| rev:text
| - The 4 day introduction to bartending course offered at the Toronto Institute of Bartending is (almost) a complete waste of money. I'm going to try to break it down extensively to help those out who might not know what to expect.
At its most basic, it's an expensive, useless Powerpoint lesson on the history of the various types of alcohols and then the techniques and tools used. Unfortunately it consists of what amounts to nearly half of the course and could be looked up online.
Teacher: My instructor was Nat. Who in my opinion is one of the course's biggest problems. When she wanted to be she was personable, but she is not someone who should be teaching others. Often condescending to people who didn't know things or disagree. She often yelled at students for doing things wrong during the practical learning.
Sometimes when she went off script what she said was only partially correct (like saying a type of Rose is a blend of white and red wines, but not knowing it's considered "lowbrow" in winemaking) or actually being outright wrong (corking is bacteria from the cork changing a wine's flavour, not pieces inside the wine as she'll tell you). It the school is going to charge you hundreds of dollars, at least make sure what's being said is correct.
Tastings: With every type of alcohol presented, the class was offered a few sips of a variety of different brands from each category to identify the characteristics. I would have liked a bit more variety in what was presented, but I get that they want to use the mid-level easy brands for teaching (and cost effectiveness).
The bad in the tasting is that the wonderful aspect of alcohol is that it's subjective. My tongue and brain tastes differently than yours. However according to Nat, if you don't mention the same flavours that the alcohol companies say are found in the bottle, you're wrong. She doesn't seem to realize that those are the flavours MOST drinkers experience, not EVERYONE.
Practical: The only saving grace. An hour or so a day (which is split between you and the other dozen students, taking turns behind the bar four at a time) you do go behind a real bar, and with labeled bottles filled with coloured water you practice how to make various drinks (you won't get a sense of taste however). That's what I was personally looking for, as I didn't have any experience in this realm.
Like everything at TIB, there's a downside. The instructor Nat decides that the practice time was best spent chatting & checking social media, only periodically looking up to yell at students for the easy mistakes. In the meantime behind the bar, students were failing to wash tools as they should and putting the ice scoop in the ice bucket (both fine-worthy health infractions), using the wrong ingredients & using incorrect techniques, all of which went unnoticed and unmentioned. But picking up a martini glass from the bottom is yell worthy.
In descending order of lies from the website:
Mentions trying a variety of bitters that are used to flavour cocktails, that didn't happen.
Supposedly learn how to accurately free pour to save time, but she yells at anyone not using a jigger.
You'll never learn layering in cocktail making and there's no advanced (like flairing) techniques to pouring.
Teaching you cool garnishes means literally reusing the same limewheel four days in a row.
The premium brands that they claim to allow you to try in their tastings like Patron and Stella to name just a few aren't anywhere to be found (discount to mid-level at best).
They stress learning about wine (opening, serving, different glassware) which was never done.
They also have nothing to do with the champagne service they mention.
A lot of the tastings mentioned (like any of the shooting samplers, half the wine types & most of the cocktails) were never even mentioned to the class, so don't expect to get to try many of the drinks you'll be expected to be able to make for others. This sounds like a petty thing when you're supposed to be "learning", but when I've wasted my time and money, it would have at least been nice to have been given even a quarter of the drinks promised I'd get to try, so then I'd be a little tipsy and not care so much.
One of the biggest reasons for me signing up was learning about the administrative side, the POS systems & inventory control (things that can't be learned accurately with an online search), which aren't so much as talked about let alone covered.
The job assistance mentioned is nonexistent.
You don't even get the "welcome cocktail" that's the FIRST LINE IN THE ONLINE COURSE DESCRIPTION, nor the celebratory "champagne cocktail" upon completion of the course as promised.
I'm sorry if I went off of the rails. To be honest, I started off with a 2 out of 5 score for the program, simply because I got what I wanted out of it (practical behind the bar experience) and didn't expect much. But as I've reflected on my time I realized how much I've been ripped off...
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)