By Sacha Delfosse
The World Class Summer Round semi-finals were held yesterday (January 22) with 200 cocktail lovers helping pick the three category winners while cruising Sydney Harbour.
Each of the nine semi-finalists was given their own stand on the Sydney Glass Island boat where they entertained the guests with their signature cocktail in one of three categories – Gentleman, Punch or Seasonal.
Guests were issued with a 'passport' on arrival that contained a description of each competitor's drink as well as voting cards, which they were asked to use to choose their favourite cocktails after visiting every stand.
The public's votes were tallied up along with the votes of a panel of industry representatives to determine each category's winner, who earned themselves a spot in the World Class Finals, which will be held later this year.
The Gentleman category was won by Phil Gandevia from The Roosevelt with his innovative martini twist, The Continental, which he mixed up by decanting the spirits between two containers using liquid nitrogen.
The Punch category was won by Perryn Collier from The Laneway with his self bottled Collier's Sundown Cooler, a tasty and refreshing BBQ-inspired cocktail, while Fred Siggins from The Kodiak Club took out the Seasonal category with another bottled cocktail creation, US 10, a gin-based drink inspired by the American summer.