What is a Cocktail?
Simply put, a cocktail is a mixed alcoholic drink. A Cocktail is mixed either as one type of alcohol with juices, as a soft drink and other fruits or as multiple alcoholic drinks with juices or ice tea. Drinking is fashionable and trendy in today’s world. As a result, cocktails and what we’ve come to know as “mocktails” are often confused for each other.
Mocktails are any mixed drinks that don’t contain alcohol. The name “mocktail” is derived from the word “mock” meaning to “imitate or mimic”. Mocktails are imitations of cocktails in the sense that they seem similar to them, but do not have alcohol or any other spirits.
Today, when we refer to an alcoholic mixed drink, a cocktail is any beverage that contains two or more ingredients if at least one of those ingredients contains alcohol. It is said that cocktail was derived from the French word “coquetier”, referring to an eggcup-type measure.
Here in Nigeria, event planning and management is increasingly part of people’s lives. Wedding ceremonies, birthday parties or even business conferences include a buffet to lighten up the ambiance of occasions like this. Cocktails and Mocktails make up a part of the menu into today’s entertainment.
So Nigerians are definitely lovers of leisure and crave for innovation into their hospitality activities. There are a lot of venues in which drinks have been implemented severally. Mixologists are event vendors on demand. Lounge Cafes and Restaurants employ the services of Mixologists. Even families and friends include cocktails and mocktails to excite their get-togethers.
Interestingly, most of the entrepreneurs that innovate in the industry are women. Yes, I am damn serious. Women with educational and professional experience have set the steps for young businessmen and women to engage into the skill of beverage making. Let’s get inspired from some of them.
Entrepreneurs in the Cocktail Business
Lara Rawa
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| Source: Pulse.ng |
Olufunke Awobokun
Olufunke Awobokun is the Chief Mixologist and CEO of Cocktails In and Out Limited (CIO), a company that has steadily carved a niche for itself in the industryand has a mobile cocktail bar services with branches in Lagos & Abuja. Olufunke Awobokun is a mixologist and restaurateur. She is the founder, initiator and pioneer of the project "Cocktails 2 Live 4" and is also the brain behind the Tasters club which is a networking event aimed at promoting and enlightening the Nigerian consumers about the fine art of mixology and generally promoting the cocktail culture. In 2008, she became a certified a mixologist and bartender from the Shaker Bar School.
Titi Oshodi
Titi Oshodi is the Managing Partner of T-Eye Dot. She is an experiential marketer with over a decade experience in marketing, sales and business development. Delving into this feat was borne out of her increased curiosity and interest for cocktails and beverages and zeal to share in the intrinsic value creating unique brand of drink mixes. She holds a certificate in Bartending/Mixology from Liquid Lab New York and Liquid Library Bartending Academy, Lagos.
Olubunmi Mise
Olunbunmi Mise is the Chief executive Officer of Mises Cocktails. She is a certified Bartender and Mixologist. She has a certificate in Bartending and Mixology from Spronks Boisson Palais Lagos and Molecular Mixology School, London. She recently obtained a WSET Level II Award in Wine and Spirits from the East London Wine School in 2015.
Olajumoke Michael-Ojo
A Shaker UK certified International Bartender and Wine Specialist has penned her success as she has founded Mandies Cocktails. After working for 7 years as a human resource consultant at KPMG in Nigeria, Jumoke ventured into the cocktail business. Citing a gap in the industry, whereby cocktails were not properly made and very little attention was given to presentation details, she decided to change that. Today she owns one of the most successful Cocktail and beverage brand in the industry, known for exceptional quality and outstanding presentation.
Kenechukwu Odera Nkwontah
This is the man that has broken the trend of female entrepreneurship. As the Chief Exectuive Officer of Shakersand Ice, his cocktails and beverage company was established in 2007. His spirited career as a Mixologist and bartender is fuelled by an active desire to be an authority in bartending and advocate for cocktails and mixology in Nigeria.
Feeling Inspired? So you do! True, this skill is an exhilarating skill to acquire. It’s creative and pretty much attractive. People thrive in it and there is still a gap to be filled with passionate beverage making. But how can you do as a vibrant, young Nigerian or African aspirant start up a business? Is it highly capital-intensive? What skills do you need?
How to start your own cocktail business?
There are institutes in Nigeria that are specialized in the mixing of beverage, cocktails, mocktails or milkshakes. For example, Mix ‘n’ Bake School is a certified academy that means to train people into smoothies, punches and flips. They even go as far as offering pastry classes. They are located in Ojodu, Maryland and Abuja. You can also become a professional mixologist with the Blossom Bartending School. There you can learn over 75 types of smoothies and cocktails.
There are many more academies you can consult. The fee is pending on the location and courses they offer. Once you are done with that, you mix and invent different mocktails. Advertise your skills on the greatest platform of promotion and exposure - the social media. Instagram and pininterest are the best venues to take picture and showcase. Event planners would definitely employ your services. And who knows! If you want to excel in the industry, you could as well get a profound training and be a certified wine specialist like other veterans in the country. The establishment of the business would require the deployment of mixing equipment, so finance is a parameter to consider.
The importance of cocktails in the Nigerian lifestyle cannot be overemphasized. It’s hard these days to find parties organized by high net worth individuals overlooking this essential item. This is a business idea you can start with as little as N20,000. So what’s up? Would you like to be like Jumoke, Lara or Olunfunke? Do you want to be a business man or woman with class, niche or creativity? Don’t think twice! Go for it! The sky is just the beginning, not the limit. Cruise Africa Rocks!!!
