Moutai revealed their top 10 ‘Enter The Dragon’ cocktail competition finalists at an industry reveal party at Handpicked Wines Cellar Door in Sydney on Monday 24 October.
Now in its second year, Enter The Dragon broadened its scope to include not only Australian hopefuls but those from New Zealand’s too.
Jason Crawley of The Drink Cabinet, said, “We’ve been overwhelmed by the calibre of this year’s entrants, with an inspiring mix of well-established and hotly tipped bartenders entering the competition, including three finalists from this year’s Australian Bartender of the Year”.
The stage is now set for the nail-biting final in Melbourne on 13 November, with all vying to win a trip to China.
The initial process asked bartenders to submit cocktail recipe using Australian native flavours and Moutai. Participants then had to present their Moutai-inspired masterpieces, delivering a five minute demonstration of their inventiveness and precision in front of the panel of judges.
The ‘Enter The Dragon’ top ten finalists and their cocktails are:
• Kevin Peters, Garden State Hotel, VIC — ‘Year of The Snake’
• Jono Carr, Kittyhawk, NSW — ‘It’s Always Sunny in Guizhou Province’
• Joe Singara. Halford, WA — ‘Lucky 8’
• Quynh Van Nguyen, Charlie Parker’s, NSW — ‘It’s Native Fizz Thyme’
• Tom Kearney, Mechanics Institute, WA — ‘The End of The Dragon’
• Phillip Weber, El Grotto, WA — ‘Shaolin Sour’
• Ray Letoa, Roxy Cinema, NZ — ‘Descendants Elixir’
• Jack Krzywdzinski, The 18th Amendment, VIC — ‘Honorary Native’
• Thomas Egan, New Gold Mountain VIC — ‘Xiao Long’
• Benjamin Parton, The Barlow Room SA — ‘Shuang Fizz’
“The response to this year’s Enter The Dragon competition has been incredible with more entrants than ever before, and the creative standard on display nothing short of immense,” said Jenny Chiu, Moutai’s brand manager. “It is inspiring to see so many bartenders appreciating the broad spectrum and uniqueness of Moutai flavours. The competition has showcased that topflight bartenders can tie Moutai with native flavours, and use their creative genius to produce meaningful cocktails that the Australian market both understands and enjoys”.