50 Best Bars Roku Scholarship

Creating opportunities for aspiring bartenders

The 50 Best Bars Scholarship debuted in 2022, open to any aspiring bartenders over 21 with under five years' professional experience, offering a once-in-a-lifetime, all-expenses paid opportunity to train at three world-leading bars and attend the awards ceremonies of The World's 50 Best Bars. 

The latest winner, Calliope Draper, who was be revealed at The World’s 50 Best Bars 2024 awards ceremony in Madrid on 22nd October 2024, embarked on an educational journey at famed Australian bar Maybe Sammy in Sydney (No.15 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2023) alongside a stage in Japan, where she was taught traditional Japanese-style bartending at Tokyo institution High Five, followed by a contemporary masterclass at Asia’s 50 Best Bars high-flyer Virtù.

What was needed for the application?
- Your general details
- What you think the five skills for a modern bartender are (five keywords)
- A short written statement on what you think can be achieved by the hospitality industry to create a more sustainable, inclusive and positive impact on the sector (up to 250 words)
- A short video talking about ‘Future Positive’ ideas: any innovations, small or large, that you think would make a positive impact on the future of the bar industry (up to 60 seconds)
- A few photos of yourself behind the bar or making cocktails (three to five)

Future Positive
The theme of the 50 Best Bars Roku Scholarship for 2024 was 'Future Positive', encouraging bartending practices and attitudes that will have a positive impact on the planet. Bartenders will be rewarded for their low-waste or local approach to ingredients and push for greater diversity, better representation and balance within the workplace. Scholarship applicants needed to show a readiness to contribute to this outlook.

The selection process
The scholarship recipient was selected via a three-stage judging process:

Round One: Applicants were asked to introduce themselves and share their vision of ‘Future Positive’ and what it meant to them as a bartender in a short video, as well as answering some questions about their career to date.

Round Two: The shortlisted candidates designed a drink, inspired by the ‘Future Positive’ theme, that heroes one local ingredient. The design required evidence of the research, development and creative process.

These submissions were then be judged by an international panel of experts. Together, they decided on a five-strong list of candidates to advance to the final interview stage.

Round Three: Selected candidates were invited for an interview with representatives from 50 Best and upcoming stage hosts Stefano Catino of Maybe Sammy, Keith Motsi of Virtù and Hidetsugu Ueno of High Five.

Read about the other previous winners, Drew Fleming and Apoorva Kohli, here.