Beefeater 24 Portugal winner crowned

A student bartender has been crowned the winner of the Beefeater 24 national Portugal heats and will be travelling to London to compete in the global final.

Beefeater 24 Portugal winner, Miguel Belo (pictured on right next to Tim Stones), will now compete in the global final held in London on 7 November

Miguel Belo, 19, was crowned victor last week after impressing a panel of judges with his classic and modern interpretation of the White Lady.

Bartenders from 26 countries across the globe have been taking part in National heats of the global competition, which required entrants to create a classic cocktail using Beefeater Dry and then adapt this recipe to give it a modern twist using Beefeater 24, commenting on the story and rationale behind the two serves.

Belo will now compete against the 25 other national victors in Beefeater 24 competition’s global final in London on 7 November.

His modern twist on the White Lady cocktail, renamed London Dream, consisted of kumquat, pomegranate, almond oil and orange peel, which were added to the original recipe of Cointreau, gin, lemon juice and egg white.

He said: “I really wanted my cocktail to reflect the Beefeater 24 brand. I thought about what ingredients would complement its recipe, as well as focusing on the look of the bottle. The iconic red colour at the bottom of the bottle was reflected in my use of pomegranate and I wanted my citrus ingredients to bring out the core flavours of the gin.”

Beefeater gin’s global brand ambassadors Tim Stones and Sebastian Hamilton-Mudge have travelled to all of the participating countries to judge the heats and share some insight on the brand with participating bartenders.

Stones, who judged the Portugal round, said: “Miguel’s two cocktails showed the most promise out of the 12 we judged in Portugal. They were well balanced and fulfilled the brief, demonstrating an interesting use of flavours to give his classic serve a modern twist.”

Stones also said that Portugal was an emerging market for gin brands, following the lead of Spain, adding that Beefeater was keen to “sit at the forefront of this in terms of education”.

The champion of the global final will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Japan in 2014, where they will learn more about the teas included in the Beefeater gin recipe as well as the local bartending culture.

Paco Recuero, former brand director for Beefeater 24, commented at the beginning of the competition: “The phenomenal growth of this challenging competition shows how Beefeater 24 has really captured the imagination of the global bartending community, inspiring them to embrace their creativity and develop their mixology skills.”