Adam Withrington evaluates a new course from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, that focuses on spirits training.
If the limit of your spirits sales consists of the local young ladies popping in for a quick Bacardi and Coke and a few hardy lads trying to prove their manliness by chucking back some large scotches then you are missing out on a significant business opportunity.
One way to really rectify this is to book you and your staff on to a Taste & Flavour course. This WSET-approved course is run by spirits expert Mark Ridgwell and it will give participants a Professional Certificate in Spirits - the only qualification of its kind accredited by the government.
The course leaves no stone unturned. I attended one day-long session which focused on the idea of tasting spirits and then specifically on vodka. In subsequent sessions brandy, rum, gin, tequila, whisky and liqueurs were all studied.
In the introduction to the day I attended, Mark pulled no punches as to why licensees should improve their knowledge. "You have to sell spirits to Joe Public. So you've got to know your back-bar well - what your spirits taste like and where new brands or brand extensions might fit in," he says.
"You are the only people who can educate consumers about spirits. No-one writes about spirits in the national press and as a result they suffer from a social stigma because of their connection to public drunkenness and abuse."
Ask the experts
Mark gets experts on the individual spirits to come and speak to the attendees. At the vodka session Ian Wisniewski, author of several books on the spirit including Classic Vodka, took a three-hour session on the UK's most popular spirit.
Speakers in subsequent sessions include Mark himself, Desmond Payne, who is a master distiller of gin, and author and whisky expert Dave Broom.
Mark believes licensees can gain hugely from taking part in this training. "The course is absolutely geared up for the on-trade," he explains. "We look at all the major spirits categories and also at tasting. I believe being able to taste properly will give you an edge over your competition because it will allow you to interact better with your customers and improve sales."
The tasting session gives everyone the opportunity to taste spirits from across the spirits category; we tried brands like Ketel One vodka, Plymouth gin and Gran Centenario tequila.
Each of the major drinks categories are pored over in the session. For example, with vodka, Ian took Pleisure bar managers (see box, right) through the state of the vodka market and looked at its position worldwide.
He focused on how very few vodka brands were truly international - that there are only 10 major Russian vodka brands, and they pretty much stay within their own borders.
Still this is hardly a problem given that Russians get through 250 million cases of vodka a year!
Ian then took them through the production process of vodka, noting the pot still and continuous still processes as well as the unique production elements of certain brands. For example, Grey Goose, which is a mix of four different grains: corn, rye, wheat and barley.
And then finally and most importantly, he moved on to the tasting of several different brands.
While the session I attended was the first of four to be held over four weeks, Mark is keen for the course to be held over a period of two consecutive, intensive days.
"I would prefer those taking part to come to the course from 9am to 6pm on day one, go home and do the required reading overnight and come back ready for the last day. I would expect bosses to give their staff two full-paid working days free to do the course. There has to be a real commitment on all sides to this stuff," he argues.
If you are interested in booking yourself or your staff on one of Mark's courses contact him on 020 8947 9410 or email him at tasteandflavour@hotmail.com
For your Pleisure
All the managers in the 15-strong Pleisure pub and bar group estate are currently on the Taste & Flavour course.
The course has been specially arranged into four one-day sessions over four weeks, covering all the main areas in that time.
Nick Griffin, managing director of the Brighton-based group, said that improving his managers' knowledge of the market was of huge significance. "Education is the key in any job. We run pubs, not style bars. And there is a huge knowledge gap in this area. The range of spirits in a pub is usually pretty poor and we need to improve on this."
Nick is pretty pleased with the result so far. "I have received a lot of good feedback. I think our licensees were a bit nervous about doing the course. They saw it as going back to school and it has been a while since they sat down with a pen and paper like that! But I have to say they have all been completely enthused by it."