14 bartenders, 40 minutes, and $30. The goal: find the most creative ingredients in Chinatown. For some, working in the service industry is a side job, chosen only because tips are good. But for the bartenders participating in Made With Love — a cocktail-making competition at Chinatown’s Keefer Bar — it is a passion and an art.
The rules were simple. Bartenders were to bring their own bar supplies, and the Keefer Bar provided them with water, ice, simple syrups, bitters, club soda, and a choice of any of the sponsoring liquors: Campari, Canadian Club, Hendrick’s gin, Hornito’s tequila, Maker’s Mark, and Skyy vodka. Everything else would have to be included in each bartender’s $30 budget.
After the rules had been explained to all the competitors, the bartenders were off, racing through Chinatown to find the most unique and delicious ingredients within the 40-minute time limit. Bikes were allowed — but the organizers gave their blessing to anybody who wanted to let the air out of their competitors’ tires. Within 20 minutes, the first competitor sprinted back into the bar, with the other 13 at his heels. They had all successfully made it back within the time limit. But their challenge had only just begun.
The diversity of ingredients was awe-inspiring: there were duck eggs, dried seahorse, and salted prunes, not to mention the variety of fruits and spices. The bartenders had seven minutes to prepare their drinks, not including set-up time, and competed in waves of three at a time. This was where the full potential of bartending was displayed. These men and women showed that it isn’t just about pouring drinks: making a cocktail can have elements of art, science, and competitive sport. The competitors shook, mixed, stirred, and strained — the winning competitor even brought out a hotplate to make his own syrup. The emerging concoctions varied from completely original cocktails to innovative variations of classic drinks. Each bartender made two glasses of their drink for the four judges. The awarding of points was based on a standard Canadian Professional Bartender’s Association (CPBA) rubric sheet, but many of the items are subjective, and depend on the judges’ personal tastes. Participants were judged on presentation, creativity, and taste of their cocktail.
The competition was tough, with each competitor seemingly outdoing the last. The bartenders that had already competed watched as their rivals toiled to make the perfect original drink, nodding at bold moves, and flinching at errors and stumbles. Finally, the moment came to announce the winners. In third place was Rob Scope of Calabash Bistro, with his drink “Little Italy in Chinatown” — tequila infused with pandanus leaf, with Italian plum preserve, and fresh lime juice. In second came H. of Jules Bistro fame with his “White Lady Guanjin”. This drink has a Hendrick’s gin foundation — infused with Chinese black rose tea to keep it interesting — with lemon juice, duck egg white, and homemade triple sec (H. was overheard saying “Well, if I can’t use your triple sec, I’ll just have to make my own.”) The winner: Keenan Hood, the bar manager of hosting Keefer Bar, with “Unpredicted Season” — tequila, lemon juice, a syrup of salted plum and chrysanthemum (made on the earlier noted hotplate), and an egg white.
Made With Love at the Keefer Bar was a preliminary contest to decide which 12 bartenders would be competing at September’s main competition, one of many similar events hosted by the Canadian Professional Bartender’s Association. With the growing interest in the art of mixology, these events are getting more and more popular and common. Organizers say that these types of competitions are meant to bring cocktail culture to those that aren’t part of the industry, and aren’t normally exposed to it. The bartenders that placed in the top three at the preliminary competition, get first pick in their choice of liquor at the main event, which usually draws a crowd between 500 and 600 people. It’s not just Vancouver that’s building an appreciation for the art of mixology: six cities across the country have similar competitions, including Montreal, Halifax, and Toronto.
All the competitors I spoke to raved about their jobs; the creativity and the passion that goes into making the perfect cocktail. Like any profession, some do it for money or security, but for some it’s a calling.
What I learned about cocktail making just by watching the competition:
1. Some recipes call for egg white. If you drop the yolk in by accident, it is not the same thing. Spoon it out. Why even bother with an egg white? It makes the drink deliciously foamy.
2. Garnish can make or break the drink (or the novelty of the drink, at the very least). Shea of Bitter Tasting Room and Clough Club, whose drink was garnished with a dried seahorse, set a prime example. I don’t know about you, but I would drink those until the novelty of a seahorse in my drink wore off. Which is probably never.
3. If certain syrups are an essential part of a drink and you don’t happen to have triple sec casually lying around the dorm — sorry, your sick bachelor pad — you can just as easily make it. You can try H.’s recipe: dried mandarin orange peel, vodka, sugar, Campari, and rum. Or you can stick to your can of PBR. Probably easier.
4. Mixing drinks is not as simple as one might think. It seems easy when the choices are vodka, Jager, an assortment of juices, and Red Bull, and your bar tool is a red plastic cup. But there is a world of possibilities, an arsenal of creativity, just waiting to be mixed, shaken, or stirred.
August 20th, 2012 update (Made With Love at the Roundhouse Community Center)
The winners of each group will be heading to Halifax in a month for the next round of competitions. Below are the ingredients used in the cocktails from the winners of both the judges’ choice and the public’s choice.
Judges’ Choice:
Keenan Hood (The Keefer Bar)- “Unpredicted Season”
-Hornitos Tequila (2 oz)
-lemon juice
-salted plum, chrysanthemum flowers, and anise syrup
-1 egg white
-rimmed with Hawaiian Blade sea salt, lime salt, and habanero syrup
Public’s Choice:
Shea Hogan (Clough Club and Bitter Tasting Room)- “Girvän Märk”
-Hendrick’s Gin (1.5 oz)
-jagermeister (1/3 oz)
-cucumber and mint shrub
-Bittered Sling juniper and orange bitters
-cocktail foam: egg white, grapefruit juice, Maker’s Mark bourbon, lemongrass simple syrup
-garnished with rosemary
