CAMDEN
ACADEMY
Making great bartenders
INTRODUCTION
Camden Cocktail Academy is an on-premise bartending
school created to teach and develop quality education for
the hospitality sector. We provide a full spectrum curriculum
including bartending, health and safety, spirit, beer and wine
knowledge as well as non-alcoholic elements like coffee and
service, while keeping a high focus on tradecraft and standards.
What sets Camden Cocktail Academy aside from other
hospitality educators is that we have the unique opportunity
to conduct our courses in a fully functioning bar, allowing the
students to immerse themselves in the environment in which
they will ply their trade. This is done with dry runs and actual
service.
We provide our graduates with the most relevant diplomas and
qualifications, preparing them to take on any situation that
arises in their career. We supply training and education, not just
for amateurs and first timers, but for seasoned veterans of the
trade, including managers, owner/operators and bar groups
looking to perfect their skills and knowledge.
Camden Cocktail Academy is for everyone and anyone can be
a Gun if they put their mind to it. We are here to give you the
tools.
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
THE EXPERIENCE
One of the many things that sets Camden Cocktail Academy
apart from other bar schools, is the amount of experience
you will get being in real working bars. We believe in order to
become an exceptional bartender, it is essential that you learn
your craft in an environment where you will experience the ebb
and flow of customers, market traders, suppliers and brand
ambassadors. This not only ensures that you meet new people
and deal with real customers in real situations, but also allows
you to grow accustomed to the camaraderie and ever present
social life of the bartender.
We are on hand 24 hours a day to make sure all your needs are
met and that you get everything you want out of this once in
a lifetime experience. Our team come from all four corners of
the globe representing the multicultural London that we love.
The unique vibe radiating from this diverse mix of personalities
creates a buzz and atmosphere that makes a night or day at
Camden Cocktail Academy truly special.
Our goal is to set a new standard of quality education in
hospitality by producing “Camden Cocktail Academy certified
Guns”. Graduates who can walk into any bar in the world and
excel.
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
the course
Our 4 week bartending course will be broken down into the
following modules:
• Coffee – Students will learn the differences in coffee
varieties, how to operate a standard issue coffee machine,
how to clean and maintain it, coffee art and how to make
and present the ever growing variety of coffee serves.
• Beer – History of beer making and the different styles and
types of beer. Cultural occurrence and significance, craft
beer, perfect serve and cellar management. Includes a
brewery tour and tasting sessions.
• Wine – Different grape varieties, regions and styles of wine
and will gain a base knowledge of wine making. Learn how
to engage with customers over the bar and help them pick a
wine to suit their tastes. Equal to the WSET level 1.
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
• Spirits – Common spirits used in the bar, history and
distillation process, classic brands and most common
usage. Includes a gin distillery tour and tasting sessions with
some of London’s leading brand ambassadors.
• Cocktails/mixology – Standard procedures of setting
up and closing down a bar. Standard mise en place, free
pouring tests, trade craft and how to make and present the
most sought after cocktails in the world today. Over the 4
week period students will work on their own creations to be
presented in their final exam. They will learn how to order
their service and serve multiple cocktails at a time. The
course will end with our own version of “Rematch Beeyatch”
in which students will race against the clock to serve 9
cocktails and a beer!
• Garnishes/service – Students will learn the concept of
“drinking with your eyes” making attractive garnishes that
draw in the customer and get attention, understanding
garnishes as an indicator for drink types, interactive
garnishes and the standard steps of service, round building
and standard wine service.
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
camden
Camden Town is a place where normal rules don’t apply. As
you leave the station you enter a world full of colour, music, the
scent of street food and incense. Camden Town is a see before
you die place, and at its heart is the world famous Camden
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
Market, home to London’s most unique bar school, Camden
Cocktail Academy. As one of our students, you’ll spend your
time immersed in this eclectic scene, learning a trade and skills
that will get you a job in bars across the world.
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
Where to stay
we’ve got you covered!
We’ve arranged a special rate for Camden Cocktail Academy
students with our friends at the Generator London, a cutting
edge hostel a short walk from Camden Market. Built in an old
converted police station, it is the perfect mix of cool decor and
friendly, helpful staff.
Generator Hostels is the fastest growing hostel brand in
Europe and with good reason. Generator London boasts a
24/7 reception and security team, free Wi-Fi, cinema nights
on Tuesdays and Saturdays, pool and foosball tables, a cafe,
bar and resident DJ, with open mic nights and live acoustic
sessions to keep you entertained.
