Roles and Ratios

The capability: you can name what job every component in a drink is doing.

Prerequisites: Modules 11, 12, 34.

The practice

Take ten drinks and label every component by role — base, modifier, sweetener, acid, dilution, aromatic, texture.

Then notice where one ingredient plays two roles — an orange liqueur that is both modifier and sweetener, a vermouth that is both modifier and dilution-adjacent.

Then build the same structure at three different ratios and taste them.

And practice the adjustment rules until they are automatic: higher proof needs more dilution or more sweetener. Sharper acid needs more sweetener. A sweeter modifier needs less added sweetener.

The reference

The structure's starting ratio, which is a starting point rather than a rule.

What you are building

The vocabulary that makes substitution possible.

Because a substitution is a role question, per Module 34 — and a bartender who knows the recipe can only match the product while one who knows the structure can match the function.

Verification and boundary

Given an unfamiliar drink, name every role and predict what a proof change would require.

Boundary: none specific.