Also called: Master Blender, Spirits Blender, Blending Manager
Tastes and mixes whiskeys from many barrels so every bottle of a brand tastes the same, and creates new blends and special releases.
You smell 60 barrel samples lined up on a white table, note which taste of caramel and which of spice, and mix test blends in small beakers. A panel tastes your blend against last year's, and you adjust it until it matches.
Estimate; master blenders at famous brands earn far more, assistants less.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Often a degree in chemistry, food science or fermentation science, then 10 or more years in a distillery lab or sensory team.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Chemistry, Food Science, Fermentation Science.
Growing about average. Only a few hundred people do this job in the US.
Low risk for 10 years. Lab instruments and AI can predict flavor chemistry; judgment by nose and palate, and the brand's trust in it, stay human.
Classes: Chemistry, Biology, AP Statistics.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.