The National Cocktail Championships & Bartender Awards took place on Tuesday February 6 and Wednesday February 7 at Food & Bev Live in Citywest, Dublin. This annual event is organised by the Bartenders Association of Ireland and sponsored by Edward Dillon & Co. Ltd.
Forty-two bartenders competed out of an entry of fifty-one recipes received for the championships. Ariel Sanecki of Adare Manor Hotel, Limerick, scooped the top award of "National Cocktail Champion 2018" with his cocktail called Japanese Garden consisting of 40ml Star of Bombay gin, 20ml sake, 20ml matcha green tea syrup, 10ml yuzu puree, 20ml fresh lime juice and 50ml rice milk all shaken together and decoratively presented to the judges.
Sanecki will represent Ireland at the World Cocktail Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, from October 1 - 6 this year. He previously represented Ireland at the World Cocktail Championships in Tokyo in 2016 where he won a silver medal.
John Cassidy, commercial director of Edward Dillon & Co., was on hand to present all the awards to the winning bartenders, accompanied by Alan Kavanagh, brands advocacy manager for Edward Dillon & Co.
This year the Bartenders Association of Ireland invited Hidetsugu Ueno from Bar High Five, Ginza, Tokyo, to judge the championships. Hidetsugu won the title of "International Bartender of the Year "at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. He is known for his diamonds carved from ice and his unique Japanese style of bartending.
Finishing in 2nd & 3rd place at the championships 2018 were Federico Destro, The Blind Pig Speakeasy, and Oisin Kelly, The Little Pig Speakeasy, Dublin.
