Hayden, a Bacardi Legacy winner

Hayden Lambert from the Merchant Hotel in Belfast and his Colonial Cocktail won this year’s Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition held in The Royal College of Physicians, Dublin, recently.

Now in its fourth year, the Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition offers bartenders the chance to create  a modern classic which could, in time, be as popular and celebrated around the world as cocktails such as the Bacardi Mojito, Bacardi Daiquiri or Bacardi Cuba Libre.

The final saw 10 competitors from Galway, Dublin, Cork and Belfast being judged by a panel of experts including two  of the UK’s finest mixologists: Richie Hunt from Hawksmoor Seven Dials Cocktail Bar and Matthew Dakers from Worship Street Whistling Shop in London.

Hayden now represents Ireland against 27 other countries at the Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition Global Final to be held in Puerto Rico in February 2012 as part of Bacardi’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

The winner will be invited to travel around the world sharing his recipe and ideas with fellow bartenders before finally arriving in Mexico where Bacardi’s Maestro de Ron will assist the Global Champion to blend his or her own rum.