Shaker BarSchool South Africa

Shaker BarSchool
We run bartender and barista training courses each month for the aspiring and improving bartenders and baristas as well as using our trained bartenders and baristas to run mobile bars for outside events. South Africa has seen a big change in the standard of bartending since 2006 and there are now many ‘career bartenders’ who earn their living in the industry. At Shaker we believe the industry has a chance to really make a difference in creating employment and providing training to allow unskilled labour into the workforce, as the hospitality industry has a fabulous record at upskilling it’s employees up the value chain. There are not many professions where you are allowed to manage a business of 50 employees when you are under 30 (with hard work and dedication).
Great career
There are many examples of the many top executives and managers who have started their career as bartenders. It’s a fabulous way to both gain practical experience in business and meet other new people and network daily. Here are just a few celebrity examples, Bruce Willis, Lady Gaga, Ellen DeGeneres, Mila Kunis, Michael Fassbender. Even Abraham Lincoln was a bartender before he became President of the United States, the story goes, before he became a lawyer, he opened a bar with a friend. Unfortunately, the friend drunk all the profits leaving him in debt.
Drinks service standards
Worldwide drinks service standards have been improving every year, our customers have become more demanding and sophisticated in what they demand. Consequently, bartenders need more knowledge and skills than ever and there is more and more training both on the job and through specialist organisations such as Shaker and WSET than ever before. Bartenders are expected to be multi skilled, being able to make a fabulous Cappuccino or Espresso as well as conjure up a classic martini or margarita. Recently the trend for non-alcoholic drinks has boosted cocktail development as bars and restaurants vie to design the tastiest and most exciting non or low alcohol cocktails.
The internet and bartending
The internet has changed bartending just as much as other professions. Bartenders will often look up cocktail recipes that they don’t know or follow celebrity bartenders for tips on the latest trends and information. Consequently, there is a plethora of online courses and different recipes for the same drink and it’s easy to get lost down a rabbit hole of disinformation. It is tempting to think you can learn how to be a bartender online but there is no substitute for in person training.
Professional bar training
That’s where professional training companies come in, at Shaker we still believe that practical training by qualified professionals, it trumps on the job or online training, both when you are at the beginning of your career as well as when you know you need to step up a knowledge level. Most bartending knowledge is still gained by on-the-job training, and if you get the right person training you then you have hit the jackpot, unfortunately this is not always the case and when we conduct training for hotel groups or bar chains we often spend time undoing bad habits that bartenders have learnt, either with their mentor not knowing what they were doing or a bartender having to improvise when there was no instruction available. Often knowing what to ignore is just as important as knowing what to teach.
Cocktail competitions
On the good news front, bartending, as a profession has never been more highly valued. Top bars in hotels and restaurants and increasingly super yachts and cruise liners, now compete for the best bartending talent from around the world. There are many brand competitions such as Diageo World Class, Bacardi Legacy, Patron Perfectionists, Angostura Global Challenge which now help increase cocktail standards worldwide and give bartenders something to strive towards.
High quality Tequila
The liquor brands have also upped their game by producing higher quality and more specialised spirits. Tequila that used to be known as a just a party shot has now become the young persons’ luxury spirit, marketed and drunk by celebrities (think Entourage, Dwayne Johnson, The Backstreet Boys or George Clooney) and produced to the highest standards. Tom Estes started a trend with his Ocho brand producing terroir specific Tequila which told you on the bottle which plot of land it came from.
Pay rates for bartenders
Bartenders pay has always been supplemented by tips, often bartenders end up on close to the minimum wage when they start but the chance to earn tips are what makes the job worthwhile. At Shaker we did a Bar Consultancy job at a well-known popular upmarket steakhouse in Johannesburg back in 2012 and the waitrons/bartenders there were earning enough money in tips to put their children through private school. However, that would still be the exception. During our International Bartenders Course, we teach the students different ways to make more tips (and let me tell you the best one is to be an excellent bartender!). We always tell our students that a bartender is a salesperson, you must be quick when quick is required you must upsell your products and then when you have a bit of time you can chat to your customers, entertain them, give them someone to listen to. If you can remember the names of your regular customers, you will always get good tips.
Super Yacht bartenders
In recent years South Africa has become a big source of crew for both super yachts and cruise liners, it allows South Africans to travel and earn an international wage with sometimes incredible tips. Shaker offers a Super Yacht training package which includes our 5 day International Bartenders Course, our 3 day Professional Barista Course along with the WSET level one spirits qualification. This is an ideal skill set to add on to the sailing qualifications that you will need to work aboard any yacht. The more useful skills you can add the more likely you are of securing a prestigious job. Some of our students who have done our Super Yacht package, have crewed aboard the most prestigious yachts in the world belonging to internet moguls and industry giants. (we can’t tell you which ones I’m afraid as crews often have to sign a non-disclosure agreement) You will be aware that this work is not for the feint hearted as you are expected to work very long hours and always be at 100%, but the rewards can be considerable.
