This post wont be anywhere near as long as I would like it to be, or you would probably expect it to be! This is due mainly to the fact that I spent more of the day organising and prepping than I did spectating. I can’t take credit for any of the photos as I didn’t personally get around to taking any!

The event was held in Kent house, right opposite Hyde Park in London. The building is actually a synagogue, but its art deco design and spacious rooms worked really well with the format of the competition.

Let’s first of all look at the finalists…

FROM THE RUM FINALS

James Hill from Menzels in Sheffield
Julian de Feral from Lugyens in London
Shervene Shahbazkhani from Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh
Simon ‘Ginge’ Warneford from My Hotel in Brighton

FROM THE GIN FINALS

Andreas Tsanos from Zuma in London
Andy Coleman from Mai Tai in Bournemouth
Jamie Macdonald from Tiger Lily in Edinburgh
Sam Carter from World Service in Nottingham

FROM THE VODKA FINALS

Alex Kratena from Artesian in London
Dave Winstanley from Mai Tai in Bournemouth
Joey Medrington from Tiger Lily in Edinburgh
Tom Higham from Menzels in Sheffield

FROM THE TEQUILA FINALS

Jon Hepplestone from Skippy’s in Leeds
Karol Ansald from Zuma in London
Ryan Chetiyawardana from Bramble in Edinburgh
Tim Garratt from Hotel Seattle in Brighton

ROUND 1 – MASTERMIND

The first round saw each competitor answering a maximum of nine booze related questions against the clock. With only one minute to get as many right as possible this was no easy task. Even some of the brightest bartending brains in the country found the pressure too much with some silly mistakes being made in the heat of the moment. Tim Garratt and Jamie Macdonald seemed to fair well answering five correct questions. Others did not fair so well with more than one not answering a single question correctly. Perhaps they were too hard? I wrote some of them!

ROUND 2 – SPEED

Once again against the clock each bartender had to make and serve two cocktails, a Cosmopolitan and a Mojito, to a panel of judges. The judges (Barrie Wilson, Andy Pearson and Ian Cameron) were looking for not just speed, but also precision and a taste. Joey Medrington performed well, making bother drinks in under two minutes and getting a thumbs up from all three judges.

ROUND 3 – APERITIF DRINK

So now the serious stuff starts, with many more points up for grabs plus the addition of two new judges – Bill Prince, Deputy editor of GQ and Marco Pierre White, formidable TV chef.

Each competitor came prepared with an original cocktail recipe, this was their opportunity to creatively excel. Competitiors prepared their cocktails in front of an audience then carried the drink through to the library where they had a five minute private Q&A with the judges, covering everything from spirits, flavour, balance, garnish and aroma. Though the chat was limited to only the eyes of competitor and judges, the general consensus was that it was a pretty serious grilling!

It was around halfway through this round when disaster struck. The power went out. The competition was able to continue on, but as day turned to night the possibility of an early finish became more and more a reality.

After reviewing the first three rounds Marco announced the four competitors that would be going through to the next round. My money was on Joey, Julian, Alex and James.

It was in fact:

Joey Medrington
James Hill
Andreas Tsanos
Ryan Chetiyawrdana

ROUND 4 – SHOPPING CHALLENGE

In round four the remaining four competitors were given £50 each and 45 minutes to go out and purchase ingredients for a cocktail. Both Harrod’s and Harvey Nichol’s were only just around the corner so all four disappeared off in that direction.

Unfortunately I missed a couple of the competitors in this final round. I saw Joey make a green tea and pineapple drink with Tanqueray TEN. I also saw Andreas make a very nice old fashioned style drink with Pampero Anniversario. With the power still off and the after party looking like it might need to be cut short, Marco announced the two finalists:

Andreas & Ryan

With an early finish imminent, Tom Aske and I decided to set in motion the after party ‘Flavour Station’ that we had planned. The small trestle table which we had been prepping all day had everything required to make a selection of interesting drinks. A Ciroc Classic Champagne cocktail with lychee and rose caviar, a deconstructed G&T with Tanqueray TEN and a homemade tonic foam, and a Syphon served pink grapefruit and vanilla Paloma.

As Tom and I pumped out the drinks, so too did our final competitors for the chance to be the UK World Class Champion…

ROUND 5 – ORIGINAL COCKTAIL

In the final round both competitors created a twist on the classic rum ‘flip’ cocktail. It was however Ryan’s cocktail that prevailed with a really brilliant combination of flavours:

Three Storm Flip

50ml Pampero Aniversario
25ml Velvet Falernum Liqueur
2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
5ml Lagavulin 16
1 whole egg
A pinch of salt and pepper
Nutmeg Garnish

Ryan Chetiyawardana from Bramble in Edinburgh will now go on to represent the UK in the World Class global final (yes, I will be there blogging) that takes place in only two weeks! The global final will include judges such as Salvatore Calibrese, Simon Difford, Dale DeGroff, Gary Regan and Peter Durelli! Good luck Ryan!

For the full flickr set go here.
For the World Class website go here.
There is a YouTube mashup video of the even here.
Oh and you can also follow world class on twitter (very often actually me) at @weareworldclass

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