For the same reason, Michael Tolley, consultant to bartenders the world over, does not like Tom Cruise's performance in the Hollywood flick Cocktail. Cruise plays a showtender -- a bartender who juggles and performs tricks while pouring drinks -- in the movie. Tolley is a professional showtender in real life. He says, ``Cruise spent two weeks training for his role, but he spilt too much liquor.'' Tolley contends that if Cruise had trained at his firm -- the USA-based Showtenders International Inc -- he could have been smoother. There is a hint of professional rivalry in that remark. Cruise took lessons from John Bandy, a pupil of Michael Magic Warner, the founder of Showtenders Inc.

In the context, bartenders in India could be luckier than Cruise. Tolley is here, courtesy Bacardi India Limited, to give bartenders a crash course on the religion of mixing drinks. At a two-hour workshop at Marine Plaza today, Tolley initiated 30 city barmen to the two Gods of their trade -- Style and Etiquette.

The freestyle bartender, as Tolley describes himself, began testily, exhorting the benefits of standardisation of recipes internationally. The audience grew restive, as they wanted some action -- mixing tips and jugglery. It was as well that Tolley got the solemn part out of the way -- not much from the second session could have registered, seeing the rate at which the cocktails went.

Tolley was in his element mixing drinks. ``Marguerita got its name because a Mexican girl by that name entered its recipe for a competition organised by liqueur manufacturers Cointreau,'' he chatted while making a round of the popular tequila drink. As a round of Long Island Iced Tea followed, he offered, ``this drink, like Sex on the Beach, is popular because of its catchy name.''

The participants were rather attentive. One asked, ``How do you repair a drink? How do you make sweet ones less sweet?'' Tolley chose to stick to classical mode. ``If you add anything to it, you are likely to change the recipe. It will no longer be what the customer asked for. Instead, either change the drink or give it a new name.''

But there was nothing classical in the way he tossed the bottles around. With the grace of a Pele dribbling a football, or a Harlem Globetrotter handling a basketball, he ran through the tricks that took him 468 bottles and 112 broken glasses to master. He had names for them -- a Windshield Wiper Pour, a Somersault, a Globetrotter (named after the Harlem club). It was truly awesome.

Tolley was joined by two bartenders from Fariyas, Colaba -- Vijaypal Rawat and Amandeep Singh -- who have been practising at juggling bottles. Both are from Stir, an academy for bartenders officially set to open next week.

``This is the future of bartending. Freestyle,'' Tolley said, while reiterating that he will not compromise on the classics. His favourite drink, like that of James Bond 007, is the Dry Martini. But unlike Bond, Tolley prefers the drink made the classical way. Stirred, not shaken.