Tess Posthumus wants to pay her knowledge forward
© Ming Chao
Female Leadership in Bars: An Article about Tess Posthumus from Millie Milliken
From supporting the next generation of bartenders to educating consumers on cocktail culture, we speak to the Dutch bartending superstar about her career to date.
“You won't see me cutting up a banana and making it into a dolphin.” Tess Posthumus may be a fan of a garnish, but the famous Dutch bar owner always wants garnishes to be more than just a visual gimmick. Anyone who has been to her two Amsterdam bars – Flying Dutchmen Cocktails (opened in 2017) and Dutch Courage (opened in 2020) – will know that Posthumus is an advocate for neo-classic cocktails, Dutch spirits and building knowledge within the Dutch hospitality industry and, indeed, the guests that visit her bars.
She’s also a hugely sought-after hospitality consultant, owns her own line of bar tools – The Collection –, is a partner in non-alc spirit Selati, and has written three books: Cocktails met Tess, Masterclass: Cocktails and Cocktailbijbel. Not to mention running Amsterdam Cocktail Week and the Perfect Serve Bar Show and sitting on the board of directors of Tales of the Cocktail.
Her roster of awards is a showcase of just how far Posthumus has come since she started cocktail bartending in 2009. And today, she’s considered one of the industry’s most revered figures, while also flying the metaphorical and literal flags for women and queer people behind the bar. It’s safe to say that Posthumus is a very busy woman.
Pushing the envelope
It all began during Posthumus’ teenage years, when she began working in hospitality as a side job. She worked during her studies in what are known in the Netherlands as ‘brown cafés’, “kind of like pub-style bars” before moving from the south Netherlands to Amsterdam in 2009. It was however her job at Door 74, a speakeasy-style bar which went on to feature multiple times on the World’s 50 Best list, that sparked her interest in cocktail bartending. “When I started there as a waitress, and a host, I saw how big and creative the cocktail side of hospitality was, which really, really intrigued me to get to know more, learn more. I can definitely pinpoint that that’s where I started specialising in cocktails.”
© Floris Heuer
While the Netherlands has a rich history when it comes to the spirits trade – its production of genever, its role in the movement of rum, its spice trade – the Dutch consumer doesn’t really have the same relationship with cocktails than say those in England, Paris or the States. “If I say ‘This cocktail I have in front of you is a reconstructed Daiquiri’, I already would have lost them because they don’t know what a Daiquiri was.”
As a lover of history, and sociological and political influence – and how they have all played a role in the evolution of bartending and cocktails – Posthumus has made sure that the experience consumers have at her bars is as much about learning about their own country’s history in cocktail making, as it is about enjoying their award-winning hospitality.
“If you look into the history, you see a lot of Dutch influence however, the Dutch themselves don't know this. So that for me is a very nice angle to use in my bartending and cocktail creation.” It has also been an influence on her cocktail style, something she describes as “quite classic – I think every ingredient needs to have a reason why it’s there.”
Building her future
During her near 15-year career, Posthumus has had a multitude of mentors, but two have really stood out over the years: Timo Janse, her business partner, and Julie Reiner, co-owner of NYC’s Clover Club, Leyenda and Milady’s. “Timo was the person that taught me a lot that as a baby bartender, pointed me in the right direction, handed me the books to read. Yeah, we became good friends because of it. And I have to say Julie Reiner is an amazing person, female powerhouse and a queer example, so in multiple aspects of my life, she’s been a great mentor. And thankfully nowadays also a good friend of mine.”
Posthumus has also come up against sexism as a woman working behind the bar. One particular incident involving an Irish whiskey brand was particularly telling as to how women have been perceived in the industry. “Every year they took bartenders to Ireland to the distillery for a weekend away. And at Door 74, every year they took at least one of our bartenders. At the time I had just started making a name for myself, winning some competitions, and they made a big mistake. My name was put forward to be taken to Ireland with them, but the brand told me ‘No, we’re not going to take you on the trip because we are a male-focused whiskey brand, we don't believe in female bartenders.” Since that experience, that brand has never featured on any of Posthumus’s menus, nor the venues she consults for.
Starting a family was Posthumus’ driver for moving from behind the bar to owning one of her own. And being a queer woman, that demanded a certain set of circumstances that didn’t quite align with her bartending lifestyle. “I knew that if I wanted to start this whole project of trying to get pregnant, which in my case as a queer woman meant that we needed to visit the clinic a couple times a month, stop alcohol consumption, and lots of other factors, it wasn’t really realistic while doing the job I was doing.”
Opening the Flying Dutchmen was Posthumus’ first part of a bigger game plan to take a step back and build her family, with Dutch Courage following suit. And now, she has a two-year-old daughter with her wife. It’s an admirable balance that she has managed to strike: “I love the bar industry, but also I love being at home in the weekends and being able to put my daughter to bed in the evenings.” It doesn’t mean her heart isn’t still behind the bar though. “The bars that are in me will never die. I still create all the menus, all the drinks, I'm still involved in all the team trainings, which we do every three, four weeks. So creatively, I'm still very much involved. However, my office hours are office hours and not late-night bartending hours.”
Paying it forward
Posthumus’s hopes for the future of the Dutch bartending community are many. Sadly, her outlook on its current guise isn’t a positive one: “I see a lot of individuals who are here for themselves. Bartenders but also hotel groups, bar groups, are stealing staff from each other in a not so nice way, staff just job hopping… For me, bartending has always been teamwork and I’m sad that the whole teamwork aspect is disappearing.”
How she sees herself in the community is as someone pushing it forward to a better and more diverse place. “I keep telling myself ‘Alright, how important do you think it is to have women representing the industry to consumers, such as being on TV? It’s very important. I’m a huge advocate for representation, and very much visual representation (people of colour, women, queer people). If we want to have an inclusive industry, we need to show people in the next generation that there are positions for them and that they're valued.”
Posthumus also wants to support the next generation which she feels is being bombarded with an onslaught of online information of the industry, from Instagram and TikTok, to YouTube and some other channels that might not be putting out realistic or accurate content for them to learn from. “I think for us to support them, we need to keep ourselves available. If people send me a message or an email or whatever, with a certain question, I always try and take my time to get back to them with a valid answer.”
Her mantra at the moment is a simple but valuable one: “Share your knowledge, share your research. Be available to them.”
An Article from Millie Milliken,
Award-winning Drinks and Hospitality Journalist
