So, what IS The Whisky Ambassador?

In the excitement of us training some of our Nation’s best hospitality operators and fielding calls from all over the World, from organisations who want to get involved with The Whisky Ambassador, we’ve been busy. Because of this, we may have been guilty recently of not putting enough on our blog about what exactly The Whisky Ambassador programme is all about. We’re keen to get lots of our whisky and hospitality industry opinions over on here but maybe we’ve not given enough detail on what our actual ‘task-in-hand’ is?

Perhaps? If so, let’s rectify that now! Here’s what The Whisky Ambassador can do for you.

In a nutshell, we’re the UK’s only Accredited whisky training for the Licensed trade.

We introduce bar staff to the wonderful world of selling Scotch (and World) whisky. This means:

• We increase whisky sales for premises and educate bar staff in ‘up-selling’ techniques
• We teach bar professionals  to actively promote whisky- ‘Scotland in a Glass’
• We tell our delegates about the different brands and where in Scotland they come from
• We talk enthusiastically about the history (and some of the mystery) of Scotch whisky
• We get excited about the Global impact of ‘Scotch’ and the incredible success it is enjoying
• It can only be made in one small country, on the edge of Europe, yet there’s a bottle in every bar in the World
• We educate our delegates, in a fun way, in the different processes of whisky making
• We ask delegates to sit a 30-question, multiple choice exam
• We also ask them to nose and taste specially-selected malt whiskies and be able to differentiate between them
• We spread the ‘Whisky’ love and get delegates to enthuse about Scotch Malt whisky
• We definitely aim to increase profits for those who sell Scotland’s National drink, with pride and knowledge

We’re a ONE day course which starts at £200 per delegate and yes, we DO give Group discounts and yes, we ARE a fully accredited ILA centre. So, there’s a chance that if you meet their criteria, your journey with The Whisky Ambassador could be FREE!

The picture above is one of our Directors, Sue Beatt, in the middle of some of our latest Whisky Ambassadors. This is quite typical of the people who are wanting to get involved with The Whisky Ambassador. We’re engaging with young people, starting off in their ‘Hospitality’ Industry career, from all over the world.

However, we’re  also training Senior Management, whose aim is to help their hospitality organisations (of all kinds, both large and small) to increase their sales. ‘Whisky ‘Professionals’ with many years experience, who want their guests to recognise their credibility. They see The Whisky Ambassador Accreditation as the ‘cherry on top’ of their already impressive whisky pedigree. Certification that they really know what they are talking about. We’re training them how to build their Scotch Malt Whisky bars, write their whisky menus, put on and promote revenue-generating tastings and choose exciting, unusual and artisan whiskies, from the thousands now on offer. Whiskies that will sell and get guests talking about them.

We may be all about results and education but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Having had to sit through ‘training days’ ourselves, one of the first things we wanted to achieve with The Whisky Ambassador programme was make it fun to undertake and also be a good day out. Yeah, we’ve got serious learning outcomes to consider and we do have people fail our course, if they don’t pay attention but generally, we want to offer a day that we’d quite happily sit-in on, ourselves. In fact, we sometimes do, just for the ‘craic’!

We’re incredibly lucky to be working in an environment, where we’re training the next generation of Hospitality professionals and ‘bigging-up’ Scotch whisky, something that’s part of the very essence of Scotland. If some of our enthusiasm can spill-over and ‘infect’ delegates with our love for ‘Uisge Beathe’, then we think we’re doing our job. We’re finding that this enthusiasm, combined with newly-gained whisky knowledge is the secret to an increase in sales of whisky in the bars we’ve worked with.

It’s still very early stages in The Whisky Ambassador journey but already, we’re engaging with the biggest and the best in Hospitality, so we know that things are only going to get even more exciting.

We urge, nay, we implore you…join us on our journey.

The Whisky Ambassador. Drink Less. Drink Better.