How to convince your boss that a Choo Choo’s Cocktail Class is perfect for team building!
Recently my office (yes I do have a day job, I don’t just drink all day as I explain in my post here) decided after such a good year that we needed an End of Year Financial Celebration and the boss agreed! Afterwards came a lot of hooting and hollering as you can image, well as much as you can get out of an office of 8 people.
Reason #1 to convince the boss
We were on the search for an activity which would be fun, build team spirit and embrace something we all love dearly.. Alcoh… *Cough Cough*…Learning! We love to learn!
Therefore we ended up landing on the idea of lunch at Sushia Izakaya in Brookfield Place. Which was super tasty! A swanky Japanese restaurant right in the heart of the city with fabulous Bento Boxes for a mere $35 on their lunch menu. Team this up with the ultra delicious Choya Umeshu Plum Fruit Wine and you’re set. And if you go with the boss whose happy to look after the bill then you may as well order a few of the 60ml glasses of plum wine for $10.50 as it’s so damn delectable but just a little heartbreaking on the wallet!
Also a little hot tip for those plum wine lovers out there – you can buy the delicious sweet and sour 15% Choya Umeshu plum liqueur for $35 at Dan Murphy’s! Don’t tell Sushia I told you that….
So anyway after a lot of ‘what activity to do’ discussions in the office, we decided that our activity for after lunch would be a cocktail making class in Perth city. I sent emails far and wide around Perth to find a venue which will cater for only 8 people on a Tuesday afternoon and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy!! That was until I turned to my twitter addiction and someone pointed me in the direction of Choo Choos Bar
From the get go, Mike from Choo Choo’s was fantastic. He took all our requirements and got back to us with a quote to present the boss. The deal was $60 per person for a 2 hour cocktail Masterclass, however I think it was closer to 2.5 hours as we were a little early!
We were even able to choose a theme for the afternoon so we decided to go for an afternoon of cocktails from the Mad Men era (which basically covers nearly ever cocktail in the book!).
We were presented a drink on arrival which was the French 75 Cocktail. A gin, lemon juice, sugar and Champagne cocktail. The Champagne in question was a bottle of NV Brut Charles Heidsieck. This cocktail was absolutely delicious and definitely my favourite of the night (a few were consumed after the class finished!).
Whilst sipping away on the cocktail and snacking on freshly made popcorn (which was miraculously in bottomless bowls the whole afternoon thanks to the Choo Choo’s team) we were introduced to the team; Mike the owner, Stu the Bar Manager Jack the tall guy and Dolly the young guy.
Yes we had one bartender per 2 office people, just how I like it! The remainder of the afternoon was spent taking turns in teams of 4 to get behind the bar and made cocktails. We were given a demonstration of how to make the cocktail first and then 1 team would do all the work and the others would play the ‘customer roll’.
I have to say that there were many laughs, particularly around the ‘sex face’ cocktail shaker joke… You’ll definitely need to go and find out what this is, I won’t give it all away!
In total we all made at least 2 cocktails each (we didn’t get through the entire Masterclass recipe handout that we got to take home, I think we fluffed around a bit, oh I mean we did a lot of team building!) and at the end two winners were chosen. 
Reason #2 to convince the boss
Two people in the team were then chosen to create their own cocktail and name it with the help of a mentor from the bar staff. It was like a Team Ricky Vs. Team Will.I.Am standoff in a cocktail bar. At the end, the office then got to vote for their favourite creation and they won a $50 bar tab! So really, one persons $60 cocktail masterclass is pretty much free when you count in the bar tab, good selling point for the boss! More bang for the buck.
Reason #3 to convince the boss
The entire team had a great time at the Choo Choo’s cocktail masterclass and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it for a corporate function in Perth or why not for a hens, stag, birthday do or just a fun way to spend an afternoon with friends or family. It’s a funky hipster style bar with great staff and they make awesome drinks and can teach you how to as well (see it is educational!).
I can honestly say, it brings a team closer…
For more information on the Choo Choo’s Cocktail Masterclasses, check out their website or connect with the team on Facebook or Twitter. 
