watanabe (Battle Spirits, Bakumatsu, KADO – The Right Answer), written by Yasuhiro Imagawa (Giant Robo the Animation) and produced by Palm Studios.

To know all the drinks offered not only in manga and also in the animated series does require a distributor knowing what discerning taste testers want! Shout! Factory and Anime Limited (UK) partnered up to do just that. Though the many brews will be from the anime, the best of from the manga (for this October season) includes:

Corpse Reviver 

• 2 Oz / 60 ml Cognac
• 1 Oz / 30 ml Apple Brandy or Calvados
• 1 Oz / 30 ml Sweet Vermouth

  Combine in a mixing glass, stir with ice, strain, and serve in cocktail glass.

Red Eye

• 12 1/2 Oz / 375 ml Beer
• 1 Oz / 30 ml Vodka
• 6 Oz / 180 ml Tomato Juice
• 1 egg yolk

  Combine in pint glass, first Vodka, then Tomato Juice, Beer and crack the egg on top, do NOT stir. Serve as is.

Eye Opener

• 1 1/2 Oz / 45 ml Dark Rum
• 1/4 Oz / 7 ml Orange Curacao
• 1/4 Oz / 7 ml Apricot Liqueur
• 1/2 Oz / 15 ml Grenadine
• 1 egg yolk

  Combine in shaker over ice, shake until well mixed, strain, serve in Old-Fashioned glass or cocktail glass.

This list comes from Bartender (Manga) Wikipedia, which is a work in progress. I can’t say how different these are to the traditional mixes, and as much as I like to sample the variations, I have my liver to be careful with.

To come up with a complete list will require reading through the translated manga and hope I don’t get drunk in the process. From the animated series, just which nine of the eleven drinks will be featured in trading card form is anyone’s guess. I surmise that we will at least see the Amber Dream, Bijou Nikolaschka and Pastis Water. The mysterious “Bartender” drink is tempting to figure out, though to seek out the anime at this point can be tough. I’m okay to wait for this official anniversary edition so I can get the extra goodies so I can learn how to mix the drinks too. But no wannabe can be perfect without a few lessons at a school in how to properly shake and stir.

To be a bartender means more than having the dexterity to give a little show to those at the bar. They can be counsellors. They’ve gone through the gambit of the game of life, and that’s perhaps why this anime is highly regarded as it is. We can learn from this show and have that smile on the face too after learning that we are not alone with our problems.