Sheena Harrison can’t remember a time when she wasn’t experimenting with drinks. Whether it was as a child when she would mix and match juices or as an adult serving signature cocktails and mocktails to customers, mixing has always been a part of her life.
But don’t label her a bartender. Harrison is certified to concoct the perfect drink. She’s a mixologist. So far, she says she has more than a hundred signature cocktails that she’s created for customers through her business, and she can’t stop mixing them up.
“Throughout college, all my life, I always mixed whether it was cocktails or lemonade,” said the owner of Drinks of Essence Bartending School in Michigan. It took a while for her to find her calling, but now the 37-year-old Michigan woman is serving it up and making space for others who want to learn the art of the cocktail.
Harrison, who has the only licensed bartending school in Genesee County, Mich., where she lives, kicked off her business in 2015 with a mobile bar where she served people at events including weddings and birthday parties and later added a brick-and-mortar school.
“I can remember that feeling (when) people would taste my drinks, and I could see their faces,” Harrison said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is a thing.’ I thought I might be able to do a little something, something.”
Before chasing her passion, Harrison started as a social worker, but after being fired from her job she decided to do something else.
“I had finally got a job that was paid well and had great benefits, and then I was fired. I used to be embarrassed to tell my story, but I’m owning it,” Harrison said. “I really went through something after that. I don’t want to call it depression, but it was something. I really needed a change. I thought to myself, ‘What can I do that nobody can ever take from me?’ Nobody can ever take knowledge from you, and nobody can ever take your skills away from you.”
Harrison found a bartending school in Detroit, Mich., passed the class, got certified, and was on the hunt for a job.
She eventually landed a bartending gig at Flint, Mich. bar and said things quickly turned in her favor as she moved up in the business.
“Next thing you know I was bar manager, training employees, and I had regulars,” Harrison said. “People started asking me to do parties and events.”
After more than 15 years in the business, Harrison is wearing several titles, including teacher, mentor, founder, and small business owner. In 2021, she opened the bartending school in Burton, Mich.
“I love being able to see my students build their confidence and to challenge them,” Harrison said. “I get right in there with them. I grab their hands, and I teach them how to do it. I’m going to teach them to get it before they leave. By the second or third day, they are rocking it. They are mixing. They are excited (and) doing a shoulder bounce with the drink. I get to see a lot of the stages with them.”
Harrison celebrated having 100 students in April and added 40 more in May.
“I just love it when my students graduate, and they start their own thing or even go work at a bar,” she said. “I visit my graduates just to tell them I’m proud of them or go see them in action.”
She’s still adjusting to her role as a teacher.
“To actually have my own program, I didn’t think I could do it. My fiancé is one of my biggest supporters. He would say, ‘You can do this.’ I had to overcome myself. Once I did that I knew I could build this thing and that was beautiful.”
For more information about Drinks of Essence click here.
