Now in its third year the annual 101 Best New Cocktails list has been announced and once again the UK has a great showing.
Some people may think gaz regan just gallivants around the world sticking his fingers in people’s drinks…. but that is only half the story. He often stays at home and sticks his finger in his own drinks… and whilst at home he spends a lot of time writing some of the best spirits based books of recent years.
In 2012 he launched an annual book containing a selection of the best new cocktails he discovered in the year previous – 101 Best New Cocktail. With all of his travel and world-wide reputation gaz is in a unique position to put together such a tome.
This year he received over 7,000 recipes from all over the world and spent many months making and trying a large percentage of them. From that 7,000 the best 101 were picked. As you would expect, seeing as he lives across the pond, about 50% of the final cocktails were from the US but the UK came in a strong second with about 10% of the picked recipes.
The likes of France, Germany, Spain, Greece and Italy also showed well but the big surprise for gaz was the strong showing from China who had previously not shown at all and this year gained as many in the final list as cocktail hotspot Australia.
The book containing all of the cocktails as well as other goodies and articles from the ‘desk of gaz’ will be released in March/April this year. It will also contain a look at trends from around the world in a new section which should be a fascinating read.
Congratulations to everyone who made the final 101 which included a lot of BarLifeUK friends from overseas however a special congratulations to the successful UK bartenders:
Michael Stringer – Hire The Barman, London
Joshua Powell – Bar 44, Penarth, South Glamorgan
Benjamin Davies – The Suburbs, Chester
Sian Ferguson – 99 Bar and Kitchen, Aberdeen
Lee Morris – The Alchemist, Leeds
Giuseppe Gallo – Global Brand Ambassador but lives in London so we claim him
Iain McPherson – Panda and Sons, Edinburgh
Tim Robinson – Twist, London
Mark Holmes – Vanilla Rooms, Cardiff
Nick Caputo – The Priory Tavern, London
Reinhard Pohorec – The American Bar at The Savoy, London
Plus
Monica Berg who was in Oslo when she entered but is now part of the London bar clan.
If you can’t wait till the book is published to get your hands on these recipes and see what is happening in bars around the world fear not gaz has put them all up on his Ardent Spirits website here
You can also enter your cocktails for next year’s book through that link. BarLifeUK will be letting you know when the book is released.