Up Your Mixology Game With These Online Bartending Schools

Created by liquor enterprise Pernod Ricard, BarSmarts is known in the restaurant and bar world as a high-end training hub for exploring the history of cocktails, best practices, and mixology. 

Created and sponsored by Pernod Ricard, the world’s second-largest wine and spirits distillery in the world, BarSmarts provides starter bar knowledge for industry members and cocktail aficionados, covering spirits, classic cocktails, cocktail history, and service management.

Pernod Ricard built a comprehensive online learning platform that can be accessed by any bartending enthusiast, anywhere.

This program kicks off with profiles of every spirits category, covering the history of the spirit, cocktail applications, and guided video tastings. It moves through a compendium of cocktail recipes and a variety of serving techniques, as well as important moments in the history of cocktails. David Wondrich, a renowned authority on the history of cocktails and Editor in Chief, Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, has been affiliated with the BarSmarts classes.

The course ends with the DrinkBuilder exam. To ace it, bartenders must make four different classic cocktails pulled from previous readings. Participants have two chances to pass each module’s test and 60 days to finish up the full program. If they pass, graduates walk away with a certificate and the opportunity to level up to the advanced course, which has had famous bartender Dale DeGroff and wine and spirits expert Steve Olson as educators.

The course costs $29 and is recommended for anyone from professionals to enthusiasts.

Masterclasses are an easy and affordable way to gain knowledge about a craft, and this particular 17-session class teaches classic and unique cocktails in an approachable and fun manner.  

The founder of boundary-pushing cocktail bar Dandelyan and a former titleholder of Tales of the Cocktail’s International Bartender of the Year, Ryan Chetiyawardana has teamed up with the award-winning, New York-based bartender Lynnette Marrero and MasterClass for a virtual cocktail course.

The two take turns bouncing through topics, covering everything from practical tips for cocktail making to insights on the industry to stories of their own experience. For example, in one lesson, Marrero covers the history of the craft cocktail movement and the importance of mentorship. In another, Chetiyawardana speaks through his views on why students don’t need fancy ingredients to create a world-class cocktail program.

Through a series of 17 hands-on lessons, Masterclass members learn how to stock a home bar, create a range of party-ready cocktails, and curate a drink menu for any and every occasion.

The lesson plan includes dedicated classes for egg white sours, Old Fashioneds, Martinis, and more, as well as a full lesson on exploring drinkers’ palates.

Students can get access to this and every course on the site for $15 a month (which is billed annually), and perhaps fill their spare time with a cooking class by American chef Alice Waters, a wine class with critic James Suckling, or a creativity class by film director David Lynch.

Offering thousands of courses with both free and paid module options, Udemy's beginner and novice barkeep aspirers will enjoy learning and perusing a plethora of content. 

Udemy has over 150,000 courses available on the website, from cooking to winemaking to bartending and spirits courses. The bartending selection alone is vast. Bartender Paul Martin⁠—a two-time Guinness World Record holder for speed mixing⁠—offers a crash course in home bartending for $30, complete with sections on garnishes, mixing, and classic cocktail mastery. Carlos Batista, a certified sommelier and spirit specialist, leads a master class on gin for $30. Participants need no prior experience, and the sommelier-author walks viewers through gin types, brands to know, flavors, origins, and cocktails. Batista also leads courses on cordials, vodka, tequila, and more rarefied options.

There are also courses on designing bottle labels and courses on managing bars. There’s even a course on the chemistry of alcoholic beverages. All graduates walk away with a certificate, and courses offer open and direct communication with instructors.

One should note that Udemy’s courses are aimed at those looking for casual courses in the bar world⁠. Most are less than three hours long, and they tend to be aimed at the new or home bartender looking to expand their skills, or beginners just looking to get their feet wet.

Udemy offers courses for free but with those free courses, graduates won’t come out of the course with a certificate or have access to an instructor like in the paid options.

Ananas offers both employers and employees knowledge and training in the hospitality world, with an option to deep-dive into bartending topics such as individual spirits, customer service, and best bar service practices.  

One part learning platform, one part comprehensive training program, Ananas is a particularly great tool for owners and managers because it brings the skills to automate team onboarding and synchronize training. It doesn’t exclude mixologists, though, since bartenders can use the program to add a certified selection of skills to a resume.

There are two levels to the program: Basics is an excellent place to start, while more experienced students can skip directly to Intermediate. Basic courses cover everything wine and beer to cocktail, bar, and customer service. The Intermediate cocktail class, for example, provides 52 cocktail recipes and how to mix them, while the customer service course covers hosting and how to prepare for guests.

The intermediate program is broken into focused modules—it lets users pick seminars based on areas they want to improve in, and several of the courses are taught by industry leaders. An example is the History of Gin class, taught by Ford’s Gin founder Simon Ford. The class is broken into eight lessons, eight videos, and three recipes. Students will take a deep dive into gin, how it’s made, where it comes from, and how to use it. There’s also an intermediate course in the ever-intimidating topic of wine, led by certified sommelier Ben Moechtar that covers reds, whites, and rosés over 12 lessons and videos.

Ananas offers the usual slate of industry knowledge and history, but there’s also a selection of videos on quirkier topics like how to balance plates on one arm to keep things interesting.

Geared toward professional bartenders, A Bar Above Mixology certification program employs an in-depth approach in order to teach mixologists the art of designing a drink. 

Owner and founder Chris Tunstall created A Bar Above with the intention of bringing an advanced cocktail program to bartenders. This isn’t a program for someone with a passing interest in bartending, as it’s designed to take current skills and careers to the next level, with advice on cocktail design and techniques.

However, for newer bartenders or people who want to hone their skills before taking the Mixology certification, A Bar Above has a basics seminar that talks drinkers through making cocktails at home, using bartending tools, and proper mixology technique.

Step one of the mixology program focuses on ingredients, covering everything from what products to use behind the bar to how to get the most out of them in cocktails. Step two takes students through how to balance cocktails and plan out a cocktail on paper. Step three is the two-part certification exam, consisting of a multiple-choice quiz and a practical exam that has participants making an original cocktail using the framework taught in the course.

All materials are taught via HD videos and interactive quizzes. One of the best parts of the program is that it provides virtual community and mentorship opportunities, all via the online platform and chat boards.

The cost of the program is $147, but with that comes lifetime access to the assets, so students can come back anytime to refresh skills, learn tricks from the community, or network.

Created by one of the industry’s leading global spirits manufacturers, Diageo Bar Academy is an invaluable resource for those in the beverage and hospitality realm, teaching students the ins and outs of building a bar; plus, it includes a wellness focus and bar communication skills.

Founded and curated by one of the world’s largest spirits companies, Diageo Bar Academy maps out everything you need to start a bar. The academy started as part of Diageo’s initiative to improve the quality of bar staff. To do this, they tapped industry influencers and experts to bring training programs and drink inspirations to Diageo’s network of bartenders and brand fans.

To date, they have trained tens of thousands of bar staff across the globe, and this large community is one of the biggest draws of the program. Training modules are led by industry leaders, and the academy doubles as a networking hub, connecting bartenders around the globe.

Bar Academy’s modules and courses are designed to cater to bar professionals, and information is useful to different bar styles and staff, as well as establishment owners looking to broaden their bar knowledge. It’s one of the most comprehensive training programs available⁠—there are courses on high-skill techniques, service skills, product knowledge, and business operations.

Their offerings also include well-being and physical health modules that are useful for anyone working in the notoriously hectic and stressful service industry.

There’s a reason members are loyal to the platform⁠—Bar Academy keeps members up to date on news and trends in the industry, which means the service is an invaluable resource for any industry professional.