Mixologist vs Bartender - vs Machine

“What’s the difference between a bartender (or barmaid/barman/barkeeper), and a mixologist?”

Here we seek to provide a straight answer to that, plus also throw a new ingredient into the mix – could an automatic cocktails machine be just the answer you’re looking for?

Let’s consider the differences between a specialist trained mixologist vs bartender, the advantages and challenges of hiring them for your bar or event and finally how new automation technology in mixology is creating fresh opportunities for both bar-tending staff and venue managers, across the UK beverage and hospitality industry.

Do you need a Mixologist or a Bartender?

The bartender term means anyone who serves customers at a bar; from beer-pulling, to cleaning, to cocktail mixing. Whereas a mixologist is a specialist in cocktail making, often creating new recipes or twists on old favourites.

Here’s some points that venue owners and event planners think about when its comes to hospitality staff and their bar’s capability;

Bartender pros:

Highly adaptable for serving many needs across the bar, their multiple skills and interests can often cover all drink and snack serving demands and duties. This flexibility results in the ability to offer more drinks for longer openings, without over-staffing.
Wide pay-range and availability means its easier to fill roles and get cover for absences. With a larger labour pool, your business is less dependant on any one person meaning greater reliability and resilience.

Bartender cons:

Lack of speciality skills prevent the offering of more profitable drink options on your menu.
Difficult to control the consistency of serve across stations and shifts, resulting in variables of quality, waste and profitability.

Mixologist pros:

Good cocktail bar staff create a high-value pull factor for your venue or event business.
Experienced Mixologists are renowned for getting it right every time; creating drinks that wow and delivering reliable performance.
Enabling a comprehensive cocktail menu from a specific number of base ingredients, whilst being able to create new twists for keeping your patrons engaged.

Mixologist cons:

Higher wage costs and lack of trained personnel mean its hard to fill vacancies or cover all shifts.
Being such a specialist, they will want to be on cocktail making the whole time. Being required to deal with other barkeeping duties is likely to see them unhappy and moving on, and be a waste of higher-paid time in the meanwhile.

Mixology is both an art and a science so it takes time to train, needs a lot of practise and the right mindset. Those with a good track record and experience can really bring a bar to life but most smaller or multi-purpose outlets cannot justify employing a full-time mixologist so miss out on the addition of freshly-made cocktails.

Can bar staff be good at cocktails?

Of course, many bar staff seek to learn cocktail recipes and techniques; doing so increases their service offering and career options. Remembering dozens, even hundreds of classic drink mixes whilst bringing their own twist to the mix now and then takes a rare skillset. Being able to mix drinks with speed and consistent quality is the hallmark of a great mixologist and such personnel are in great demand across the hospitality trade.

The development of the automated cocktail machine has created the opportunity for many more licensed venues to add professional al a carté cocktails to their menu at any time of day, utilising existing, or readily available bar staff.

Bartender vs. Mixologist wages and cost of hiring

According to the job site Indeed, the average UK bartender wage in 2022 was £10.43 an hour compared to a cocktail mixologist’s average wage of £15.88 per hour; about a 50% higher wage.

For the bar-owner, the additional costs of employment need to be factored in, whether staff are hired directly or from an agency. Holiday pay, training and supervision costs, sickness cover, NI tax, liability insurance, HR admin etc need to be covered.

For these reasons of labour cost and staff availability, many hotels, restaurants and licensed establishments have been unable to offer freshly made, professional cocktails on their menus until recently. In the past 5 years, automation in cocktail making has developed considerably and many more licensed venues are now tapping into the increased demand for cocktails.

Mixologist vs Automatic Cocktail Machine

In line with the rise in automation, robotics and development of smart technology, a number of cocktail making machines have been launched in recent years. The appeal of these is understandable considering the benefits, and what opportunity it opens up for added sales and profitability for venues.

Rapid payback time. Considering an experienced mixologist can be paid a similar wage to the venue’s manager, a professional cocktail machine operated by your existing bar staff can pay for itself in months, even weeks.
Your key staff may want a holiday now-and-then, or might not show up for other, unplanned reasons. An automated professional-level cocktail serving unit won’t raise a complaint about having to cover back-to-back shifts, day and night. True, breakdowns can happen with any catering equipment but choosing a well-built machine from a reputable UK supplier should have you covered.
Programmable cocktail recipes and accurate dosing keep the taste perfect – and your costs controlled. There’s no guesswork and very little training required, meaning any of your bar staff can hop onto the serving station as required.
Most newer model Cocktail makers are fast, for example, the Mixo-Two machine serves up to 120 cocktails an hour. According to Jerry Prendergast, an experienced mixologist makes 10 – 20 cocktails an hour, so it’s obvious which is best for the price/profit matrix in bar management.
With the machine doing the brain-work, the bar staff can better engage with your guests, up-selling or socialising as required. The Mixo-Two has 300 stored cocktail recipes which can be twisted or served as originals. Or get creative and add your own bespoke cocktail recipes to the menu.

Now more venues, hotels, licensed cafes, event planners can offer their guests expertly made cocktails with ease. Whether its speed for large crowds, or to have specialty cocktails available at any hour, automatic mixology machines are opening revenue streams for licensed establishments and fresh drinking experiences for diners and party-goers.