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Welcome to The Beverage Alcohol Resource® (BAR®) 5-Day Program at The Culinary Institute of America!

The BAR 5-Day® course is the world’s premiere educational program on distilled spirits and mixology. Since our first 5-day course in 2006, our team of leading craft beverage and cocktail authorities has revolutionized the way in which spirits and cocktails are understood, appreciated, and enjoyed. Today, BAR continues to be the most trusted, comprehensive, and innovative source of information on distilled spirits and mixology in the beverage alcohol industry.

The BAR 5-Day Program® is an educational achievement in the field of spirits and mixology in the spirit of the Master of Wine or Master Sommelier titles. Founded by six of the world’s leading spirits and cocktails authorities, Dale DeGroff, Doug Frost, Steven Olson, F. Paul Pacult, Andy Seymour and David Wondrich, BAR has now grown to include a diverse and dynamic faculty of dozens of the industry’s top beverage professionals.

A Step-by-Step Resource for Cocktail Creation and Mixology Methods

Distilled spirits and cocktails have become an integral part of our epicurean lifestyle. Given the dramatic growth in spirits sales and increasing popularity of cocktails over the past few years, we are experiencing a New Golden Age for spirits and cocktails. What the 1980s and 1990s were for fine wine and craft-brewed beer, the new millennium is for spirits and cocktails. Now there is a program that offers state of the art training and in-depth study for anyone who wants to elevate their spirits and cocktail craft.

Premier Instruction

Hundreds of intrepid, dedicated individuals from around the world, including professional and amateur bartenders, brand ambassadors, bar owners, restaurateurs, Masters of Wine, members of the media, and beverage alcohol industry executives, have attended the BAR 5-Day Programs to date.

Anyone who successfully the BAR 5-Day Program® is able to mix a balanced Sidecar, distinguish a Speyside malt from a Lowland malt, explain in detail the difference between Bourbon whiskey and Irish whiskey, recognize when a tequila is overpriced, identify a potato vodka by its nose alone, explain the origin of the Manhattan cocktail and why the bitters are an integral part of the drink, draw up a cocktail list that matches the elegance of the establishment it’s created for and, in short, do everything that one expects from a comprehensively informed professional.

If you want to be part of the next BAR 5-Day®, click here for more info and to apply or contact us for more info.