The Disaronno Mixing Star competition has made stops in Melbourne and Brisbane and seen some incredible drinks served up, and great bartending skills displayed.
Yesterday afternoon in Brisbane some of Queensland’s most promising bartenders gathered at the legendary Fortitude Valley cocktail haunt, The Bowery, for an intimate masterclass on Disaronno lead by national brand ambassador Matteo Fabbris. After a talk steeped in the history of Disaronno, and peppered with insights into how the iconic liqueur is made, Fabbris then invited the bartenders assembled to step up to the next stage of the competition: the mystery box challenge.
Each of the bartenders were tasked with creating a drink using a minimum of 20ml of Disaronno and their choice of ingredients from the mystery box; they then had seven minutes each to prepare their off-the-cuff creation for a panel of three judges: Fabbris, Queensland brand ambassador Mark Hickey, and Australian Bartender editor Sam Bygrave.
And what cracking drinks they were. The Gresham’s bar manager and industry veteran Ryan Lane applied his years of experience to the task and kept his drink simple, serving up a trio of Disaronno, freshly brewed coffee and topped with a cream made of coconut cream, scraped vanilla pods and a little sugar. The drink delivered complexity in flavour and was perfectly balanced — and was rightly crowned the drink of the day, seeing Lane through to the next round of the competition.
The other four bartenders to make it through were Blaire Gillespie of Nant, Brendon Osmers also of The Gresham, Josh O’Brien of The Bowery, and Lola Lucassen from Embassy.
It was last week in Melbourne that saw this round of the competition kick off — a great crowd turned out to hear Fabbris’ masterclass and to take their crack at the mystery box. Again, the standard of drinks across the board was great; it was Andrea Marseglia’s creation that won the day with its classic structure and bold flavour.
In second place and also through to the next round of the competition was Damien Kos from Quban, followed by fellow Quban bartender Peter Kompes; Chris Litten from Magic Mountain came in fourth and Shane Larkins of The Woods of Windsor nabbed fifth place.
The 2016 Disaronno Mixing Star rolls on to Sydney on the 20th next week, before heading to Perth and finally landing in Darwin the week after. Keep your eyes on australianbartender.com.au as we travel with the competition and bring you the best that these talented bartenders have to offer.
Take a look at the results so far.
Melbourne
1. Andrea Marseglia, Boilermaker house
2. Damien Kos, Quban
3. Peter Kompes, Quban
4. Chris Litten, Magic Mountain
5. Shane Larkins, Woods Of Windsor
Brisbane
1. Ryan Lane, The Gresham
2. Blaire Gillespie, Nant
3. Brendon Osmers, The Gresham
4. Josh O’Brien, The Bowery
5. Lola Lucassen, Embassy