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
meet the team
Dan Conchie
Managing Director
Emily Conchie
Student Liaison Officer
Mario Sandgren
Course Director
Camden Cocktail Academy is Dan’s
brainchild. Dan has worked in cutting
edge bars in both New York, most
notably serving famous people in Café
Habana, and London. Dan and his
partner Emily run Lockside Lounge and
Café Chula.
Emily will be your first point of
contact at Camden Cocktail Academy,
overseeing your enquiries, bookings,
accommodation needs and general
course admin. Emily has done it all
from stints in the kitchen to silver
service, from middle America to
California to NYC to London. For the
past few years she has been AGM and
Creative Director for Cafe Chula and
Lockside Lounge located in the famous
Camden Market.
Mario is a highly skilled accredited
WSET instructor and has worked in
some of the world’s best bars and
restaurants including Soho House,
Hakkasan and The Rum Kitchen. Mario
has a reputation for his excellent
palate and is a master of balancing
drinks, holding a European record in
blind tasting.
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
BOOK
4 week course £1595
We’re not just here just to teach you how to make drinks, we’re
here to shape London’s most cutting edge bartenders. Once
you’ve completed your course, all students automatically
become life members of Camden Cocktail Academy, with
special privileges like discounts and special offers at tonnes of
bars, restaurants, retailers and venues. Those that excel are
awarded a beautiful bar blade engraved with their status as a
“Camden Cocktail Academy certified Gun”.
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
4 week course with accommodation
at the Generator£1995
5 day classic cocktail course £295
3 day beer, wines and coffee course
£195
020 7284 0007
[email protected]
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
Monthly Curriculum
Week One
Monday - INDUCTION
Thursday - WINE
Student meet and greet with teachers and directors. Get to pour shots, dinner, drinks,
mingling.
• No actual learning today, just get to know each other, where they will study, where
they will live etc.
• Students will be learning Monday to Friday, with Saturday reserved for top students
to work in the bar. Wednesday-Sunday, students will be allowed to earn extra cash
and tips by glass collection and other traditional bar back jobs, in order to get
comfortable in a bar environment
• Make books available to students; joy of mixology, bar book, craft of the cocktail
etc.
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• Danny Spencer wine training full day
• Sager & Wilde visit for homework
• Will be run completely by Danny Spencer
• History
• Varieties of grapes
• Styles of wine
• Dessert wine process
• Fortified wine and its process
• Champagne and its process, and differences between Prosecco, Champagne and
Cava
• Wine making process
• Vines and their importance
• Phyloxera and its importance to the New World Wines.
Tuesday - COFFEE
Students will, every morning from this morning on, make each other coffee, and
thus keep up their coffee training on a daily basis. Coffee each morning will be
graded by teachers.
• Students will dismantle, clean and reassemble a full size coffee machine, to learn
its parts and why it’s important to keep to certain protocols, and where and how to
clean the machine in the right way
• Students will learn about history of coffee, briefly about different styles of coffee,
roasting techniques form different areas, i.e. Colombia, Africa, Central America,
Italy
• Students will learn the most common different types of coffees, and the differences
between them
• Students will learn hot drinks and how to use espresso and tea in cocktails
Wednesday - BEER
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• Morning Brewdog cicerone session
• History of Beer
• Different styles and types of beer
• Its usage and occurrences in different cultures, and its significance
• Brewery tour - Camden Town Brewery tour as homework
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Friday - SPIRITS & TASTING NOTES
Weekly recap test.
• Aroma kit exercise
• Go through a standard speed rail, and the significance of the setup of your speed
rail
• The most common spirits used in the bar. What they are and what they are
traditionally used for?
• How to treat spirits and how to taste spirits correctly, and how spirits differs from
wine in regards to how to treat them?
• How to class spirits and how to differentiate them, from each other, via aroma and
notes?
• Mixology Technique: how to stir how to shake, how to throw, how to build, and
why?
• What drinks works for what style of architecture?
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
Monthly Curriculum
Week two
Monday - VODKA
Thursday - BOURBON & AMERICAN WHISKEY
Test on Friday’s session will start the day.
• Differences between types of vodka
• What can Vodka be made from?
• History of Vodka and distilled clear spirit of northern Europe
• How is Vodka made?
• Russia vs. Poland
• Sweden and Absolut
• Vodkas rise to fame, and prominence
• How to use Vodka and for what type of drinks
• Classic and modern Vodka Cocktails
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• History of distilling in America, and American Whiskey
• Name Bourbon, and its origin
• Students to name 3 Bourbon distilleries in Kentucky, and 3 outside Kentucky
• Process of distillation, different styles of distillation, difference between Tennessee
Whiskey and Bourbon
• Cooperage and barrels, the importance of wood, and the lobby of coopers
• 5 Biggest brands of Bourbon
• 3 Brands that made it through prohibition
• Mash Builds, and how they work?
