32 bartenders, a twist on the classic Ti’Punch and two trips to Martinique for the winners.
The Ti’Punch is a drink very traditional to Martinique, which is also the home of Rhum Clement. Historically the Ti’Punch contains rhum agricole, lime juice and sugar/cane syrup. The bartender’s mission was to create a twist on this drink whilst still respecting the original.
BarLifeUK love an apple fan umbrella
The London heat saw 20 bartenders from across London arrive at Rum & Sugar, they were made up of familiar faces interspersed with some making their competition debut to ensure a favourite was impossible to pick.
The Midlands heat consisted of an equally varied group of bartenders from all across the rest of the UK. Our home for the day in Birmingham was The Bureau.
Despite the differences in the venues, one thing was a constant, the tasty arrival Rhum Clement punches to get everyone (including the judges) nice and relaxed.
The competitors each had five minutes to create two serves of their Ti’Punch twist for the judges who were made up of representatives from Rhum Clement, Amathus Drinks, BarChick and BarLifeUK, as well as dazzling with some product knowledge.
London treated us to not only some great drinks, but also to some fantastic presentation and garnishing of the cocktails. Martinique is known as the Island of the Flowers so there were plenty of petals scattered across the bar but they were accompanied by maps, fire, apple fan umbrella’s, sorbet, frozen flowers serving as ice cubes, macaroons and even an orange peel & lime wedge galleon.
One of the many awful shirts, this one modelled by Benji
Despite everyone’s best efforts there was still only room for one of the London crowd on the plane. Very credible 3rd and 2nd places went to Wendy Stoklasova and Bianca Hepworth. However first place went to 69 Colebrook Row’s Mike Foster (recipe at the bottom of the article).
Birmingham saw a fantastic level of quality cocktails, even better banter and some truly awful shirts. In the end it was one of those shirts that took out the top spot with Reading’s Benji Ryde wowing all the judges with drink and presentation.
The final heat takes place in Edinburgh this week and we will of course be bringing you all the details once it is done.
