By Sacha Delfosse
The South Australia and Victoria state finalists for the 2012 Suntory Cup gathered recently at a joint event in Melbourne to battle for a spot in the national finals.
South Australia's winner was Erin Shaw from Cushdy, and the Victorian winner was Raymondo Donato from The Croft Institute, with both now heading to the national finals.
Held at the 1000 Pound Bend event space, this year’s competition had a new twist that saw the finalists jumping behind the bar during the event to serve up drinks of all kinds for the 250 guests in attendance.
The seven finalists were assessed by judges on their technical skills, personality, passion, knowledge, customer service, cleanliness and consistency while working behind the bar.
Earlier this year bartenders were invited to submit an original cocktail using at least 45ml of a Suntory product. Judges then blind tasted over 550 individual entries to pick five finalists for each state.
The winner of the national finals, which will be a consumer-focused event to be held in Sydney later this year, will win a trip to Japan to visit cocktail bars and distilleries as well as $1,000 in spending money.