Learn the skills. Find the job. Pack the bag. Go.
Welcome to Taste & Trot – a blog for bartenders, hospitality workers and anyone who wants to use their skills to build a life with a little more adventure.
Whether you’re wondering how to become a bartender, trying to land your first hospitality job, looking to sharpen your skills behind the bar or dreaming about working your way around the world, you’re in the right place.
I’ve spent more than 10 years working in hospitality and the last few years using those skills to travel, work and experience life in some pretty incredible places. Taste & Trot is where I share the practical things I’ve learned along the way, from getting hired and becoming a better bartender to finding work abroad and making your money last while you travel.
What Brings you Here
I want to learn bartending
Whether you’re completely new to bartending or you’ve already spent years behind the bar, there’s always something new to learn.
Start with the fundamentals, build your cocktail knowledge and learn the practical skills that make you a confident, capable bartender, from bar equipment and glassware to spirits, ingredients, techniques and service.
I want to build a hospitality career
Hospitality doesn’t have to be something you do “until you figure out what you really want to do.”
The skills you develop in hospitality can open doors all over the world. Learn how to get your first job, write a hospitality CV, develop your professional skills and turn experience behind the bar into a career you actually enjoy.
I want to work and travel
What if your job could help pay for the adventure?
Hospitality is one of the few careers where you can take your skills with you. From cocktail bars and city hotels to ski resorts and tropical destinations, there are opportunities to work in places you might otherwise only visit on holiday.
Learn how to find seasonal work, navigate working abroad, earn money while travelling and turn hospitality into a passport to somewhere new.
I want to travel smarter
Travelling long-term comes with a learning curve.
What do you actually need to pack? How do you keep your costs under control? How do you make life on the road easier when your entire life has to fit into a couple of bags?
Find my practical travel guides based on real experience without pretending that travelling is always as glamorous as Instagram makes it look.
Start with these guides
If you’re completely new to Taste & Trot, these are the articles I’d recommend reading first.
How to Get Your First Bartending Job
Want to get behind the bar but don’t know where to begin? Start here. Learn what employers are looking for, how to get experience and how to give yourself the best chance of landing your first bartending job.
How to Write Your CV for the Hospitality Job You Want
Your CV is often your first impression. Learn how to present your hospitality experience, highlight the skills employers actually care about and create a CV that helps you stand out.
Five Essential Things You Need to Know to Be a Bartender
Before you worry about fancy cocktail tricks, you need to understand the fundamentals. This guide covers the essential knowledge every bartender should have.
The Ins and Outs of Being a Travelling Bartender
Wondering whether you can actually travel the world while working in hospitality? Here’s what life as a travelling bartender can look like — and how you can make it happen.
Build your bartending knowledge
Being a great bartender is about much more than knowing how to pour a drink.
Build your knowledge one skill at a time with guides covering the fundamentals of bartending, cocktails, spirits, ingredients and techniques.
Bartending fundamentals
Start here if you’re learning the basics or want to fill in the gaps in your knowledge
Spirits & ingredients
The more you understand what’s in the bottle, the better you can understand the drink.
Cocktail techniques
Take your cocktails beyond simply following a recipe.
Turn hospitality into your passport
One of the things I love most about hospitality is that your skills don’t have to stay in one place.
A bartender can work in a city cocktail bar one year, spend a summer at a resort the next and find themselves working on a ski hill the year after that.
You can use hospitality to:
Work anywhere
From cocktail bars and hotels to resorts, lodges and seasonal venues, hospitality jobs exist all over the world.
Meet people everywhere
Hospitality comes with a built-in social life. You meet locals, travellers and other hospitality workers who are just as interested in exploring as you are.
Earn while you travel
Working while you travel means you don’t necessarily have to choose between seeing the world and keeping your bank account alive.
Build transferable skills
Communication, resilience, teamwork, problem-solving and working under pressure are skills that don’t disappear when you leave the bar.
over 10 years of experience
Why Taste & Trot?.
I’m Megan, a global bartender, storyteller and the creator of Taste & Trot.
I’ve spent more than a decade working in hospitality, and bartending has taken me across three continents. Along the way, I’ve learned how to find work in new places, adapt to different bars and cultures, make friends from all over the world and use hospitality to help fund a life of travel.
I’ve made mistakes too. I’ve taken jobs that weren’t right for me, learned things the hard way and figured out plenty of the practical realities of travelling and working as I went.
That’s what I want Taste & Trot to be.
Not a guide written from a desk telling you what hospitality should be like, but a collection of practical advice, lessons and stories from someone who’s actually done it.
If you’re thinking about getting into bartending, building a hospitality career or using your job to see more of the world, I hope you find something here that helps you take the next step.
Your next adventure starts here
You don’t need to have your entire life figured out before you start.
Learn a skill.
Get the job.
Save some money.
Book the flight.
See what happens.
Ready to get started?