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Class Bar Awards 2025

Features

Features

Why knowing your solvents is critical to infusion
Stuart Bale explains the intricacies of using solvents to enhance flavour, aroma and texture.
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19 November, 2025

Features

How to add value to your cocktails? Source locally

Ellen Manning on why you might find spirits that best add value right under your nose.
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18 November, 2025

Features

Signature, served - why spirits brands are looking to RTDs
RTDs are nothing new, but spirits brands are realising the value in making it easier for consumers to buy into their product. Can bartenders benefit too, asks Millie Milliken.
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11 November, 2025

Sponsored Content

Monin launches Spring/Summer 2026 Drink Trends Report
The UK’s best-selling syrup brand predicts the drink trends poised to heat up hospitality.
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13 November, 2025

Sponsored Content

Pernod Ricard UK gets festive with premium serves and a Kahlúa x Tony’s Chocolonely collab
With just six weeks to Christmas, Pernod Ricard UK is turning up the heat behind the bar, unveiling its festive cocktail line-up and an indulgent new collaboration with ethical chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely.
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13 November, 2025

Features

Five bang-for-buck brands chosen by five thrifty bartenders
The emphasis is no longer so firmly on premium for many, thanks to the current economic climate. Oli Dodd rounds up some bartender favourites that bring flavour as well as margin.
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05 November, 2025

Features

Who do you think you are? A modern history of the London bar scene
London didn’t just suddenly become the world-famous bar scene it is today, it evolved from a ragtag of starry-eyed bartenders in the 1990s. Ben Reed was one of them and tells the story of our humble beginnings.
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04 November, 2025

Features

How do you create a cocktail culture in a city that has never had one?
Stoke-on-Trent isn't known for its cocktail bars, but that didn't deter Desire founder Dereece Gardner
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12 September, 2025

Features

Jack Wakelin on his new Sheffield venue
Hamish Smith is in Sheffield to find out more about Jack Wakelin’s fast-expanding hospitality group.
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02 October, 2025

Features

Inside dive bar All My Gods - the venue that goes down not up market
All My Gods is the latest bar from Dram operators Simo Simpson, Jack Wallis and Chris Tanner, this time with tattoo artist Roxy Velvet. It's a dive bar for bikers – and bartenders. Hamish Smith reports.
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23 September, 2025

Features

Work-life balance - how to switch off 'always on' culture
With the plethora of communication channels at our disposal, it’s becoming increasingly tougher to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Merly Kammerling has some suggestions that may help restore the equilibrium.
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05 September, 2025

Features

International spotlight: CLASS visits Tres Monos, the Buenos Aires bar with a social conscious

Hamish Smith visits a bar with a vision to expand the horizons of hospitality across Buenos Aires, opening up opportunities for young people from disadvantaged communities.
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03 September, 2025

Features

Vocal about local - how bars are becoming connected to their environment
Hyper-localism isn't anything new, it's a return to how things always used to be. Ellen Manning fixes her compass to bars in all corners of Britain to see how they are finding delicious produce closer to home.
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01 September, 2025

Features

Three ways to clarify cocktails
In the first of a new series, Stuart Bale of Crucible – London’s laboratory and creative hub for bartenders –explains the techniques of clarification to make them that bit clearer.
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26 August, 2025

Features

Exploring...Baijiu
Benjamin Salguero, baijiu specialist and co-owner of Bristol’s Golden Crane and Jaded Dragon, provides the explainer on the colossal Chinese spirit, baijiu.
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26 August, 2025

Features

Blended English whisky is now a thing
Amid GI rumblings in the English whisky world, a brand new category has suddenly emerged. Millie Milliken asks why blended English whisky is on the cards now, and why it’s an exciting flavour proposition behind the bar.
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14 August, 2025

Sponsored Content

Franklin & Sons Flavour in Motion competition winner announced
The winner of this year’s Franklin & Sons Flavour in Motion competition is Alessandro Todini from Three Sheets in London’s Soho.
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28 July, 2025

Features

Tyler Zielinski: Three ways to carbonate cocktails
Force-carbonated Highballs are a must-have for many these days, but choosing which system is best for a bar requires careful consideration, says Tyler Zielinski.
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31 July, 2025

Features

Five (unadulterated) tequilas chosen by five experts
Oli Dodd rounds up five 100% agave tequilas recommended by bartenders to show the spirit at its unadulterated finest.
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14 July, 2025

Features

What's in season this summer?
Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown share their pick of the season’s abundance.
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10 July, 2025

Features

Speak in Code's Nathan Larkin on the bar experience
The vibe, atmosphere, ambience – these are not bar experience accidents. They’re created and curated - and few do it better than at Speak in Code in Manchester. Hamish Smith speaks to owner Nathan Larkin about how it’s done. Photos by Sean Ware. 
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01 July, 2025

Features

Martini Icons: a photographic homage by Ago Perrone
CLASS brings you highlights from Ago Perrone's photography exhibition Martini Icons, in collobration with Belvedere Vodka and Maison Assouline. 
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27 June, 2025

Features

Q&A: CLASS speaks to Disaronno CEO Marco Ferrari as the brand turns 500 years old
CLASS chats to Marco Ferrari, CEO of Illva Saronno, owner of Disaronno
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01 July, 2025

Features

Have you tried these Australian classic cocktails?
Australian drinks journalist Sam Bygrave brings us five domestic favourites that haven’t yet flown the nest.
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11 June, 2025

Features

Losing the fire: how to spot and manage bartender burnout
Burnout is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly among younger people. Merly Kammerling of Well & Being outlines the causes and suggests some strategies.
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11 June, 2025

Features

Five peated drams from five scotch experts
Oli Dodd polls some of the bar world’s whisky aficionados for their take on what are the best peated drams and which cocktails they use them in.
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15 May, 2025

Features

Rum without the sun - the rise of British rum
British rums are booming, but the flavour potential that comes with them remains relatively untapped behind the bar. Millie Milliken asks makers why bartenders should be paying attention.
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14 May, 2025

Features

Jake Burger: How to name a cocktail
A cocktail's name can be instrumental to its success. Who better than pioneer of cocktail puns Jake Burger to guide us through the nomenclature?
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24 April, 2025

Features

Two glasses and a bottle of... Joe Wadsack on the rise of large-format cocktails
Câv, a new hybrid bar serving pre-batched bottled cocktails alongside wines, has Joe Wadsack wondering if this is the next big step in hospitality.
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22 April, 2025

Features

Techniques & trends... the unexpected rise of the Ramos Gin Fizz
It’s become a major hit thanks to a post that went viral on a Chinese social media app. Tyler Zielinski probes the rise of the ‘yoghurt’ drink.
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15 April, 2025