Yesterday someone said to me “Well done for winning that coffee competition mate, it’s funny that you won even though you sell beer for a living!”.

Even though I was grateful for the complement, I wasn’t quite sure where this person got the idea that I sell beer from. Now, i’m not saying that there is anything wrong with selling beer at all, in fact beer selling sounds pretty good to me, but it’s quite a long way from my actual job description. So I thought that it might be time to reveal a little bit about what I do and also let you guys know about World Class.

My job essentially works around the biggest cocktail competition in the world – World Class. World Class is now operated in 26 countries and it works as a competition and training initiative. In the UK there are four bursts each year run around the categories of vodka, tequila, rum and gin. In each burst an ambassador (me) provides a master-class on the spirit, including historical background, production and a blind tasting of around six spirits. Cocktails are then submitted by each bar that has received training and the best recipes are then taken through to a regional final, with the winner (from each region and each burst) bagging a trip to Venezuela (rum), Mexico (tequila), Holland (vodka) or New York (gin).

The 16 winners from all the heats and regions will then battle it out in the UK final, fighting to become the UK’s best bartender. The winner of that title will then represent the UK in the global final , which is due to be held over three days in London this summer. The other 25 competitors in the competition will have undergone similar trials in order to represent their own countries, so the final should be pretty competitive. It’ll need to be because the winner will be publishing their own cocktail book and the whole event is going to be filmed by Sky TV.

If you want to get involved in World Class (in fact, even if you don’t) take a look at We Are World Class . The likes of Dale Degroff and Marco Pierre White will be judging the competition, and we also have the backing of the Magnificent Seven… you really need to check out the next link, an awesome combination of video and flash animation featuring some biggest bartending names in the world – The Magnificent Seven.

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