Abstract:

Outlining an interdisciplinary project involving 2nd year hotel management and catering and restaurant management students, this paper focus on a teaching and learning initiative that aimed to develop students’ technical competences within the scope of cocktail making and bartending. Following a job shadowing experience in which they had to observe and interview different bartenders and mixologists, students were challenged to reinterpret signature cocktails, by creating their own mixes, having to come up with two original proposals. Given the content of the courses involved in the project, these proposals should be innovative and incorporate sustainable principles, with at least one of them also having to feature wine as a main ingredient. In addition to research, laboratorial work and testing, students also had to present these original cocktails before a panel of experts who provided feedback, having shortlisted the best proposals.

In addition to observation, documentary research and questionnaires applied to participants (mentors and students), the paper draws on data collected throughout the job shadowing experiences, as to better describe the project and pinpoint its affordances and areas of improvement, laying the grounds for future collaborations and initiatives.

Overall, the activities were deemed successful, having ultimately resulted in enhanced learning experiences for students. In addition to gaining firsthand knowledge of the industry and the most relevant skills within the scope of mixology and bartending, students also developed a positive stance towards interdisciplinarity, with all participants highlighting the importance of hands-on learning and the potential of University-Industry collaboration. The mentors’ and students’ perceptions are in line with current research within the scope of experiential learning, demonstrating its potential in tourism and hospitality education.

Keywords:

Cocktails, Experiential Learning, Hospitality, Job Shadowing, Tourism Education.