Meet Clinton Wier

Clinton Weir is a talented mixologist and flair bartender bringing good times and delicious cocktails to an event near you! After serendipitously shaking and stirring his way into the hospitality scene at age 18, Clinton was hooked on bartending from the moment he saw his first flair trick.

Numerous awards and a World’s Top Ten flair bartending title later, Clinton’s passion has taken him from his hometown in South Africa to flair competitions and mixology schools all around the world. He’s even performed his spins, flips and throws at a royal wedding!

After two decades with his cocktail academy Pineapple Jam, Clinton has recently teamed up with global bar company Sweet & Chilli—an exciting collaboration that allows him to continue sharing happiness with quality cocktails. You’ll usually find him teaching the secrets of cocktail making in his signature pineapple shirt, pulling together bespoke events or concocting new flavours for his innovative cocktail mixes.

With Clinton and Sweet & Chilli’s bar team, you can explore the fun and serious sides of mixology and get a kick out of being behind the bar. 

My passion for cocktail making started when…

“I saw people were very happy with my service, which has kept me motivated to get to where I am after 22 years behind the bar. There’s a massive cocktail industry in South Africa. I started in my smaller city making mostly long drinks like gin and tonics and then moved to Cape Town where I became involved with the bigger players in the industry. From there I attended a lot more flair competitions and eventually cocktail competitions.”

I’m on a mission to…

“Spread happiness. That’s always been the part of cocktail making I’ve really enjoyed. I’m one of the few lucky people who get to work at a job that keeps me motivated but is also so rewarding. All the success that I’ve had and all the people I’ve met are what has kept me reinvigorated to do more.”

When people ask why pineapples, I say…

“Pineapple Jam combines the global symbol for hospitality – the pineapple – with my love of dancing. It represents the fun and serious sides of bartending, cocktails and the service I aim for.”

When I’m making cocktails, I…

“Feel alive and in a place where I can make people happy. Whether I was the class clown at school or the head bartender on stage. I love the fact that if you do something well people appreciate it and you gain that mutual respect. It’s really cool because there are so many people around the world who just love good service, a bit of entertainment and a bit of personality.”

Teaching others has taught me…

“Patience, humility and that I have so much more to inspire people with. When you’re doing a one-on-one training session with someone and your personalities are similar and you’ve got the same kind of energy then it’s great. But you can also put a group of 10 people in a room together and the energy can be very different. So to be able to maintain teaching with people who might have different energies, educational skills or cultural skills has taught me a lot.”