The best mixology and cocktail making classes for team building

Sometimes, you might be less interested in making a drink and you’d rather simply take the time to enjoy a refreshing drink with your team members and colleagues. If that sounds like it interests you, then you should consider one of these tasting events for your next team building activity.

Whiskey is one of the more complex spirits that you can easily acquire, and it is also one of the most diverse. One of the few spirits to originate in the US, there are several state and federal laws controlling how American whiskey is made, how it must be distilled, and what the mash must consist of in order to qualify as a specific kind of whiskey. In this whiskey sampling experience, you and your team members will enjoy a flight of different American whiskeys, learn about the distillation process, and discover how different varieties of whiskey are made (for example, how bourbon is different from rye and exactly how much corn do you need to use to make corn whiskey). You’ll also learn how professional whiskey tasters sample and grade the whiskeys they taste, with everyone having a chance to create their own set of tasting notes for their samples.

Similarly, you can sign your team members up for a tequila tasting event and learn about the rich history of the Mexican spirit. Much like champagne, technically, Tequila is only Tequila if it comes from the agave fields near the city of Tequila (which are rare blue agave); otherwise, it is just regular Mezcal. In this tasting event, you and your team members will have the chance to learn more about what makes Tequila and other Mezcal unique among the world's spirits. Everyone will have a chance to sample a collection of tequilas as they make and compare their own tasting notes. This event is sure to be a hit amongst your team members and is a good way to introduce them to a new kind of tasting experience.

Give your team members the opportunity to learn from a professional sommelier as they sample a curated collection of fine wines from across the globe. You and your team members will have a relaxing experience as they learn about the different styles of wines, how different grapes and climates produce different flavors, and how professional sommeliers taste and critique wines. Even if your team members have never sampled wine that doesn’t come in a box, this event is sure to be a hit since all you need to do is show up and enjoy some good wine. If the event is being held virtually, they won’t even have to show up anywhere since the wine will be shipped directly to their homes.

Likewise, if you are interested in enjoying some nice, refreshing beer, you can sign your team members up for a Belgian beer tasting event. True to its name, in this class, you’ll be tasting a variety of different Belgian beers (ranging from light soissons to darker fare like porters and stouts) as you and your team members learn about the wide variety of different beer styles that come out of Belgium. The nation has a long history of beer making, and your team members will receive a guided tour of the various styles and flavor profiles offered in this engaging and interactive program. No matter what kind of beer your team members like (or if they are still trying to find the beer of their choosing), this class is sure to be right for them.

A Wine and Cheese Tasting Workshop is an option for those looking to elevate their team building experience. This workshop blends a captivating wine and cheese-tasting experience with an activity to foster stronger connections between teammates. Participants will learn all about different wine and cheese pairings and how different flavors complement each other, all from a professional wine & cheese expert. The relaxed atmosphere encourages conversation between groups and allows them to connect on a more personal level during the experience. There’s also time during the workshop for participants to ask questions and get feedback on their own pairing ideas. By the end of the class, your team will feel closer to one another and know how to have more elevated discussions about what they're tasting.

Help break the ice and inspire your team to get creative with a Paint & Sip Party designed for groups. Each Paint & Sip Party for team building is hosted by a professional artist who teaches the basics of acrylic painting. This is a completely beginner-friendly activity requiring no painting experience, making it a great choice for groups of all sizes and artistic abilities. Each attendee receives a bottle of wine and an acrylic painting kit they’ll use to recreate an image of their choice. The host walks participants through each step of the painting process while they’re able to sit back, enjoy their glass of wine, and create a beautiful piece of art. There’s also ample time for your team to converse and bond in a stress-free environment.

