Customers love crazy cocktail classes

The crazy cocktail classes that can pull punters into your restaurant

I'm not the most well coordinated person you're likely to meet, so the thought of trying to make cocktails, especially in the company of several London media ladies, troubled me on two counts: social death and GBH charges.

Needless to say, I'm socially alive and I'm not writing this at Her Majesty's pleasure. Instead, Create Cocktails were old hands at taking the inexperienced like me through the drill at their ‘Cocktail Heaven' night at the Astor Bar and Grill, and, unbelievably, the team I was in came first in the ‘inventing a cocktail' competition.

Create Cocktails are mixology specialists for hire, a service run by Charlie Homberger and Dan Wilks, the men who brought you Ian Schrager's Light Bar at St Martin's Lane Hotel and Purple Bar at the Sanderson Hotel. Their company has now been running for three years, has a team of 300 mixologists, sells its own equipment and boast a starry client list including Madonna, Kate Moss, Saatchi and Saatchi and Merrill Lynch.

The Cocktail Heaven events seek to bring their expertise to the general public with demonstrations, suitable for corporate events, hen nights or birthday parties for prices starting at £55 per head.

Four mixing stations, with all the equipment and ingredients provided, were set up, teams were formed and three cocktails were ably demonstrated. With little in the way of Tom Cruise-style bottle tossing going on, I and my teammates retained all of our eyes and got down to cocktail making. Like many things, it's easier than you think to do, but very hard to do well, which led to much hilarity, some reasonably nice cocktails and my award-winning Raspberry Mintini©.

For an event to hold in your restaurant, Cocktail Heaven is one that's informative and fun, could appeal to all sorts and, in some rare cases, is a hand-maid to genius.

createcocktails.com