Walk into almost any liquor store, grocery beverage aisle, or back bar in America right now and the agave section has roughly doubled. Tequila climbed from a shot-and-salt afterthought to the second most valuable spirits category in the United States, behind only vodka. Mezcal, raicilla, sotol, and bacanora are landing on the shelf right next to it.

If you work in beverage alcohol long enough, the same question keeps coming up. A new hire asks what they should study. A distributor rep wants to level up. A retail manager wants a credential on the wall. A brand owner wants their team trained. And every time, the same alphabet soup gets thrown around. WSET. Cicerone. CMS. CSS. AFNA. Sommelier. Master this. Certified that.

There is a bottle on your back bar, or your retail shelf, or your restaurant's beverage list, that almost no one in your building knows how to talk about. It outsells most spirits categories in Japan, has a brewing process more complex than any beer on earth, reaches natural alcohol levels higher than any other brewed beverage on the planet, and arrives in your warehouse labeled in a language most of your staff doesn't read.

The world's largest spirit. The smallest section on most American back bars. Here's what bartenders, retailers, and curious drinkers need to know about baijiu in 2026, and why the next five years will look nothing like the last fifty.

Today, we're proud to announce the launch of PKGD University, a professional credentialing platform built in partnership with PKGD Group, one of the leading importers of heritage, producer-owned agave spirits in the United States.

If your staff can't explain the difference between a Pinot Noir and a Pinot Grigio, they're not selling wine. They're stocking shelves.

If you run a liquor store, bottle shop, grocery alcohol department, or convenience store, you already know the math. You hire someone, spend a few weeks getting them up to speed, and then they leave. You start over. Repeat.

The alcohol industry enters 2026 at a clear inflection point. After decades of steady growth, global alcohol consumption is declining, consumer behavior is shifting, and long-held assumptions about premiumization, brand loyalty, and category growth are being challenged.

Learn Brands is proud to announce a new partnership with 360training, making Learn Brands a certified reseller of 360training’s industry-leading compliance and workforce training courses.

The alcoholic beverage industry is evolving quickly, and 2025 is set to be a defining year for key trends. Among the most impactful shifts are the rise of low/no-alcohol drinks, the explosion of ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, and the continued premiumization of spirits and other beverages.

Anyone can drink. Tasting is a different skill, and it's the one that separates a rep who moves product from one who just hands over a sample. When you can taste with intention, you can describe what's in the glass, assess quality before you present it, match a customer to the right bottle, and justify a premium price in terms a buyer actually feels. That's true behind the bar, on the sales floor, and in front of an on-premise account. The good news is that tasting is learnab

Whether you’re stocking shelves, serving cocktails, or answering guest questions, this course gives you the essential talking points you need to recommend whiskey with ease.