While the act of mixing alcoholic beverages together with other ingredients likely predates human agriculture (fermented, alcoholic beverages are one of the oldest surviving aspects of human culture), what we understand as ‘mixology’ didn’t really become popular until the mid-1800s. In 1862, Jerry Thomas published his eponymous Jerry Thomas' Bartender's Guide, which was the first book to formally gather and mass disseminate cocktail recipes (though these recipes were obviously sourced from bars around the world). Mixology is the art and science of mixing drinks, balancing flavors, and creating delicious cocktails. While anyone can reasonably make a rum and coke, more complex drinks will require specific barware, specific spirits, bitters, and mixers, as well as a range of different juices and other sweeteners (by the earliest definitions of the word, a cocktail is strictly a spirit, watered down with ice and combined with a bitter and sweetener, though this definition as expanded over time).

Mixology has become a popular hobby across the globe, and it has also become a thriving profession in and of itself. Upscale restaurants and bars employ bartenders who have studied and practiced for years to learn exactly how to make high-end cocktails, and there are awards every year for the best cocktails to be invented that year. Learning how to mix drinks can be a fun social activity, and you can build your own library of specialties and even start inventing your own drinks at home (though, in the last 150 years, most of the obvious combinations have been tried).

Mixology team building events are a fun way to take the traditional activities associated with happy hour and give a structure to the event since rather than just being an excuse to have a few drinks with coworkers, it becomes a workshop where you are learning some practical skills. Whether in-person or in a virtual workshop, everyone will have a chance to get together, socialize, and participate in the workshop together, which can greatly improve team morale and cohesion. This is especially true once people get a bit eased up and start sampling their creations. These types of events are an outside-the-box way to take virtual team building activities like games and add a fun, hands-on twist to the experience. 

In addition, mixology is a particularly fun hobby skill that many people might be eager to learn since it is very easy to get started with, and it can be good for a fun party trick or two. It doesn’t take a lot to learn how to make some pretty tasty drinks, and anyone can learn how to whip up a fancy cosmopolitan, a delicious rum punch, or a classy Old Fashioned in no time at all. Learning new skills can be a joy in and of itself, and it only takes a bit of mixology knowledge to get comfortable enough to start experimenting with their own craft cocktail creations.

Mixology events also offer a good balance between the difficulty of learning the skill in question and the practicality of that skill. While it isn’t likely that anyone on your team will become a professional mixologist, knowing how to make a few cocktails is a useful skill for anyone who hosts events or who is looking for a fun hobby to spend more time getting into the weeds on, in practical terms and as a subject with an interesting history. At the same time, it is very easy for even complete novices to learn the basics of mixology since, at its core, it is just combining spirits, sweeteners, and juice (and the spirits are largely negotiable), meaning that your team members won’t have to worry about feeling unable to mix their drinks and enjoy them with their coworkers, and, even if they aren’t perfect in their composition, they are fairly fool-proof. Plus, since cocktail making is a fairly quick process (even the most elaborate cocktails don’t take more than 10 minutes to make, with most taking no more than 3 or 4), unlike a cooking class, where you will spend a full hour (or more) working on a single recipe, in a mixology course, you’ll be able to quickly mix up a trio of cocktails while still having time to learn some fun mixology facts, talk to your team members and enjoy the drink amongst your coworkers (and provide your takes on those drinks).

A mixology team building event will give participants hands-on experience mixing drinks and creating cocktails. They will work with common bar equipment like shakers, Hawthorne strainers, jiggers, bar spoons, and mixing glasses in order to dispel the assumption that basic mixology is somehow difficult just because there are a lot of fancy tools involved. You and your team will learn how to measure the ingredients, how to mix them together (since different cocktails call for different mixing methods), and how to garnish the drinks to improve the aesthetics of the finished product (for some drinks, like an espresso martini, the appearance is just as important as the taste).

