Dubai's drink academy

The increasing number of hotels in Dubai has lead to a greater demand for well-trained bar staff, however, with many properties cutting costs, the chance to send staff to the academy’s training sessions is a cheaper and possibly more efficient alternative.

“It makes it easier for hotels as they haven’t got to book a meeting room, get the glasses ready or sort the beverages out,” comments Malik.

Once the students are on board, it’s left to the training managers to pass their knowledge on. Malik describes his individual teaching style as interactive and fun.

“One thing you find here with bartenders is that they are intimidated easily,” he comments. “But these courses are there to make them more confident when it comes to selling brands.

“If you start talking to them, interact with them and have a laugh and a joke at the same time they tend to open up a lot more.

“Slowly we’ve realised that you have got get the students answering questions, you’ve got to reward them and you’ve got to make it fun.”

The key, according to Malik, is to keep the participating bar staff attentive during the sessions, and by adding an interactive slant it encourages the participants to take notes.

“You have to ask yourself how can I keep them awake — after all these are the guys and girls on the front line and they’re the one’s that are doing the selling,” he says.

Advertisement

The benefit of teaching staff about an established product, such as Jack Daniels, is the added benefit of it having more than a century of heritage, according to Malik.

“If they understand that it’s been around since 1866, they’re going to start thinking that if it been around for more than 100 years, people must like it,” points Malik.

Another important part of the training sessions are the tastings; at the session attended by HME.com, three separate Jack Daniel’s products were tasted by the attending bartenders.

Alongside the history of the product, this serves to give the bar staff the confidence to describe the taste, texture and history of a product.

“In many bars here you have a lot of staff with such a wide selection of spirits behind their bar, that they will not have tasted many of the spirits,” notes Malik.

“It’s all about personal opinion,” he points out. “Everyone is an individual and everyone has their own taste buds.

“I might give a customer a Bloody Mary and I’ll tell them how hot it is and they might suggest that it’s not hot, but mild.

“The most important thing behind these sessions is about giving staff the confidence to talk to their customers, where they can say what they think about the product to make it sound attractive and appealing,” he adds.