On Monday night, the second Regional Final for The Perfect Blend competition was held in Auckland – revealing the winners from the Apprentice and Professional category.
What an extraordinary bunch of talent from both North and South Island that took to the stage in front of an audience of close to 150 industry folk!
Hosted at Impala, in Auckland’s CBD, 12 finalists competed for that trip of a lifetime for two bartenders to head to the land of bourbon, Kentucky USA visiting the Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark distilleries and then heading across to the big Apple to the Brooklyn Bar Convent in New York. In addition to scores allocated from their individual efforts of World Bartender Day, (30%) Competition day saw the finalists put through their paces to complete a blind tasting (10%), a product knowledge test (10%) and then the live performance (50%).
Winning the Apprentice Category was Georgia Mackenzie from The Hawthorn Lounge in Wellington, and in the Professional Category was Daniel Sullivan, from The Bramble in Auckland. Georgia and Dan will now progress to the Grand Final later in the year to compete with the other lucky finalists from each regional final.
Be sure to RSVP to your upcoming regional final at www.the-blend.com.au.
* WA – St Paradiso – 19th March
* SA/NT – Electra House – 25th March
* QLD – Lefty’s Music Hall – April 1st
* NSW – Oxford Art Factory – 9th April
Want to see all the finalists cocktail recipes Head to www.worldbartenderday.com
Bourbon, banter and bloody good times ahead!