Participants will also learn about the history and science behind mixology, which has often been likened to chemistry but with alcohol. Since its humble beginnings in bars around the world over 200 years ago, the science of mixology has become a refined and complex subject, and you’ll learn the basics of how mixologists balance flavors, create certain profiles in their drinks, and why some drinks call for very specific lists of ingredients. This will teach your participants some interesting facts about flavor and spirits, but more importantly, it will help them better understand how to make their own drinks and what they can do to ensure that the drinks they make for themselves are tailored to their own taste (if you are making a drink for yourself, it doesn’t matter if you can make the perfect Negroni if you don’t like the bitterness of Campari).

You’ll also get to enjoy the experience of making drinks (and drinking drinks) alongside your team members. For the simple drinks that you are making during an introductory mixology course, there will be plenty of time to chat, socialize, and have fun as you are learning a new skill. Your host may even show you some fun tricks and showy moves that bartenders use to impress their customers and make the drink making experience more enjoyable. 

Mixology events stand out as engaging team-building experiences, but how do they compare to other popular options like art classes, holiday events, cooking workshops, and more? Each type of event brings its own atmosphere and benefits, making it important to match the activity to your team’s preferences.

Compared to mixology classes, arts and crafts classes for team building, such as a BYOB paint party, focus on creativity and self-expression. While mixology encourages socialization through the shared experience of making cocktails, art classes emphasize the relaxing nature of creating something tangible. Both events offer a low-pressure environment for team members to interact, but art classes may be more inclusive for those who prefer a slower pace or have dietary restrictions. The structure of an art class also makes it an excellent option for teams that thrive in a more hands-on, creative atmosphere, where the process is just as enjoyable as the finished product.

Holiday team building events offer another layer of team-building opportunities. Festive occasions like Halloween cocktail-making workshops or holiday cookie decorating classes bring a seasonal twist that can energize teams, especially around these celebratory times of the year. These classes can cultivate stronger connections by providing a shared seasonal experience, and like mixology, they allow teams to experiment with fun creations. However, holiday classes tend to be more focused on the celebratory aspect, where the festive mood takes priority over skill development. Mixology workshops blend fun with the acquisition of practical skills that participants can use long after the event is over.

Virtual cooking classes for groups are another popular alternative that also promotes teamwork, though they tend to require more focus and time compared to mixology events. In a typical cooking class, participants might spend an hour or more preparing and cooking a dish, which can sometimes feel more like work than a fun, social activity. Mixology, by comparison, offers a quicker turnaround, as most cocktails take only a few minutes to prepare. That said, for teams looking to build collaboration skills, cooking classes can be highly rewarding, as they require participants to follow complex instructions and work together to create a successful meal.

For teams looking for more laid-back activities, wine and cheese tastings or beer tastings are slower-paced alternatives that allow for plenty of conversation and reflection on flavors. These events are ideal for teams looking to connect over shared experiences without the hands-on element required in a mixology or cooking class for team building. While tastings might not have the interactive component of learning a new skill, they are an excellent choice for fostering communication and camaraderie in a relaxed setting.

There are a lot of different mixology events to consider, so what factors should you consider when choosing what event to sign up for? The first and most important thing to consider is whether or not the event has ample options for non-drinkers to participate. Not only is it important to be sure that all of your team members feel included, but an event like this has a much more significant chance of turning team members away if they don’t feel welcome because they don’t drink. Most events make it fairly easy to make non-alcoholic cocktails (and there are even mocktail making events), but it is a very important thing to consider.

Next, you’ll want to decide on what kind of menu you are looking to include in your mixology course. There are thousands of possible mixed drinks using only a handful of base spirits, so you’ll want to look over your options to find something that sounds particularly interesting or worth trying. You’ll want to consider everything from the spirits being used to how easily drinks allow for substitutions and replacements of certain ingredients. For example, if you are learning how to make a Negroni, you can sub out the gin for rye, and it becomes a Boulevardier, another delicious cocktail, but you can’t really sub out the Campari. Likewise, a Margarita without tequila isn’t really a Margarita, so if you hold a Margarita mixology event, everyone will be somewhat obligated to go find a tequila (or just not attend). Most menus offer up a lot of good options for substitutions and different ingredients for attendees without a fully stocked bar, but others will be a bit more specific in what they call for (and honestly, if you are making a Bramble and try to substitute cotton candy vodka, you are going to have a bad time).

