Podcast
Ivar de Lange - Using psychology for bartending and cocktails
A conversation with Ivar de Lange about bartending, cocktails, hospitality, and how psychology can inform the design of menus, service, sensory cues, and bar experiences.
In this conversation
Ivar de Lange discusses bartending, cocktails, hospitality, and psychology. The conversation treats the bar experience as designed behavior: menus, staff, sensory cues, service flow, and guest perception all matter.
The conversation shows how scientific curiosity can appear in a craft context. Hospitality becomes a place to ask how people choose, feel, remember, and experience an environment.
Central question
What can psychology teach us about the design of a cocktail or bar experience?
What we cover
- How medical psychology influenced Ivar de Lange's work in bartending.
- How bars, menus, staff training, and service design shape the guest experience.
- Which questions from hospitality could be interesting for science to study.
Guest background
Ivar de Lange is an award-winning bartender, entrepreneur, consultant, and educator with a background in Medical Psychology. He has worked across bar design, menu design, staff training, and global education.
Things to listen for
- How sensory and social details shape hospitality.
- Why craft knowledge can generate good scientific questions.
- Where psychology can improve experience design without making it mechanical.
Experience design behind the bar
The drink
A cocktail is evaluated through taste, technique, ingredients, and presentation.
The environment
The guest experience also depends on anticipation, context, service, memory, and the design of the setting.