Raise The Bar

Pick up some tools of the trade – and learn how to stay on your bartender’s good side.

- Nkosiyati Khumalo

You could call Joe Petch a career barman – or, as he’s more likely to put it, someone who’s permanently on a gap year. After school, his passion for great hospitality took him from working in bars to running a consultancy that provided drinks service to major events all over London – and landed him in his current post as brand ambassador for Monkey Shoulder, currently the number-one ranked bartender’s favourite whisky worldwide. It certainly seems like the most natural fit, he says:

‘This is a brand I’ve worked with since beginning of my bartending career. Amongst a handful of brands, it really kind of spoke the bartender’s language, and fed the hunger for bartenders have for education.’ During a break in the action at the Cape Town leg of the brand’s Ultimate Bartender Competition, Petch gave us the lowdown on why bartenders love Monkey Shoulder – and why you can never have too much ice.

As a bartender, where does that hunger for education come from?