Great Turn Out and a Great Mount Gay Black Barrel Competition

Great Group of Bartenders

    The Mount Gay Black Barrel Bartenders Competition and tasting was a huge success.  There was a good crowd of spectators that were offered a chance to sample the Mount Gay Black Barrel cocktails and watch the competitors build their entries.   The nine competing bartenders did a superb job creating cocktails in the three round competition. This was a unique format, in that the bartenders could only use ingredients that were provided.   No outside ingredients were allowed.   In the first round they were allowed to choose any ingredients that they wanted to use, but they only had one minute to create the cocktail.  In the second round they were only allowed three ingredients plus the Mount Gay Black Barrel Rum and a garnish.  In the final round they were allowed to use any and or all of the ingredients provided to produce their final cocktail.

Excellent Crowd for the Event

     The group did a tremendous job in all three rounds and the blind judging was a tough job for all
four of the judges.  Karlene McLeod of Mount Gay, Mike Streeter of the International Rum Council, Austin Jagnon of the Elite Bartending School and myself were the judges for this event.  All of us were very please with the overall quality of the cocktails that were presented to us.

AlanGold, Mindy Moore, Scott Epifanio and Karlene McLeod

     When the tasting was over and the points tallied, Mindy Moore of the Rum Bar was the winner, Alan Gold of the Rum Barrel was second and Scott Epifanio was third.  Congratulations to all of the winners, and a heart felt thanks to the entire group of bartenders who participated.