Brought together by Bacardi’s Global Legacy Cocktail Competition, a group of ten mixologists from around the world spent one week training and learning together, uniting the cocktail culture in a way that speaks volumes for the bright future of this industry.
Picture yourself in a room with nine other people, all strangers, all respected experts in your field, all of whom are there to compete directly against you and each other for an award and recognition unparalleled in your industry. Would your first action be to invite all of them out for a celebratory drink? I didn’t think so.
But that was exactly what happened on a warm, sunny afternoon in April, as ten finalists from around the world gathered for the first time in London, England to begin training for the first-ever Bacardi Global Legacy Cocktail Competition. Knowing full well that, four days later, they would be matched head-to-head for the glory of having their signature drink named a Bacardi Legacy Cocktail, alongside classics like the daiquiri and the mojito, what did this collection of cocktail denizens decide to do? Go out drinking.
This, of course, is only part of the story. But the immediate bonding, the mutual respect, and the shared admiration amongst these ten strangers, on display with every handshake and introduction, is something that speaks to the hopeful future of our industry and a notion that Bacardi strongly supports and cultivates—a globally united cocktail culture of shared ideas and inspiration amongst the mixology community that will, in the long run, benefit the spirits business and on-premise bar industry as a whole.
Such lofty goals aside, Bar Business was given unprecedented exclusive access to everything and everyone behind the scenes of Bacardi’s global cocktail competition, which provided not only amazing insight into this community and its core players, but also a clear idea of how mixology contests in general can be truly beneficial to the bartenders who participate, as well as the establishments they represent as employees. We followed the ten contestants, each of whom had been on this path for months while competing in regional competitions in their respective countries, as they were trained and educated in preperation for not only the final competition, but for their careers going forward.
DAY ONE
Upon arriving in London, the first eight competitors are already here: Piotr Kuzmicki of Belgium, Marc Bonneton of France, Alexander Wimmer of Germany, Alberto Pérez of Mexico, Timo Janse of the Netherlands, Jordi Otero of Spain, Matthew Dakers of the UK, and John Lermayer of the U.S., head bartender at The Florida Room in the Delano Hotel in Miami. (Two compeitors—Dmitry Sokolov of Russia and Amalia Redifinido of India—experienced visa problems trying to enter the country, and would arrive later in Barcelona.) The first “class” commences at 9 a.m. inside the renowned Artesian Bar at the Langham Hotel, one of the UK’s finest cocktail dens. Following a brief overview of the week from David Córdoba, Bacardi Global Brand Ambassador (who is first to stress the goal of a unified cocktail culture as part of this competition), and a summation of his past experience winning the 2009 UK Legacy Cocktail Competition by Agostino Perrone of London’s famed Connaught Bar, it was time for the practical lessons to begin. Artesian head bartender Alex Kratena explains the “importance of sexiness” when it comes to garnishing, and produces some extraordinary examples, including dry-ice smoke, ice cubes with logos routed inside of them, and an “ice nest,” which sits above a cocktail holding various small fruits; the ice nest then drips into the drink as it melts and subtly provides the flavors of the fruit.
Following lunch, the competitors meet Stanislav Vadrna, a “lifelong bartender” and cocktail consultant from Slovenia who’s approach to bartending—and life—he sums up with two Japanese words (which I envoked in my Editor’s Column this month): “Ichigo, Ichie,” meaning “one encounter, one chance.” Vadrna tells the contestants that whether working behind their bar, walking the street, or partaking in a global cocktail competition, they should treat every encounter with another person as if it were a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. As a bartender, Vadrna explains, this philosophy makes for a better server who engages customers on a deeper level; as a mixologist, it allows each interaction with fellow bartenders to become a potential learning experience.
With the day’s training commenced, the competitors gather at Cottons Caribbean Restaurant for dinner and drinks, each accompanied by the Bacardi brand ambassador from their respective country, who will act as chaperones, assistants, translators, and guides throughout the training and at the final competition. Over many rum cocktails, both at Cottons and at various London bars visited this night, the competitors as a group grow steadily closer.
