Bentsifi’s Tattle…Guy About Town
Bentsifi’s Tattle…Guy About Town
An apothecary look at cocktails, business & more
More than a beverage: Why the Accra Bar Show matters
Long before pharmacies lined our streets, there were apothecaries. They were the custodians of botanicals and bitters, of roots and remedies, carefully measuring leaves, bark, spices, and tinctures into preparations designed to heal, comfort and delight. They understood that every ingredient carried a story and every blend demanded both knowledge and intuition.
Walk into a great cocktail bar today and you might just recognise their descendants. The modern bartender is, in many ways, an apothecary of hospitality. Their shelves are lined with infusions rather than prescriptions, bitters instead of balms, herbs alongside spirits – each bottle waiting to become part of a carefully considered composition.
The cocktail is no longer merely a drink. It is an act of craftsmanship: a balance of flavour, aroma, texture, memory and theatre; the kind that plays out at the capital’s emerging swanky and iconic spots such as Movenpick’s One2One, Number 19, Belle Afrique, Kempinski’s Asana, The Republic, Skybar, Zen Gardens and Alley Bar; to name a few.
And that, contends PaJohn Dadson, is precisely why the Accra Bar Show matters. There was a time when tending bar was considered little more than a casual occupation – a stopgap between “real” careers. Today, that perception has changed dramatically.
Across the world, the finest bartenders are recognised as craftspeople, flavour architects, storytellers, and entrepreneurs. They understand chemistry as much as conversation, hospitality as much as heritage. They create experiences, not merely drinks.
Perhaps, it is time Africa embraced that same mindset. Ghana’s hospitality sector has certainly come of age. There comes a moment in the life of every industry when it stops asking to be taken seriously and simply demonstrates why it should be. Thanks to Kojo Aidoo’s vision and the growing influence of the Accra Bar Show, that moment may well have arrived.
This weekend, as the Accra Bar Show 2026 opens at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel, it does more than showcase cocktails, premium spirits and hospitality products. It quietly signals the maturation of an industry; one where excellence behind the bar is recognised as a profession worthy of serious training, investment and respect.
For three days, bartenders, mixologists, hotel teams, restaurant owners, beverage brands, distributors, students and hospitality professionals from across Africa and beyond will gather not simply to display products, but to exchange knowledge. Masterclasses will sharpen technique. Tastings will introduce new flavours. Competitions will celebrate creativity. Guest shifts and conversations will forge collaborations and new possibilities.
But beneath the clink of glassware lies something much more significant: the professionalisation of hospitality.
For generations, hospitality was viewed primarily as a service occupation. Increasingly, it is being recognised as a creative industry. Today’s bartender studies fermentation, flavour chemistry, indigenous botanicals, sustainability, customer psychology, and storytelling. Like the apothecaries of old, they are students of balance as much as business.
And Ghana has a remarkable advantage. Our forests, farms and markets are living apothecaries – rich with botanicals, spices, fruits and indigenous knowledge waiting to be rediscovered behind the bar. Ingredients such as prekese, hibiscus, sobolo, dawadawa, tropical fruits, and local bitters are not simply flavours. They are fragments of our identity.
A thoughtfully-crafted drink featuring these ingredients tells visitors something profound about Ghana before a single historical lecture ever could. Every ingredient becomes an ambassador. Every cocktail becomes a conversation about place. This is the deeper connection between hospitality and tourism.
Too often, we speak about tourism as though it begins at the airport or ends at a national park. Yet tourism lives equally in our restaurants, cafés, lounges and bars. The first drink a visitor tastes, the warmth of a bartender’s welcome, the confidence with which a local spirit is recommended; these are moments that shape how a destination is remembered.
Hospitality is not a support industry to tourism. It is tourism. The Accra Bar Show has become a laboratory where much of this transformation is taking place. It places Ghana within a wider African and global conversation while reminding us that our own ingredients, traditions and flavours deserve equal prominence. It is not simply about importing international trends; it is about confidently exporting our own.
Its companion programme, Accra Bar Week, extends that conversation beyond the exhibition halls into venues across the city through guest shifts, collaborations and cocktail experiences. In doing so, Accra itself becomes part of the celebration; a city to be explored – one drink, one venue and one conversation at a time.
Ultimately, professionalising hospitality is about much more than improving service. It is about creating meaningful careers, elevating standards, inspiring entrepreneurship and recognising that excellence in hospitality is every bit as demanding – and as prestigious – as excellence in any other profession.
The ancient apothecary sought to restore the body. The modern bartender seeks to restore the spirit. Both understand that the finest remedies are crafted with knowledge, patience and care.
As Ghana’s hospitality sector comes of age, perhaps we should begin seeing our finest bars for what they truly are, not merely places where drinks are poured, but contemporary apothecaries where culture is distilled, stories are shared and the art of welcome is practised one carefully crafted – glass at a time.
Fin
