Sharing knowledge with the liquid adventurer.
Gastro Cocktail Academy is the first advanced institution for beverage innovation and liquid R&D based out of Barcelona, Spain.
The ‘Minor in Mixology’ is Gastro Cocktail Academy's first program, delivered in partnership with Culinary Institute of Barcelona (CIB).
Currently offered exclusively at CIB’s campus in Barcelona, with intakes in June 2026, November 2026, and February 2027. 100% in-person.
45 hours
of intensive training in technique, laboratory, and development with industry professionals
100%
practical training in kitchen labs and behind the bar — no online component, no shortcuts
9 modules
of the Minor in Mixology, delivered at Culinary Institute of Barcelona from June 2026
An institution — built on a curriculum that combines laboratory technology, fermentation science, advanced mixology, gastronomic techniques, and structured R&D methodology.
The current intake is delivered in partnership with Culinary Institute of Barcelona (CIB), taught by professionals who built their careers at Paradiso (World's Best Bar 2022) and Disfrutar (World's Best Restaurant 2024).
A complete approach to beverage innovation
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Understanding what actually happens inside a drink — how fermentation builds acidity and complexity, how clarification techniques like milk wash or centrifugation remove unwanted texture without stripping flavour, how carbonation behaves under different pressures, how enzymes modify mouthfeel. This is the foundation. Not technique as a set of steps to follow, but technique as applied science you can control and repeat.
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The machinery that makes modern beverage development possible — rotary evaporators, freeze dryers, ultrasonic homogenisers, fermenters — understood not as impressive equipment to name-drop, but as tools with specific functions. Knowing which machine solves which problem, and how to build a working lab around your actual needs, is what separates a professional R&D environment from an experiment.
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A drink needs an idea behind it. The Minor in Mixology addresses this through beverage design rooted in local ingredients and foraging, the development of original flavour profiles through fermentation and infusion, and the construction of drinks — alcoholic, low-alcohol, and zero-proof — that have a genuine identity. Not aesthetic novelty for its own sake, but concept as a technical brief: something you can prototype, test, and refine.
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This is what most programs skip entirely. The Minor in Mixology builds in structured R&D methodology — design thinking, ideation frameworks, prototyping cycles, testing and more — so that creativity becomes a repeatable process rather than a lucky moment. Applied to a single cocktail or a full beverage program, the process is the same: define the problem, develop the concept, prototype, test, iterate.
