Cocktail Fundamentals and Tasting

About this class

This class, taught by a professional bartender, covers the four foundational cocktail families, sours, fizzes, Old Fashioneds, and stirred spirit-forward drinks, and why understanding these structures lets you improvise rather than just follow recipes. You make all four families during the session, learning the mechanics of proper dilution, the role of ice, and how citrus and sweetener interact with spirits. The session wraps with a tasting that connects what you learned back to drinks you already know, so you leave with a mental model that actually holds up the next time you stand behind a bar at home.