PELICAN--Six bartenders tasted the sweetness of mixing their way into the finals of the St. Maarten/St. Martin leg of the House of Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge after hours of competition on Wednesday. The six will compete for the title of best bartender in St. Maarten at The Red Piano in Pelican today, Thursday. Mix-off starts at 2:00pm.
The judges, who included a House of Angostura resident mixologist from Trinidad, said "bottoms up" to the cocktails of the finalists: defending champion Paul Peterson of Temptation restaurant, Dastas Mickael (Bamboo Bernie's restaurant), Jordon Cohen (Sky Beach), Raymond Rivera (The Red Piano), Marcel Szekfu (Dirty Sancchez Bar in Simpson Bay) and private bartender Latchman Chintaman.
The six bartenders were selected from a pool of 15 who all competed in The Red Piano on Wednesday afternoon. Each one presented for judging a rum cocktail and a freestyle drink. All creations made use of the House of Angostura line of products and were made at the bar before the judges.
The competition not only brought out the best cocktail concoctions and inventions from the bartenders, it also spotlighted how the world of bartending is still very much a male-dominated field. Only two women bartenders were in the challenge – Lauren Bevington (Dirty Sancchez Bar in Philipsburg) and Ana Morgan Pomero (Karakter lounge and restaurant). Neither placed in the finals.
The winner of the St. Maarten leg of the challenge will represent the island in the regional competition. He will have home-court advantage, as the regional finals of the House of Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge will be held in St. Maarten on October 25. Some six Caribbean countries will be represented in that leg.
The best mixologist for the region will head to the global challenge in Trinidad in February 2016.
The local leg of the competition was coordinated by Antillean Liquors, the local authorised distributor of all House of Angostura products.
