Jamie Shields Email & Phone Number

Lancashire, Gb

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Running a new venture in the heart of Edinburgh's hospitality industry, a finalist in the Best New Initiative award in the 2018 BIIAB Scotland Awards. The Summerhall Drinks Lab is designed to provide interactive and informative tasting sessions of spirits and cocktails to deliver original and bespoke training programs for the licensed trade, and to build a community hub for interested parties can learn and collaborate with like minded individuals, brands and bars.I have developed a… Show more Running a new venture in the heart of Edinburgh's hospitality industry, a finalist in the Best New Initiative award in the 2018 BIIAB Scotland Awards. The Summerhall Drinks Lab is designed to provide interactive and informative tasting sessions of spirits and cocktails to deliver original and bespoke training programs for the licensed trade, and to build a community hub for interested parties can learn and collaborate with like minded individuals, brands and bars.I have developed a number of interactive tasting events which we host at the Drinks Lab - from our regular program of experiences such as Whisky & Vegan Cheese and Rum & Doughnuts, to our seasonal events such as the sell out Edinburgh Fringe show 'Science of the Sesh'. Each event showcases premium spirits, often Scottish made, and creative cocktails, while educating guests about the history of the drinks on offer. We also work regularly with local businesses to use their products, such as Considerit doughnuts, made a stones throw away from Summerhall.Gin Cruises along the Union Canal are another mainstay - I took over the hosting of these in 2016, and then rebranded to Drinks Lab Gin Cruises in 2019 when we took over the organisation of them. They have continued to be a massive success, selling out each year from March-November. In 2022 we are launching our new Rum Cruises, pairing rum from Scotland and the rest of the world with great drinks and entertaining hosts.Since starting the Drinks Lab my skillset has grown considerably - as a one man band for most of our existence this was born out of necessity! As well as running the business I have built several websites from scratch using HTML and CSS and later Wordpress, built a custom bar including plumbing and built in draft system and featuring a beautiful spalted beech bar top, produced several live streams for drinks product launches, and created a lockdown Scottish Gin club with regular virtual tastings. Show less

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Headed up the Education side of Solid Liquids, organising, costing, and hosting tasting sessions of gin, whisky and cocktails for consumers, corporate clients and the on-trade.- Hosted the extremely popular Juniper Cruise events - a gin tasting on the Lochrin Belle, a canal boat owned by social enterprise Re-union. Since taking over the cruises in 2016 we saw a huge surge in popularity, with consistently good feedback and return customers. I also instated a no single-use plastics policy… Show more Headed up the Education side of Solid Liquids, organising, costing, and hosting tasting sessions of gin, whisky and cocktails for consumers, corporate clients and the on-trade.- Hosted the extremely popular Juniper Cruise events - a gin tasting on the Lochrin Belle, a canal boat owned by social enterprise Re-union. Since taking over the cruises in 2016 we saw a huge surge in popularity, with consistently good feedback and return customers. I also instated a no single-use plastics policy on board, which later become company wide.- Involved in the organisation of the Juniper Festival in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2017 and 2018, awarded the Best Gin Event at the 2017 Scottish Gin Awards. I was in charge of running all brand talks and masterclasses, liaising directly with brands to ensure materials and drinks in place for host.- Hosted my own masterclass at both Juniper Festivals, entitled 'How to become a better gin taster', discussing the science of flavour and how to use the information to analyse tasting of gin. Among the top attended talks of both weekends.- Co-hosted 'Scotch Egg Club Presents: Whisky on Water', an official Edinburgh Fringe show in 2017. A whisky tasting on the Union Canal, in conjunction with Dewars and their Scotch Egg Club brand, involving whisky cocktails, and drams paired with chocolate, cheese and scotch eggs. The show received fantastic feedback from all guests and representatives of Dewars and Bacardi.- Provided training for Diageo's Learning for Life program in conjunction with Springboard UK, offering hands on, practical training for learners.- In January 2018 I designed and wrote the company's website from scratch, teaching myself HTML, CSS and Javascript along the way. Show less

Glasgow

Training the Hospitality industry in various skills such as Professional Bartending, Barista skills, and Beer and Cellar Quality.Working closely with employment charities, upskilling candidates over a 6 week period with the potential end goal of them finding a job in the Hospitality industry. Running leisure courses for the general public, such as cocktail masterclasses and wine tastings.