We firmly believe that Mixology is not something that can be taught over a period of a weekend or even a week for that matter. Before the invention of the “bartending school" as we know it today, the craft of was passed down from master to apprentice. However, the changing times saw the increasing demand for more and more Bartenders, and in order to meet the growing demand the modern bartending school was born.
Apprenticeship style training became a thing of the past when bartending schools started churning out thousands of undertrained bartenders with each passing year. The resulting backlash has been that these undertrained Bartenders are now falling victim to a changing beverage industry. The lack of education in today’s Bartenders is causing them to fall behind or out of the industry altogether.
Cocktail culture is demanding more from its professionals than ever before, and in and industry filled with sub-par education, the College of Mixology has stepped up. It is our mission to provide quality education focused on giving students the ability to grow and adapt with the industry, and to benefit from a program designed to produce quality students, not quantity.
The College of Mixology offers one course and one course only. Unlike competing schools, we offer one complete curriculum for one price. There are NO pre-requisites and the College doesn’t offer different levels of certification, we offer ONE certification. We believe that to offer certification in varying degrees of educational value produces “bartenders” who reflect that. The educational standard at the College of Mixology is to train all of our students to the same level of excellence.
About our competition:
Other schools’ programs are designed to do two things - Make them money, and to keep you out of the industry as competition.
During the development of this program our instructors attended bartending schools all over the world, and we found the same thing at every one of them. The focus of their program was A) To teach you a handful of useless recipes and/or B) To teach you “accuracy” and speed behind the bar. These programs on average lasted less than a week in length with the promise of giving you a “mater bartender certification”. However, these kinds of programs pose a few problems for students who expect to walk away ready to look for work in the industry.
Problem #1 – THE RECIPIES:
No program we’ve encountered has taught its student more than 10 standard drink recipes on average. The problem with the ones they do teach? Anyone can make them, they are published in thousands of books, and it won’t set you apart from your competition. While standard drinks like the Caesar and the Martini have a relevant place in a Mixologist’s repertoire, the beverage service industry is built on creativity. Often it is the case that the teachers who deliver these subpar programs are well known bartenders in their local industry, and are masters behind the bar. They usually get the best jobs and best pay. Why would they want to share that with you? The answer is they don’t. Everyone possesses the potential to be a genius behind the bar, but if they taught you all their trade secrets and gave you the skills to create a cocktail they haven’t, you might just be better than them. You become their biggest competition.
This line of thinking stems from greed and short sightedness. At the College of Mixology we believe that healthy competition encourages growth and creativity among professionals. In the early days of this profession, a master bartender would take an apprentice and teach their student EVERYTHING. The craft was handed down from master to the next. It was and still is the only way to ensure the survival of our craft, and to maintain its integrity.
Problem #2 – ACCURACY AND SPEED:
Both of these service aspects are important. But bartending schools that focus their programs solely on free pour accuracy and speed in drinks per hour create the following problems:
FREEPOUR:
The problem with free pouring is that unless you have experience, an excellent eye, and the ability to judge the speed with which the liquor is pouring from the bottle by feel alone; It is next to impossible to create a well crafted and perfectly balanced drink. Bartenders who use the free pour method and lack these skills often end up over pouring and this causes two problems; the loss of revenue in product, and a terrible drink. This can cost you both your job and your reputation. It is better to make fewer well balanced drinks, then to make many poor unbalanced ones. The College of Mixology will teach you the free pour technique only because it is an aspect of bartending that should not be overlooked; however we only recommend its continued use by those have perfected it.
Problem #3 – CLASS SIZES:
Problem #3 – CLASS SIZES:
A very important aspect that is often overlooked by prospective students is class size. As is the case with most bartending schools, the more students they have the more money they make, and on average there is one instructor for approximately 20-25 students. The College of Mixology decided very early on in the development of the program that class sizes would be limited to 10 students maximum per instructor. By limiting the number of students per instructor we are able to provide a program that leaves no room for students to fall through the cracks. It means our students can expect to participate in a program that is intensive and individually focused from beginning to end.
This course will not set you up to fail. It’s in our best interests that you succeed; our reputation is on the line. We will not teach you a handful of useless recipes or train you to use techniques that will damage your professional career. And most important, unlike other bartending programs, this one will not be a waste of your time and money. By the end of this course you will be a chef, a bar chef. You will use spirits to interpret and realize your own unique visions.