The 50 Best Bars Scholarship 2026

Isa Mejia

The rising star serving craft, care and creative research

The 50 Best Bars Scholarship launched in 2022 to shine a spotlight on the next generation of drinks talent, open to any bartender over the age of 21 with less than three years of experience in a professional bar environment. In 2026, the programme returned offering rising star bartender two all-expenses-paid internships at Tres Monos in Buenos Aires and Line in Athens, plus £1,000 per stage. From hundreds of applicants and numerous highly competitive rounds of judging, one aspiring bartender was crowned the winner at The 50 Best Bars Awards Ceremony in Milan: Isa Mejia.

Hailing from Ecuador, Mejia's entry into the world of cocktails was almost entirely self-determined. After graduating with honours from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU on a full scholarship and earning a BFA in Photography, Mejia found themselves feeling lost, craving purpose and an outlet for their boundless creativity. The answer was hospitality.

With their new mission in mind, Mejia embarked on a quest to teach themselves the fundamentals of cocktail construction and landed their first job behind a bar. They quickly realised the potential to use cocktails as medium for creating inclusive spaces for underrepresented communities of all backgrounds.

Mejia's style of drinks leans heavily into their South and Central American heritage, using meticulous R&D and fermentation applications to elevate endemic, ancestral ingredients such as Andean corn. In line with their desire for greater accessibility across the board, Mejia believes the rise of low and non-alcoholic beverages should be treated with the same thought, care and creative research as traditional cocktails.

Despite their relative lack of experience in the field, Mejia's passion, knowledge and vision for the future of the industry stands far beyond their years. As a beacon for the future of the bar industry, Mejia is deservingly named the recipient of The 50 Best Bars Scholarship 2026 and will embark on their duo of stages at world-leading bars in Buenos Aires and Athens in early 2027.

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