World Class competition returns

The global cocktail competition known as Diageo World Class has included Ireland again this year after a few years’ absence.

Competitors in this promotion make use of the Diageo Reserve Collection, Diageo’s luxury spirits range, to make premium cocktails.

The global competition highlights the premium cocktail-making skills of some of the best bartenders in the world and the opening event, the ‘Fundamentals of Flavours’ was held in The Liquor Rooms where how many? potential competitors from all across the island of Ireland limbered up with the help of Max La Rocca, World Class Ambassador for Western Europe and a member of the judging panel, who offered a critique of their cocktail-making skills as a training tool.

He explained what intending entrants need to do to secure entry to this coveted competition. Peter O’Connor, Key Account Executive for Reserve, was on hand to help Max in his critiques.

Launched in 2009, World Class has drawn over 15,000 bartenders from 50 countries into taking part each year.

On this occasion budding World Class barmen from around the country were being given the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do (and how they can do it better).

“You need to be able to ‘wow’ people,” was how one mixologist succinctly put it when describing the necessary overall quality for winning through to the finals. On this occasion Andrew Dickey from The Apartment in Belfast outshone his peers and won himself a bottle of Johnnie Walker Rerserve.

This ‘Fundamentals of Flavours’ introduction is to be followed in short order by ‘Burst 1’, the brown spirits heat which will be followed after Christmas by ‘Burst 2’, the white spirits heat, to identify the top 25 mixologists before the All-Ireland final later in 2015. This sees one overall Irish winner heading on to the world stage for September’s global World Class finals.


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