The Outdated Ordering Method That Sends Out Red Flags For Bartenders

Have you ever heard the phrase "a finger of whiskey"? Maybe you have older relatives who call it that offhand, or maybe it showed up in a Western movie. That doesn't mean you should try asking for it in a bar, though. Bartenders hate it when you do these things, and getting picky or weird about the strength of the drink you're ordering is a very common one. We spoke to Yu Jiang Zhao, the founder of Kobayashi Bar, about why a bartender might give you a confused or sour face if you asked for two fingers of whiskey.

"[Fingers] is an old tradition dating back to pre-Prohibition era and surviving until after the standardized pours were introduced," Zhao said. "Ordering 'two fingers' used to imply that two fingers should be raised toward the glass to show how high the bartender should pour the drink." Back in the day at your local speakeasy or saloon, the bartender had no fancy measuring tools, and would simply hold his fingers sideways against the glass to measure while he poured. He continued to pour whiskey until the liquor lined up with either one or two fingers. Even if a modern bartender has heard of fingers — plenty may have, but you can hardly fault them if not — they'll still see you as pretentious or old-fashioned.

Another problem is that there's no hard science or measurements to fingers of liquor. "Depending on the glass and finger thickness, the amount could range between 1 ½ ounces and 2 ounces," Yu Jiang Zhao explains. In the modern age, we have much better tools for measuring whiskey: the jigger is a common, double-sided measuring cup meant for measuring and pouring cocktails, while other bartenders who free pour drinks have the ratios down by memory. Fittingly, there are better ways to ask for the rough equivalent of a finger.

The simplest way is to cut all the old-fashioned lingo and ask for a shot of whiskey instead, because a commonly accepted size of a liquor shot is around 1 ½ ounces, much like the lower end of a finger; to be fair, shot sizes can also vary depending on where you are, although you can often expect to get 40 shots from any handle of liquor. If, for whatever reason, you really want to order two fingers of Maker's Mark (it is the oldest bourbon distillery in the world, so the brand is a fitting choice for this hypothetical), Zhao suggests a different tack. "It should be ordered differently today — either 1 ½ ounces of Maker's neat' or 'double Maker's neat.' In any case, the bartender uses a jigger, not measuring according to a finger."