SB competes in Finest Call’s speed cocktail competition

American Beverage Marketers cocktail mix brand, Finest Call, brought its speed bartending competition to The Spirits Business HQ last week.

Jodie Hart, of Lucre PR, and Freddie Lawrence, sales manager for Cellar Trends, led the competition

The Speed League is designed to demonstrate the “speed, simplicity and consistency of serve” that the Finest Call Premium Cocktail Mix range offers – and on Friday afternoon the competition came to the SB offices to put our staff to the test.

Entrants must create four popular cocktails – Mojito, Sweet&Sour, Margarita and Cosmopolitan – using the Finest Call Premium Cocktail Mix range as quickly as possible, with a “perfect and consistent” serve.

Time penalties will be added for any mistakes made, including spillages, poor presentation, taste and technique.

The fastest bartender of the Finest Call Speed League will win an any all-expenses paid trip to Louisville, Kentucky, where they will visit the American Beverage Marketers plant, the Distilled Spirits Epicentre – a prestigious training and education centre – and a number of Bourbon distilleries.

Each Speed League challenge will be judged by American Beverage Marketer’s brand manager for Northern Europe, Steve Dingley, Cellar Trends’ brand manager Peter Thornton, or a Cellar Trends brand representative.

Thornton said: “As cocktails are appearing on more pub and bar menus across the UK, we wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to produce high quality, consistent serves within a matter of seconds.

“Finest Call products take away the need for extensive training sessions as the recipes are easy to remember, or for expensive ingredients which we find, are often the barriers to putting cocktails on the menu.

“We feel the Speed League challenge is a fun and engaging way to introduce the brand and demonstrate that cocktails can be an easy serve, and of course one which is very profitable for the pub or bar owner.”

The Finest Call Speed League initiative is open to bartenders and pub owners across the UK, but the company have we are also invited members of the press to participate, with the same prize up for grabs.

To take part, contact Peter Thornton at Peter.Thornton@cellartrends.co.uk.