Barista/Coffee training
When we moved to our new BarSchools in Bree Street Cape Town and 6th Street, Parkhurst we started to provide barista training alongside our cocktail courses. Every bar and restaurant now has a coffee offering so it’s another essential skill that bartenders should learn. Interestingly enough the Italian for barista is actually ‘bartender’. We offer a one day introduction to Barista course for those who would love to learn more about coffee and the art of the barista but are not looking to start a career in coffee (yet?) Our professional barista course goes into much more depth with some theory as well as practical time driving the espresso machine, learning the art of making the perfect espresso how to set up and calibrate the grinder and machine. The of course crucially how to froth the milk without burning it. You cannot hope to become an expert barista in one week but this course starts you off with exactly the right base of knowledge to get you on the right track as a professional.
Events and Bar Hire
Another division of Shaker is using our students to run bars for events all over South Africa (we have even done a big wedding in India) We do work for brands, corporates as well as private parties big and small. It is a great chance for our students to get some practical experience after finishing their course and to give the customer the chance to have well trained bartenders at a competitive price. Some highlights for our event division has been serving cocktails at the celebrity wedding of Richard Branson’s daughter at UluSaba game reserve and a Cape Town Polo tournament attended by Prince Harry.
Baijiu a not so new, 5,000 yr old spirit
Learning can be fun, especially when it’s something that you can taste as well. On our Shaker courses we only use International spirit brands that you will find all over the world. The exception might be a very interesting spirit from China. Not many people know what the biggest selling spirit in the world is, most people would guess at Vodka, Gin, Rum, Whiskey, Scotch, or tequila. There is certainly more marketing worldwide and articles written on these spirits than any other. However, Baijiu in China is the highest volume spirit consumed globally, it has been consumed in China for over 5,000 years so it’s not a new kid on the block. However, it is not marketed or sold much outside China, although this is slowly changing. It seems Millennials are the biggest consumer of spirits in China showing us that western markets still have a bit to learn as most spirits in the West are consumed by the older generation.
Baijiu is crystal-clear and typically distilled from sorghum (a flowering plant) and wheat or barley, rice, or other grains. It used to be drunk not only for pleasure but also for cultural and medicinal reasons, it’s quite strong at 40 – 60% alcohol but also complex with floral notes, citrus, umami sometimes overripe tropical fruit.
Much like whisky, every Baijiu distillery has its own flavour profile and ways of doing things. There are 5 dominant sub-categories of Baijiu: Strong, Sauce, Light, Rice and Mixed Aromas and it is mainly drunk at room temperature as a shot. It has a reputation much like tequila for ‘getting the party started’ which often leads to drinking to excess, especially as it is not polite to drink Baijiu alone.
Baijiu etiquette demands that one must always drink a full shot, but only when a toast is made. A toast must be reciprocated, but you must not toast before the host. It has now become a popular ingredient in cocktails, because of its unique flavouring. At Eric Yu’s bar, Opium in Chinatown, London, Baijiu is mixed with Rum and jasmine to make a Clarified Shanghai Punch.
Advanced Bartending Course
Baijiu is one of those spirits that you must understand and know the taste of to be able to include in your cocktail repertoire. Our Shaker ABC course is all about taking your knowledge and practical skills to the next level. It is for students who have already completed the IBC or bartenders who have been working in the industry and who do not need to be taught the basics of cocktail bartending.
We do a further deep dive into spirit knowledge with some more in-depth tastings and complex flavour profiling. The course allows you to play around with some tools you may not have got a chance to use yet, such as ice carving and block production, molecular techniques including spheres, spaghetti, and texturizing.
The main fun comes with using our ‘bartenders’ playground’ to experiment with how to design your own signature cocktail, we look at all the different aspects drink design from sourcing and stocking to consistency and taste profiling….and of course the ‘wow factor’. You get a chance to make the same drink in many different ways to see what changes and what works. We then look at how to compete in the many bartender competitions that now exist in South Africa. Competition bartending seems to have its own set of rules, but run through how to compete, what to study to help you win and we do some speed bartending training to give you a head start. We also will let you know all the current competitions, when they are and what they require you to do.
Shaker BarSchool South Africa
So for anything Bartender or Barista training related give us a call or better still come and see us in Cape Town or Johannesburg.