Tuesday - HERBAL LIQUEURS/VERMOUTH
Friday - FREE POUR TEST – COCKTAIL
WORKSHOP/WEEK RECAP IN DRINKS
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• Different types of herbal based liqueurs and vermouths
• Differences between spirits, liqueurs and vermouths, and Amaro
• How and what to use them for?
• When to use them?
• How they are made?
Wednesday - PORTOBELLO ROAD
GINSTITUTE/GIN
Weekly recap test.
• Get free pouring kit
• Students will learn pouring technique, physics of pouring, and how to control the
bottle when you pour
• Student will also learn how to use jiggers most effectively
• Measure to learn will be 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 35, 40, 50ml
• When a student has passed their free pouring, they will get to make the drinks
they’ve learned during the week
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• The history of Gin, Gin in London, London Gin brands and where they are actually
from
• The importance of Gin in cocktail culture
• Students to name 4 styles of Gin, plus the Dutch precursor to gin
• The difference between the different gins, and characteristics of that style
• Students to learn prominent Gin drinks Classic and Modern Gin drinks
• Students to learn about Gin making and the rules regarding Gin
• Home work will be issued
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
Monthly Curriculum
Week three
Monday - EUROPEAN & ASIAN WHISKEY SCOTCH AND IRISH
Wednesday - TRAILER HAPPINESS/TIKI –
Garnishes Caribbean, Tropical and Tiki
Test on Friday’s session will start the day.
• Different styles of whisk(e)y; Scotch, Irish, Japanese, Australian, Indian
• Origin of the name whisky, and its meaning
• Process of Distillation
• History of Coffey and the Coffey Still and its importance
• Malts, what are they?
• Different Areas and their characteristic palates
• History of Whisky in Scotland and England
• History of Whiskey in Ireland
• Whisk(e)y importance in cocktails
• Prominent European and Asian Whisk(e)y cocktails Classics and Modern Classics
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• Students will learn the history of Tiki, Tropical & Caribbean drinks.
• Students will learn a bit of history for classic garnishes, and rituals as garnishes,
(Ramos foam tower, Sazerac throw, Flames orange peel).
• Classic garnishes and what drinks they go on, spirit and mixer garnishes, and
garnishes as indicators of beverage
• Classic Tiki garnishes (Tiki dolphin, pineapple parrot etc.)
• Basic full spectrum gastronomical immersion tactics (mint by the nose to lift a
drink etc.), neuromixology 101, Ritualistic serves, interactive serves
• “Eat with your eyes” cocktail/ritual garnish group competition
Tuesday - RUM - JAMIE KIMBER/GERGO
MOURAT/ALEXX MOUZOURIS - DON Q
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• History of Rum and Sugar Cane
• 3 regions where you can grow sugar cane, students will learn the latitude and
longitude where you can grow sugar cane globally
• 3 islands that grow sugar cane in the Caribbean, and 3 in the pacific
• Students will learn basic political and historical impact rum and sugar cane has
had through the years
• Basic rum productions, in stages. And the difference in what kind of still you use
• The difference between, Spanish Rum, English Rum, and French Rum
• Process of Solera blending
• Classic rum cocktails, and how to make a grog, a daiquiri, and a rum punch by the
classic Bajan Rhyme Recipe
• Students will learn Rum by at least 3 different names
• Students to be able to name 3 kinds of sugar cane spirits, different to rum
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
Thursday - TEQUILA & MEZCAL - BEA
BRADSELL/FERGUS ENGLISH
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• Difference between Tequila and Mezcal
• Students will learn history of Agave, the different words used for the plant, and its
different uses in alcohol
• The names of minimum 5 types of Agave, including the one used for tequila
• The process of making Mezcal, and why it tastes like it does
• The process of making Tequila and what make it stand out from Mezcal
• Students will learn how to consume mezcal and tequila and the different rituals for
the different spirits
• Students will learn Classic and Modern Classic Tequila drinks
Friday - FREE POUR TEST – COCKTAIL
WORKSHOP/WEEK RECAP IN DRINKS
Weekly recap test.
• Get free pouring Kit
• Students will Learn pouring technique, physics of pouring, and how to control the
bottle when you pour
• Student will also learn how to use jiggers most effectively
• Measure to learn will be 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 35, 40, 50ml
• When a student has passed their free pouring, they will get to make the drinks
they’ve learned during the week
Monthly Curriculum
Week four
Monday - SYRUPS AND CONDIMENTS, THE
IMPORTANCE OF PREP AND MISE EN PLACE
Wednesday - ROUND BUILDING & SPEED
Competition
Test on Friday’s session will start the day.
