The week in pictures

La Martiniquaise-owned rum brand Saint James hosted the local finals for its Bartenders’ Society cocktail competition, selecting the competitors that will make their way to Paris for the finale in May.

Competitions have so far taken place in Italy and Israel, with Andrea Lazzaretti triumphing in Italy and Shlomi Ambar coming out on top in Israel.

The competition challenges bartenders to create innovative cocktails using Saint James agricole rums.

Scottish-born singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi paid a visit to Glasgow bar So L.A to sample a cocktail created in his honour.

Capaldi surprised staff at the Glasgow bar when he turned up to taste the Bathgate to LA cocktail, which the venue had promised to give away for free to anyone that shared the singer’s name.

So L.A. manager Iain Reid created the cocktail, which combines Roku gin, sake, Japanese ginger and lychee liqueur.

London bar Callooh Callay has unveiled its latest drinks list, which has been inspired by the stages involved in opening a bar.

Presented in a reimagined Haynes car manual, the venue’s Cocktail Bar Manual menu features 26 drinks split between four sections: The Plan, The Location, The Team and The Mindset.

The Cocktail Bar Manual features drinks submitted by each member of the bar’s team, such as The Builders Breakfast, a rum-based cocktail made with tea syrup and served in a builders mug, and the Jabberwocky Milk, which is made with Tanqueray gin, lemon, marshmallow syrup, egg white, cream and soda served in a miniature paint tin.

The American Bar at London’s Savoy Hotel has unveiled its latest cocktail menu, which has been inspired by musicians who have entertained guests at the hotel.

The Savoy Songbook menu, features a collection of 20 cocktails created by the American bar team and led by head bartender Maxim Schulte and director of bars Declan McGurk. Each drink on the list refers to a memorable line in a song that provides its inspiration.

Cocktails on the menu include Somewhere Sailin’, which is inspired by Jazz song Beyond the Sea and “reflects the tempestuous nature of the ocean”, and George Harrison’s song Here Comes the Sun was the base for the cocktail Sun Sun Sun, which features flavours of orange blossom, yuzu wine and lime.

In preparation for World Whisky Day, which took place this week (27 March), Roe & Co Irish whiskey hosted lock-in events across the US.

The Diageo-owned whiskey brand took to Jersey City, Boston and Washington to celebrate the event, and to mark its arrival in the US market for the first time.

The brand hosted an intimate tasting with Diageo master blender Caroline Martin and global brand ambassador Alan Mulvihill.

Whyte & Mackay-owned Wildcat Gin has been named official drinks sponsor of alternative club brand Sink the Pink.

Wildcat Gin will be the exclusive gin pour at four out of the five dates on the Sink the Pink UK tour, which stops off at London, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.

As part of the sponsorship, Wildcat Gin will be encouraging party-goers to ‘Seize the Night’ by activating two experiential installations at each event – a glitzy throne and a perception-bending neon and mirror room.

A new online video series that investigates forgotten spirit bottles in New York’s bars premiered on YouTube this week.

Each 10-minute episode of Collecting Dust, presented by Soho Experiential co-founder Jeff Boedges and Rick Kiley, will see the hosts visit a New York venue to find out more about a bottle that has been sitting untouched on the bar.

Over the course of the series, Boedges and Kiley will visit bars including Prohibition, Underdog, Ulysses and The Hideaway.

To highlight the mixability of coffee behind the bar, botanically brewed mixer brand Fentimans has partnered with former American Bar bartender Martin Hudák to create a selection of coffee-based cocktails.

The cocktails were unveiled at the London Coffee Festival, which kicked off this week (27-31 March), and included drinks such as The Co-Co – made with amaretto, cold brew coffee, coffee amaro, coffee liqueur and Fentimans Cherry Cola.

Hudák said: “Coffee cocktails are becoming more and more popular around the globe. From the morning café to the apéritif bar or with the late-night cocktail scene you can see this trend being taken seriously by baristas, bartenders and company brands.”

This week saw Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands (BBFB) host the final event in its Jigger Beaker Glass initiative.

The on-trade-focused education scheme travelled to Leeds for the final event in the series, which took place at Banyan Bar in the heart of the city.

The event explored the future of mixed drinks and included talks from Artesian head bartender Remy Savage, Tristan Stephenson of the Aske Stephenson duo and industry stalwart, Craig Harper.

London tiki bar Laki Kane has partnered with Greek spirit brand Metaxa 12 Stars to create a menu of brandy-based tiki cocktails.

For four weeks, Laki Kane will be serving up its menu of Metaxa-based cocktails, designed to blend together the flavours of Samos Muscat wines, Mediterranean botanicals and tiki flavours.

Drinks on offer include the Laki Lambo, made with Metaxa 12 Stars, Mount Gay XO, blood orange, lemon, and honey syrup, topped with pineapple foam and garnished with an edible flower, and the Three Dots and a Dash, which combines Metaxa 12 Stars, Mount Gay XO, orange juice, falerno, Alamea Pimento, honey water and lime.

A team of distillers from the Isle of Man travelled to London’s International Food Exhibition to showcase the spirits the island has to offer.

Fynoderee Distillery and Seven Kingdom Distillery travelled to London to showcase products such as the Fynoderee Winter Edition Gin, which has a “smooth, warming, cinnamon finish”, and Douglas Dry Gin from Seven Kingdom, which uses Manx Gorse to give a “dried taste somewhere around the mango and papaya end of the spectrum”.

Fynoderee Distillery also showcased its newly-released Fynoderee Manx Dry Gin – Kerala Chai, which has been inspired by the southern Indian state of Kerala.