Jinro soju is the best-selling spirit brand on the planet, and most people who drink it could not tell you what is inside the bottle. Here is what soju is, the 1965 law that created the green bottle, how both styles are made, what they taste like, and how soju is drunk in Korea.

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.

Walk into any modern grocer, natural foods retailer, or beverage alcohol store and the cold case has changed. Coconut water sits next to kombucha. Mushroom coffee sits next to prebiotic soda. A CBD sparkling water sits next to a hemp-derived Delta-9 drink. Customers stand in front of the door, pick up two cans, and stare at the labels trying to figure out which one solves the problem they walked in with.

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.

THC beverages are no longer a novelty. They are on the shelf, in the cooler, and in the conversation at every major trade show this year. If you attended WSWA Access or any regional distributor event in the last six months, you saw it firsthand: hemp-derived THC drinks are showing up in the same portfolios, the same pitch decks, and the same buyer meetings as craft spirits, RTDs, and functional beverages.

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 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.

Spirits 101: a guide to the seven major spirit types, how they're made, how they taste, and how to recommend them. Free training for retail and bar staff.