One of the advantages of mixology events is that they are so easily customized to fit the makeup of your group. For example, you can focus on different kinds of spirits, different eras of cocktails, or different seasonal or holiday drinks. 

• Classic Cocktails: Mixology dates back to before prohibition, so you can make a collection of cocktails like the Old Fashion, the Sazerac, the Negroni, or the Martini. Every amateur mixologist should learn how to make these classics, and they have stood the test of time for a reason.
• Modern Favorites: Even though it is an old art, mixology is constantly evolving, and in one of these classes, you can learn how to make some of the once-experimental cocktails, like the Paper plane or the Penicillin, that have established themselves as modern favorites.
• Tequila and Margaritas: Few drinks are as popular as the margarita, and in one of these classes, you and your team members will learn the basic recipe for a margarita as well as how to modify them to fit your taste (including things like frozen margaritas, strawberry margaritas, etc.)
• Vodka: While often associated with Russian winters, the real defining quality of vodka is that it is a neutral spirit, so it is basically flavorless. This makes it a great base spirit to learn how to work with since a vodka mixology event will focus on getting the most out of your syrups, liqueurs, and juices.
• Rum: This Caribbean spirit, made from distilled sugarcane or molasses, is a popular base spirit in all sorts of tiki drinks and beach drinks. In a class focused on rum, you and your team members will learn to make the perfect cocktails for any day at the beach (or any day you wish you were at the beach).
• Spritzes: Thanks to the rise in popularity of the Negroni Sbagliato, spritzes (cocktails using sparkling wine) have returned to prominence. Get your team members in on this popular trend by enrolling in a spritzes workshop.
• Whiskey: The original American spirit, whiskey is an incredibly versatile and diverse spirit. In a whiskey mixology class, your team members will get hands-on chances to work with bourbons and ryes to make some of the most iconic American cocktails ever invented.

Another thing to consider is how complicated you want the menu to be since there can be quite a lot of variance in the difficulty of making drinks. For example, there are quite a few drinks, like the gin and tonic, where all of the ingredients are in the name. There are also drinks like the Ramos Gin Fizz, which, if made properly, calls for ten minutes of shaking. The ideal event will be something of a middle ground between the two extremes of making drinks, and many events will include a simple cocktail (like an old fashioned), a complex cocktail (like a bramble or a paper plane), and a unique cocktail (like a raspberry mojito). A drink with only a few steps can ease participants into the process of making cocktails and give them a bit of confidence before moving on to something more complicated.

You’ll also want to consider the price alongside the complexity of the cocktails. For instance, while there may be a temptation to hold an event and give your team members a chance to taste the once-viral Negroni Sbagliato, it calls for both sparkling wine and Campari, and those ingredients are fairly foundational to the cocktail. Neither ingredient is sold in small quantities (most liquor stores will only have .75 liter bottles at minimum), Sparkling wine has an expiration date once it's been opened, and Campari is, shall we say, an acquired taste (and it isn’t the cheapest liqueur either). This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t consider giving it a try yourself; it might not be the best introduction to mixology for a team that isn’t used to that kind of cocktail. While you probably won’t have to put too much thought into this aspect of the event, it is important to consider that some ingredients can be a bit harder to source than others, and the last thing anyone wants is to feel that they wasted money on a team building event.

Finally, you’ll want to consider how you can incorporate current events to make the session more impactful. For example, throwing a virtual holiday party with a mixology activity or hosting a white elephant gift exchange is a great way to get ready for the festive season while helping your team bond over a hands-on experience. There are also fun events like escape rooms for groups that can create an upbeat atmosphere that’s perfect for encouraging stronger team bonds.