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The week in pictures

On Wednesday, new Mexican restaurant Cantina Laredo opened its doors in London’s Covent Garden, with a long list of celebrities queuing up to sample the kitchen’s “Eight Great Guacamoles”. The “appetising array of avocados” were prepared in front of guests by in house “guacamaestros”. Ingredients included blue cheese, pineapple and grasshoppers.

The food was accompanied by Casamigos 100% blue agave Tequila and frozen Margaritas. Celebrity guests included: Professor Green, Daisy Lowe, Jo Konta, Heather Watson, Jo Wood, Donna Air, Nicola Roberts, Lottie Moss, Winnie Harlow, Toby Huntington-Whiteley, Tallia Storm and Una Healy.

On Monday, SB‘s editor Amy Hopkins headed to Germany to check our the latest trends and products on display at leading bar and beverage show Bar Convent Berlin. Bigger than ever before, this year’s event featured a total of 370 exhibitors from 32 countries – 17% more than last year. For the first time, BCB also occupied all the available space in the halls of Station Berlin and the neighbouring Kühlhaus.

The show also set a new visitor record, welcoming a total of 12,217 trade visitors, including 1,500 speakers and exhibitor-invited VIP guests, an increase of 10%.

During the show, Amy Hopkins and the Wenneker team presented Trinh Quan Huy-Philip with his long-awaited trophy after being named Wenneker Swizzle Master 2015. The ‘travelling mixologist’ impressed a panel of judges with his Cinco de Mayo serve, entered into 2015’s Spicy Tequila heat. The Wenneker Swizzle Masters is the world’s only virtual cocktail competition, allowing bartenders from around the world to submit recipes for specified rounds that are then precisely mixed by a leading bartender in London. All cocktails must contain at least a dash of Wenneker liqueur – more information can be found here: http://www.swizzlemasters.com/.

Creative marketing and drinks agency Scotch + Limon announced this week that it has appointed Jamie Jones (pictured) as its new director of drinks. Following on from his success earlier in the year as UK World Class Bartender of the Year and overseeing the drinks programme at Jason Atherton’s Social Company.

In his new role, Jones will be working to develop “global signature serves, disruptive serves, rituals as well as seasonal recipes for both on- and off-trade”.

The Gin Guild has installed Ed Pilkington, marketing and innovation director for Diageo Europe, as its latest Grand Rectifier. Mr Pilkington was sworn in at a Gin Guild Installation held last night at Mansion House in London, before the Annual Banquet hosted by the Guild’s parent company, The Worshipful Company of Distillers. Among the 26 new members was the Guild’s first member from India, Anand Virmani, who launched his first brand of London Dry Gin this year. The installation also included members from Kyoto Distillery in Japan, Helsinki Distillery in Finland and US distillery Golden Moon.

Langley’s England announced this week that Katie Rouse has been appointed brand ambassador for the Midlands. She replaces Jonathan Zammit-Tabona (pictured) who has been promoted to UK head of sales and marketing.

Rouse currently owns Crushed & Cubed, a Birmingham-based drinks agency and will focus on the Midlands “on-trade sector” to “maintain awareness of Langley’s England”.

Wright Brother’s have unveiled their seasonal cocktail menu with some new drinks to warm your cockles during the winter months.

New concoctions include Winter is Coming (Courvosier VS Cognac, Solera 1847 Oloroso Dulce, vanilla syrup, and fig and black walnut bitters), and Czech my Wood (Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Becherovka, merlot and maple syrup).

Standing in at five feet five inches tall and containing enough drams for 8,000 people, the world’s largest bottle of whisky has been moved from the Tasting Lounge to the Welcome Lounge at the Glenturret Distillery in Crieff. The 200 litre bottle was certified as the largest in the world by the Guinness Book of Records in 2012.

The move required four stillmen, led by Ian Renwick, head of production, who noted the difficult task: “I just hope it’s staying put for the next five years!”

The former world record holder was Jack Daniel’s, which has a 184 litre bottle.

StarChefs and Grey Goose Vodka have launched the inaugural Atelier of Taste programme. The “culinary and cocktail mentorship” programme will see 10 rising chefs and bartenders taken to Le Logis, the French manor home to Grey Goose, where they will learn about the “complex interplay between flavour and technique”. Their guides will be Grey Goose cellar master François Thibault and Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse.

Rita Ora and Absolut have teamed up to launch The Open Mic Project, which intends to use music to instigate positive societal changes. As of this week, people are able to submit their stories of acceptance and inclusivity, which will inspire a new song to be performed by Ora at the Grammy Awards in January 2018.

The project ties in with the newest campaign from Absolut – Create a Better Tomorrow, Tonight – and will provide a “platform for amplifying, and uniting, voices across the nation to refresh the talk”.

SB headed to the launch of new Shoreditch restaurant Camino. New drinks include a twist on an old classic – Terry’s Old Fashioned (Maker’s Mark Bourbon, Cacao Pico chocolate liqueur, chocolate bitters and orange peel), Pepperita, a Margarita that packs a punch (El Jimador Tequila, Absolute Pepper vodka, padrón pepper, agave, lime) and Trigger Happy (Red Leg, Soberano brandy, Maeloc cider, apple juice and lemon juice) as well as Camino’s classic selection of Spanish serves: gins, Sherries and vermouth served with Fever Tree tonics, in large measures, Spanish-style.

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