The Toughest Bartending Competition in the World
…So we set up three bars of equal size in a beautiful old courtyard in Jamaica and waited for the crowds to come. Would the rains come? Would everyone just drink Appleton and Ting? Would someone trash a station with their first round?
We were in Jamaica at the start of June 08 for the final of the IPBartenders and Appleton Estate Bartender Challenge, a competition we put together in order to find and test the UK’s truly great bartenders. Ben and I can dismissive of many bartending competitions for being guilty of taking the sophistry of the most obvious test – the finished drink - and extrapolating it back to an untrue statement – the person who makes the best drink is the best bartender. Now I’ve had great drinks from terrible bartenders, and vice-versa. The skills of the bartender extend far beyond great cocktails, so we put together a competition that would be a true reflection of the craft.
We were inspired by men like Jerry ‘an efficient bartender’s first aim should be to please his customers’ Thomas and Harry ‘remember that perfect service is half the game’ MacElhone to test as many aspects of a bartender’s craft as possible. Which meant multiple rounds;
A written test, classic and original cocktail challenges, a mystery box, a pour test, 10 minute presentations and lastly an X-factor round, assessing their ability to woo a crowd.
10 bartenders took part in the first 7 rounds at the back end of 07 and after all the testing the top 3 were;
Paul Mant – now at Quo Vadis
Bruce Hamilton – formerly of Tiger Lily in Edinburgh but now en-route for a stint in Australia
Rich Hunt - from Mahiki
These 3 went on to the final in Jamaica with Appleton for round 8 - the truest test of a bartender. Quite simply: how happy are your customers?
“I hear the title ‘Bartender of the Year’ being awarded by all sorts of brands and competitions but I’ve never been to a challenge where the bartenders are really tested.” rants Reedo. “How can you be the best bartender just because you made one good drink? No-one can even check it’s you that created it. Appleton worked with us to create a great test – get 3 bartenders to a neutral venue – Jamaica - then give them separate stations and time to create their own drinks menu. Invite 300 guests, serve for 3 hours and then ask the customers to vote for who they liked most. Who was the funniest, who was the quickest, who made the best drink – there was no criteria – they just had to win votes”
So Appleton took us to Kingston, we set up 3 separate bars then let 300 of Jamaica’s glitterati hit them hard - each guest carrying a silver doubloon with which to vote….
Paul Mant set out his stall by filling up a set of watermelons with Wray & Nephew the day before. Rum soaked watermelon was received like a major new innovation – strange in the home of rum and watermelons. Top moment was when Sean Paul turned up at Paul’s most slammed period to drink his infamous ‘Whites and Wrong’ cocktail (a pink white ting).
Bruce Hamilton elected to surprise and bamboozle his audience, firstly with his Trinobagian accent and two cousins who’d popped over from the island to help him shake, and then with a soft ginger-and-pineapple foam atop his daiquiris. It seemed like a tiny El Bulli oasis in a sea of ravers.
Rich Hunt set up his stand, proper Tiki-style, with bottles akimbo and eventually a massive stove and bowl. He was living up to that ‘Mosquito’ nickname of his, careening back and forth from one guest to another, explaining and combining flavours, shaking, splashing and stirring with a crazy smile splashed across his fizzog.
“That was the toughest 27 hours of my life” said Paul Mant immediately after the bars closed. “The whole experience was mental. In a normal bar you can afford to be pretty short with guests as they can see you’re so busy, but when they’re judging you, everyone had to be engaged with. You had to be all smiles whilst simultaneously being shat on”
The result – When those glistening silver dubloons had been counted, we found that two of the boys had done great, but as ever, there was only one winner. The loveable, chirpy, affable, the highly energetic, the downhome legend that is...... Rich Hunt carried away this most coveted of prizes by dint of, frankly, a great deal of skill and a riled-up crowd that clearly appreciated his mastery of their good time. Quite inspiring, really – we all figured he’d taken on too much. Too many drinks, each too complicated in process and ingredients, and his station was right on the entrance so the crowd bottlenecked into him. But to his credit he surfed the whirlwind and is our all new, all-singing, all-dancing Appleton Estate Bartender Challenge winner 2008.
“The whole competition was so long, so intense and so thorough, it was pretty intimidating to be honest.” said Rich. “When we got here it didn’t feel like a competition until about 3 minutes before we started, then all hell broke loose. It was much, much tougher than working a shift with everyone judging you. There was no-way you could serve all the people without just putting your head down so I turned it into a performance, talking all the while and batch making 6 at a time - the guests seemed to love it. I’m unbelievably proud to win this one and I can’t wait to get involved judging the competition next year.”
“It was an incredible event and a night that people will never forget.” said Catherine McDonald from J Wray and Nephew. “Everyone was blown away by the creativity, professionalism, showmanship and the cocktails that Rich, Paul and Bruce turned out.
Whoever makes it to the finals in Jamaica next year will really need to “bring it” if they want to win the popular vote as these guys really raised the bar in terms of bartending as we know it in Jamaica. “
This is the future of bartending competitions – so from now on, accept no imitations! Appleton will be announcing the regional heats and UK leg of next year’s competition in the next few issues – so keep an eye out and get involved.
Thanks to our judges Richard Woods and last years champ Gregor de Gruyther. Also a massive thank you to Catherine and the team at Wray and Nephew Jamaica for putting on such an amazing show.
Love Paul Mc
Download local coverage
Click here to download Jamaica Coverage - Observer
Click here to download Jamaica Coverage - Herald
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