Bols Cocktail Academy
Situated in the centre of Amsterdam, with sister facilities in New York and Budapest, the Bols Cocktail Academy teaches home bartenders the skills needed to make delicious cocktails and helps professional bartenders hone their skills.
Courses range from 30-minutes and 60-minute cocktail workshops through to 4-hour cocktail courses and allow cocktail enthusiasts to become acquainted in with the techniques, tools and products needed to make consistently good cocktails.
Open seven days a week, the Academy can accommodate eight to forty people so suits a work team outing or groups of friends. Workshops include cocktails and non-alcoholic cocktails.
Fully renovated in 2023, the Academy's 21 state-of-the-art cocktail stations are designed so that everything is within reach, making it just that little bit easier to work. The professional trainers – all experienced bartenders and bar managers – teach bartending skills from shaking, stirring and muddling through to more advanced techniques. The teaching method is interactive with learning by doing, tasting and experiencing.
Visit bols.com/bartendingacademy for more information and bookings.
Professional bartending courses
Bartenders and entrepreneurs (in the making) have the opportunity to learn everything about the latest trends and skills needed to run a successful shift and run a bar.
In the Basic Bartending Course and SVH-certified Advanced Bartending Course bartenders learn everything about designing cocktails, the different ingredients and flavour combinations. With sufficient attention to techniques such as making extracts, free-pouring, blazing, clarification, fermentation, slush cocktails, punches and citrus substitutes such as citrate and malic acid.
The Management Course also delves deeper into the financial side and leading a successful team.
Those who are unable to come to Amsterdam or one of the partner academies in New York can follow courses through interactive videos, learning bytes and live webinars.
The team
The Bols Cocktail Academy is run by a team of experienced bartenders who share their knowledge and experience with the participants under the leadership of Ivar de Lange. Ivar started as a bartender in 1996 and has won several international prizes and awards for his work. In 2013, he was named Holland's Best Bartender.
Ivar is responsible for the content of the Bols Cocktail Academy, helped by Senior Trainer and Bartender Community Lead Tyron Francisca, an experienced bartender and bar manager who is also responsible for the training within the Bols Cocktail Academy. Sam de Meijer completes the team of trainers.
Bols Genever
Flavoured with a whisky-like triple grain distillate made of corn, wheat and rye, which the Dutch call maltwine. This flavoursome distillate is blended
Bols Barrel Aged Genever
Made according to a 19th century recipe, a base of 50 per cent malt wine, triple-distilled in a pot still from rye, wheat and corn is blended with traditional