• Basic syrups and condiments needed and stocked in the bar (i.e. Gomme,
Grenadine, Orgeat, Falernum, Oleo Saccharum), process of making it, classic
cocktails using them, and attributes added to drinks when using them
• History of certain syrups and condiments
• Preparation of syrups and older condiments like Oleo Saccahrum, Rock Candy
Syrup
• Prep for Lockside Lounge done by students, for that day
• Classic cocktails using certain syrups and condiments as a prominent ingredient
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• Round Building and Trade Craft
• How and why building your round matters?
• Sequence of round building
• Speed competition
• Cheeky Tiki - Tiki mug workshop - make your own Tiki mug
Tuesday – BITTERS AND MODIFIERS
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• We will go through the definition of a bitters, and the history of the classic
modifier and its significance in cocktails, focusing on the two most famous ones,
Angostura Bitters and Peychaud bitters
• Historical use, and current use
• Classic drinks where bitters make the difference (i.e. Pegu Club and White Lady
etc.)
• Ingredients and process for Peychaud and Angostura, and also going through Fee
Brothers
• And also newer companies like Bitter Truth and Bittermen’s, and the difference
between bitter and modifier
• Angostura Bitters: History and classical usage, connection to medicine,
connection to classic cocktails and the definition of cocktail
• Difference between a bitter, a tincture and a distillate
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
Thursday - PRACTICAL EXAM
Test on yesterday’s session will start the day.
• PRACTICAL EXAM - 3-4 people actually hiring - “15-30min trial shift” “match
gauntlet: Manhattan, Daiquiri, classic Margarita, Sour, Old fashioned”
• After a practical exam doing 5 out of the 50 MUST LEARN drinks, we will have a
10min “gauntlet doing the 3-5 drinks usually required to do at a trial shift”. This will
be held by Mario – Course Director, Rafa – Head Teacher, and 1-3 selected invited
General Managers or Bar Managers from high end London Bars.
• The students must demonstrate an understanding of their drinks, their ingredients,
and how to handle them, history and knowledge, multitasking and ambidexterity
as well as Trade Craft
Friday - WRITTEN EXAM & LEAVING PARTY
The written exam will be in multiple parts and held over the entire day.
• It will encompass spirit knowledge at a WSET level 2 and Wine at WSET level 1, with
beer knowledge and a 50 strong cocktail specification test
• It will include a rules and regulations test and health and safety test that covers
basic COSHH and Personal License
• Tests to be corrected during Friday for official graduation on Saturday. Diploma will
be handed, licenses due for validation outside of our own jurisdiction
(WSET, PL etc. ) will be sent to your given address
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY
cocktails to learn
The 100 most popular
in the world at the moment
GIN
VODKA
•
•
Martini, Bramble, Gin Fizz, Corpse Reviver, G&T perfect serve, Tom Collins, Gimlet,
Clover Club, Last Word, Aviation, Martinez, Singapore Sling, Gimlet, Gin Basil
Smash, Fog Cutter, Gin Garden
Brandy
Whiskey
•
•
Julep, Manhattan, Remember the Maine, Sazerac, Old Fashioned, Blood and
Sand, Brooklyn, Southside, Boulevardier, Penecillin
•
Mojito, Daiquiri, Hurricane, Zombie, Mai Tai, Dark & Stormy, Rum Punch, Caipirinha
(plus variations), Cuba Libre, Old cuban, Pina Colada, Jamaican Mule, Mary
Pickford, June Bug
White Spritz, Aperol Spritz, Negroni, Piscopal, Amaretto Sour, Pimms Cup,
Americano, Negroni Sbagliato
Bubbles
•
Tequila/Mezcal
•
Brandy Crusta, Pisco Punch, Pisco Sour, Vieux Carre, Side car, Brandy Alexander,
Jack Rose
Aperitivo, Liqueurs, bitters
RUM
•
Martini, Twinkle, White Russian, Greyhound, Cosmopolitan, Moscow Mule, Bloody
Mary, Pornstar Martini, French martini, Breakfast Martini, Russian Spring Punch
French 75, Champagne cocktail, Southside fizz, Bellini
Hot drinks
Tommy’s, Margarita, Toreador, Picador, Paloma, (mi)chelada, Infante, El Diablo,
Acapulco, Tequila Mockingbird, Infante, Acapulco, The bird is the word 2, Death Flip
•
Irish Coffee, Stroh and Chocolate, Blue Blazer, Wassail, Bishop, Toddy
CAMDEN
ACADEMY
020 7284 0007
[email protected]
020 7284 0007 / [email protected]
CAMDEN COCKTAIL ACADEMY