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The week in pictures

Cincoro Tequila founders Michael Jordan, Jeanie Buss, Wes Edens, Wyc Grousbeck and Emilia Fazzalari celebrated the launch of their new brand this week.

The sports entrepreneurs were joined by famous faces, including American footballer Michael Strahan and actor Cuban Gooding Jr, who were on hand to sample the Cincoro range.

Distilled from 100% blue weber agave, Cincoro Tequila launched its blanco, reposado, añejo and extra añejo expressions earlier this week.

On Wednesday, SB headed to the British Library in London for the WSTA’s annual Industry Summit. The conference covered topics ranging from Brexit and excise duties, to low-alcohol trends and the rise of cannabis legalisation in the US.

Panellists included Pierpaolo Petrassi, head of trading at Waitrose; Brad Madigan, MD of Campari Group UK; Kathleen Murphy, VP innovation and new business, The Family Coppola, USA; and Henry Dimbleby, non-executive director at Defra and co-founder of Leon restaurants.

London-based bartender Alexandra Ulijaszek-Scott triumphed at this year’s Funkin Innovation Cocktail Competition after impressing judges with her Not a Cosmo cocktail.

Ulijaszek-Scott, of Aqua Shard, mixed up her winning cocktail using Funkin Pro Green Apple purée, Funkin Pro Raspberry purée and Funkin Pro Hibiscus Syrup.

“I am so excited to have won Funkin Innovation Champion 2019 and can’t wait to use this opportunity to learn, develop and experiment my way to becoming a better bartender,” she said.

On Monday, SB headed to London agaveria Hacha in Dalston for the final of the Britain’s Best Mezcal Cocktail Competition.

The contest saw six bartenders from across the UK mix up innovative mezcal cocktails using any brand of their choice. The contest was won by bartender Gemma Terry, who impressed the judges with her cocktail made using Dangerous Don mezcal.

Terry’s winning cocktail will now be listed on the menu at Hacha and she has also won a trip to Mexico.

Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands (BBFB) took its Jigger Beaker Glass education platform to Bristol this week.

The team from BBFB were joined by bar industry professionals for a half day of interactive seminars on productivity, focusing on three key areas: discipline, efficiency and realisation.

During the day of talks and workshops, Bristol bars London Cocktail Club Bristol, Hyde & Co and The Woods hosted guest speakers, including Joe Stokoe, of Heads, Hearts and Tales, and Joseph Hall, from Satan’s Whiskers.

On Monday night, SB’s deputy editor, Melita Kiely, took up a once-in-a-blue-moon invitation to London members’ club Annabel’s. With its opulent decor, pink marble bars and floor-to-ceiling flower walls, it provided a truly spectacular setting for the UK launch of Satryna Tequila.

Hosted by owner Nitzan Marrun, maestro Tequila mireida cortes and the granddaughter of the brand’s founders, and brand ambassador Elizabet Tovar, guests indulged in an evening filled with refined Mexican cuisine, cocktails and, of course, Tequila.

This week, the Vive Mezcal International Forum in Oaxaca, Mexico, set a new world record for the largest number of different mezcal labels in a single space.

The forum collected together 369 different mezcal bottles, which were all counted by two adjudicators from the Guinness World Records. After cross checking each label in the collection, the assembly of 369 bottlings was recognised as a record-breaking collection.

It was a busy week for team SB, as we also headed to London bar Homeboy for an Irish whiskey masterclass on Tuesday.

Lead by Homeboy co-founder Aaron Wall, the session took place in the bar’s “secret” Irish pub and was a chance to learn more about the blended Irish whiskey category.

The masterclasses will open to the public on 15 and 16 October, and 12 and 13 November.

This week, American whiskey brand Uncle Nearest opened the doors to its new Tennessee distillery.

The grand opening saw descendants of Nearest Green, the first known African-American master distiller, join with a host of invited guests to celebrate the opening of the brand’s home.

The Nearest Green Distillery claims to be the first distillery in the US to honour an African-American whiskey maker.

On Wednesday evening, SB headed to The Victorian Bath House in London for the latest release from Elixir Distillers.

Created by Elixir Distillers’ rum maker Oliver Chilton, pictured above with co-owner Sukhinder Singh, Black Tot is a blend of rums from Guyana, Barbados and Jamaica.

Guests were invited to sample the new rum neat, before exploring its mixability in a range of cocktails created by some of the industry’s leading bartenders, including Nicole Sykes of Lyaness, Remy Savage of Artesian, Rich Hunt of Mint Gun Club, and Pippa Guy of the American Bar at The Savoy.

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