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The week in pictures

During this year’s London Pride, Diageo-owned Smirnoff partnered with the Village Angels nightlife street safety agency.

With funding from Smirnoff, Village Angels and the Soho Angels are able to provide volunteer teams to offer help and support to Soho and its LGBTQ+ community. The teams will also be out and about at other Pride events in the UK, including  Brighton Pride (3 August), Leeds Pride (4 August) and Manchester Pride (24 August).

Smirnoff and the Stonegate Pub Company will also donate 50p from every Smirnoff Soda Smash sold at participating Stonegate venues during pride events to the LGBT Foundation.

The stars of Amazon Prime series Three Drinkers, Aidy Smith, Helena Nicklin and Colin Hampden-White, donned rainbow tutus and angel wings to show their support for this year’s Pride celebrations in London.

Smith, Nicklin and Hampden-White attended the London Pride parade on 6 July to help London celebrate 50 years since the birth of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Smith said: “We are honoured to support Pride and everything it stands for alongside our friends at Barefoot.”

Online entries are now open for Black Cow Vodka’s 2019 Black Cow Cup Cocktail Competition.

This year’s competition, inspired by the relationships between senses and taste, challenges bartenders to create cocktails that utilise “sound in an innovative way”. Competing bartenders must also engage smell, taste, texture, sound, sight and memory in their creation.

Bartenders have until 31 July to submit their entries at blackcow.co.uk/apply before regional heats take place across the UK ahead of the final on 5 and 6 September.

Also opening for entries this week was the 1800 Tequila Visionaries Cocktail Competition.

Now in its third year, the competition challenges bartenders to create drinks inspired by an iconic artist from the worlds of art, style, design and music.

To be in with a chance of winning a £2,000 (US$2,500) cash prize to be used to further their creativity, bartenders should submit their creative cocktail recipes online at 1800visionaries.com.

The latest round in the Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge also began its search for a UK champion this week.

To be in with a chance of earning a spot in the UK final of the contest, bartenders must submit two cocktail recipes: one containing Angostura rum and the other containing Amaro di Angostura.

The winning bartender will represent the UK at the final in Trinidad and Tobago in February 2020.

Earlier this week, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s revealed plans to open the UK’s ‘first no- and low- alcohol pub’ in London.

Set to open its doors on 24 and 25 July, The Clean Vic pub will serve a range of beers, wines and cocktails – all with an abv of 0.5% or less.

Guests at the London pub will be able to sample alcohol-free ‘spirits’ such as Seedlip, Cedar’s and Everleaf, as well as non-alcoholic beers from brands including Erdinger and Peroni, and Sainsbury’s low-abv wine range.

William Grant & Sons-owned Hendrick’s Gin announced this week that it will take its Amazing, Whimsical, Enchanting, Voyaging, Astounding, Nocturnal, Ascending, Interstellar, Roamer (AWEVANAIR) hot air balloon to Vancouver later this year.

The AWEVANAIR will transport ticket holders to a height of 44 ¼ cucumbers, where they will see the city from a new perspective.

Taking to the skies as part of the Honda Celebration of Light, the 65-foot balloon is festooned with roses and cucumbers.

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey has announced the fourth instalment of its cocktail competition, Tennessee Calling.

The latest iteration of the contest will culminate in an all-new final at London Cocktail Week from Wednesday 9 to Thursday 10 October, where 12 finalists will battle it out as two teams of six. 

The deadline for entries is 31 August and bartenders must create cocktails inspired by the world’s best dive bars.

A team of cyclists from Simpsons Malt and McCreath Simpson & Prentice will take on this year’s Ride London cycling challenge.

The 100-mile bike ride starts at London’s Olympic Park before traversing the surrounding countryside and crossing the finish line at Buckingham Palace.

The five person team from Simpsons Malt and McCreath Simpson & Prentice will ride in memory of friend and colleague Peter Simpson, and will be raising money for charity Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Spiced rum brand The Kraken this week hosted an immersive dining experience that transported guests into the ‘eye of a thunder storm’.

The Dining in a Perfect Storm series uses rainfall technology and special effects to recreate the extreme weather of a perfect storm indoors – including intense rainfall, howling winds and mighty thunder.

After donning waterproof macs, diners take their seats at the restaurant’s long, communal table – around which the storm experience takes place. Diners will be served a jet-black menu of dishes crafted using naturally black ingredients and “natural” black food colouring.

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