Text from the Wikipedia Article of flair bartending, read the full article here.

Flair bartending is the practice of bartenders entertaining guests, clientele or audiences with the manipulation of bar tools (e.g. cocktail shakers) and liquor bottles in tricky, dazzling ways. Used occasionally in cocktail bars, the action requires skills commonly associated with jugglers. It has become a sought-after talent among venue owners and marketers to help advertise a liquor product or the opening of a bar establishment. Competitions have been sponsored by liquor brands to attract flair bartenders, and some hospitality training companies hold courses to teach flair techniques.

Formerly referred to as "extreme bartending", the word flair became popular among practitioners in the mid 1990s. Also used as a verb (e.g "to be flairing"), the word refers to any trickery used by a bartender in order to entertain guests while mixing a drink. Flair can include juggling, flipping (bottles, shakers), manipulating flammable liquors or even performing close-up magic tricks (also referred to as "bar-magic").

Today, good flair should be light-hearted and entertaining while making quality cocktails. Flair is showmanship added to bartending that enhances the overall guest experience. The ideas behind mixology and drink-oriented or service-minded bartending can still be upheld with the correct application of working flair. Recently, there is a noticeable rise in bartenders combining prominent mixology knowledge and working flair skills all over the world.

Flairing is loosely definable as any "trick" or manipulation performed with the equipment or ingredients in the course of making a drink. Flair tricks can range from simply throwing an ice cube in the air and catching it in a glass to juggling several bottles of spirits. Thousands of people across the world practice flairing, both as professional bar staff and as a hobby. Although it is mainly seen in cocktail bars or "flair bars," some staff in ordinary bars learn to flair to break the monotony of the job. Flair can be split up into working flair and exhibition flair, with the key factor being that working flair must be low-risk and provide quick customer service when working. Exhibition flairing involves attempting highly technical and difficult manipulations that may not involve the production of a drink at all, but are intended to showcase the performer's skills.

Flair Bartending has come a long way since the early years and bought to public attention by the film ‘Cocktail’ in the eighties.

Nowdays, Flair is used in bars and clubs all around the world, and it has many disciplines which are.

WORKING FLAIR - which is the art of using flair in the workplace and enabling you not only to speed up your drink making but also to entertain your customers, when using working flair you mainly use bottles that are full or half full (like you would find in a normal bar environment) and utilise tools such as tins, muddlers, ice etc in your show.

EXHIBITION FLAIR - this is flair that is used to show off your expertise in bottle/tin and object handling, with exhibition flair you use bottles with small amounts of liquid in them which enables you to and more flip and spin to the bottle (with a half full bottle a flip would cause all the liquid to spill out of the spout).

FLAIR COMPETITION - There are hundreds of flair bartending competitions around the world each year, most of which are local and not very publicized. In 2005 the FBA launched the FBA Pro Tour, a linked series of events where competitors earn points toward the title Pro Tour Champion at the end of the year. In 2007 there were 14 events on the Pro Tour with 7 of them located in the USA.

5-Time World Champion Ken Hall and Jim Allison, president of the FBA, organized 6 of those 7 events. The flagship flair bartending event is Legends of Bartending', which will enter into it's 10th year in 2008.

Most of the other biggest flair-based competitions in the world are also held in North America, including:

• Quest (Orlando, the oldest major flair competition in the world)
• Best in the West (Las Vegas)
• Nations (Las Vegas)

The newest major events to gain credibility among top competitors include:

• Flair Castle (Ukraine)
• Big Apple Showdown (New York City)
• Paris Flair Open (Paris)
• Flair Vegas (Las Vegas)
• Maxwell's (UK)
• The Blue Blazer Challenge (Las Vegas).

Major events almost always have a grand prize purse of US $20,000 or more, and most of today's majors including Legends, Nations, and Quest are endorsed by the sanctioning body of the sport, the FBA.

There are many competitions for the flairtender novice, so no matter what your level or if you need to gain experience there is something for everyone.

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