A truly amazing week spent with 26 international bartenders in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is drawing to a close.
A day of semi finals has seen 8 of the 26 go through to the grand final, held tomorrow afternoon at the Cathedral of Rum (Bacardi Distillery), the winner of which will see their drink added to the pantheon of Bacardi Legacy Cocktails.
Having spent a week getting to know these guys and gals, and coming to understand how much winning means to all of them, it has been genuinely emotional to watch the group split by the semis.
I’ll be writing a full account of this week, and tomorrow’s final, soon.
However, I’m going to keep this dispatch brief, mainly because I want to get back to the bar, grab another daiquiri and rejoin the celebrations and commiserations.
So, HUGE congratulations to Zdenek Kastanek (London) and Hayden Scott Lambert (Belfast) for winning places in the final and doing Great Britain proud.
Kudos must also go to Bacardi ambassador Shervene Shahbazkhani for great work with team UK… 2012’s three most promising are in safe hands.
Full results of tonight’s semi finals as follows:
(Finalists in no particular order)
- Shingo Gokan, USA, ‘Speak Low’
- Hayden Scott Lambert, Ireland, ‘The Colonial Cocktail’
- Anastasiya Gvak, Russia, ‘A. Priori’
- Matteo Zamberlan, Italy, ‘The Golden Mai Tai’
- Lukas Motejzik, Germany, ‘Pop It!’
- Zdenek Kastanek, UK, ‘La Hermosa’
- Jimmy Hult, Sweden, ‘Sin Tiempo’
- Boudewijn Mesritz, The Netherlands, ‘What If?’