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Speciality Drinks hires advocacy manager

Spirits supplier Speciality Drinks has named The Mixing Class founder Hannah Lanfear as its new advocacy manager.

Hannah Lanfear
Hannah Lanfear founded The Mixing Class in 2017

The newly created role will see Lanfear build and implement an advocacy programme that will democratise spirits education for the industry.

Lanfear commented: “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Speciality Drinks. I’ve always adored its portfolio, and long admired the wealth of knowledge in their stellar team. The road ahead is incredibly exciting; I can’t wait for the world to see what’s in the pipeline.”

Lanfear brings two decades of industry experience to the role, with a career spanning positions at ‘elite’ cocktail bars and as an international brand ambassador.

Furthermore, Lanfear founded The Mixing Class in 2017, a company dedicated to delivering spirits education to the cocktail and spirits industry.

Adriana Morris-Pérez, head of marketing, Speciality Drinks, said: “We are incredibly excited to have Hannah on board, as there is no one in the industry more capable of driving our advocacy programme forward than her.

“We have only grown since the pandemic and are continuing to build a robust marketing team to focus on our customers’ journey, growing relationships with our suppliers and building ways of enhancing the customer experience, both online and offline. Hannah will be at the forefront of this and we can’t wait to get started.”

Boasting more than 15,000 fine and rare spirits in its portfolio, Speciality Drinks’ advocacy programme will aim to ‘pave the way’ for trade education in the spirits and cocktail industry by offering bartenders, owners and customers’ the opportunity to continue to develop their offering and understand the industry in further detail.

In addition to the new role, Speciality Drinks will see the return of its one-day portfolio tasting event, called Raising the Back Bar.

Raising the Back Bar will return in May to showcase the Speciality Drinks range of more than 100 exclusive products, including a carefully curated range of new, niche, rare and under-represented brands.

The event will aim to help the hospitality industry enhance the quality of its back bars.

Raising the Back Bar is exclusive to the trade and will include a series of open-discussion masterclasses and open-panel discussions and tastings, all set to inspire and engage guests.

Furthermore, Speciality Drinks will be launching a new educational series called Speciality Sessions in June, which will see the curation of monthly category-led sessions, hosted by Lanfear, to give customers and the wider trade a deep-dive into a specific category.

The sessions will educate bar staff with a detailed understanding of how production influences flavour in spirits, and will explore how to apply the new knowledge to cocktail serves and menu curation.

Raising the Back Bar will take place on Monday 15 May 12pm-5pm BST at Glaziers Hall, London.

Members of the drinks trade and press can register at www.specialitydrinks.com/events/1180/raising-the-back-bar/.

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