Part of the Cocktail Architecture school. Class 3 of 6.
The capability: you can produce a drinkable version of something you have never made, on the first attempt.
Prerequisites: Modules 12, 34, 40.
The practice
Run the five-step procedure, per Module 34.
Identify the structure. Assign the roles. Apply the starting ratio. Adjust for the specific products. Taste and correct on the axis that is off.
Then do it twenty times across three months, with descriptions from other people.
And practice the framing out loud: "I think I know the shape of what you had — let me build it and you tell me if I'm close."
Then write down every successful reconstruction, because the next guest who describes it should get the same drink.
The reference
The guest's verdict, and your own written record afterward.
What you are building
Confidence in a procedure rather than in a memory.
And the two wrong moves worth naming: refusing on the basis of a name, which is a refusal on a capability the bar actually has — and forcing the wrong structure, which is what happens when a spirit suggests a familiar drink rather than the described one.
Verification and boundary
Build five unfamiliar drinks from description and have them assessed by whoever described them.
Boundary: TABC governs service.