By Sacha Delfosse
Sydney’s bartending community came out in force on Monday September 3 to support their peers in the NSW state finals for the 2012 Angostura Cocktail Challenge.
The competition was held at Double Bay’s Pelicano Bar, and was hosted by Daimon Downey, co-owner of the bar and the former front man of Sneaky Sound System.
Stepping up on the night were bartenders Jean Munos, Marko Farac, Igor Pachi, Dula Lorenzo, Ben Blair, Guillermo Arnal-Machado, Kevin Peters and Jessica Arnott.
The competitors were given seven minutes to make two servings of their two original cocktail entries, which had to contain a minimum of five dashes of Angostura aromatic bitters, and at least one of them had to be Angostura rum-based.
All eight bartenders produced good drinks and displayed great effort; however the clear winner on the night was Jessica Arnott, with second place going to Jean Munos and Dula Lorenzo taking out the third place.
This was the third time Arnott had competed in the state finals for the Angostura Cocktail Challenge. Her tongue-in-cheek prediction during her presentation that she would be “third time lucky” proved to be true.