It’s only after a painstaking thought process that Anna Walsh decides whether the martini she is making should be shaken or stirred. It depends on what other elements the distinctively shaped glass she is using is going to accommodate, and on the backstory and inspiration behind the drink.
The 35-year-old bartender is one of a new breed of cocktail-makers who use creative processes more readily associated with artists to inspire the development of flavoursome new drinks that resonate with a time, place or theme.
“I have notebooks I use to jot down ideas,” says Walsh. She works in MVP (Minimal Viable Pub), a low-key cocktail bar in Clanbrassil Street, Dublin, owned by the club-promotion and pub-owning collective Bodytonic. “If I’m walking down the street, I might stop to write something. I’ll put a drink and a story together in my head before I make the actual drink.
“I have a memory bank of different flavours, so I’ll work out what I’m going to do. I might have three expressions of one recipe, and then I’ll make it to see what works best. I need to have a reason for each ingredient that goes in a glass. I think a lot of cocktail bartenders have notebooks full of illegible scribbles just like I do.”
Mixologists such as Walsh compete internationally, and cocktail competitions have become big business. Global brands dig deep into their corporate pockets to attract bartenders with promises of fame and fortune — and there are big prizes at stake.
Advertisement
In the case of the drinks company Diageo’s World Class Cocktails contest, for instance, the overall winner is appointed Brand Ambassador, which is pretty much a world-travel ticket for the year. The champion mixologist jets off to workshops to share their style of bartending and cocktail-making with the next generation of wannabes.
Walsh earned the title of World Class Irish Bartender of the Year 2015 in Diageo’s competition back in May. She spent nearly a year taking part in qualifiers and heats, culminating in a final where the top six were tested on every aspect of bartending.
This included creating a perfect round of drinks with speed and efficiency, coming up with unique serves, using a selection of surprise ingredients presented to them, and concocting a signature cocktail.
She has recently returned from Madrid, where she attended a three-day workshop with the 16 competitors from western Europe, and she will be one of the 54 global finalists in the Diageo World Class competition.
The finalists are selected from more than 15,000 entrants worldwide to spend a week in South Africa, where they will visit Johannesburg and Cape Town and compete in six challenges.
Advertisement
“Our first challenge takes plan in Johannesburg,” says Walsh. “It’s a fun challenge where we compete in teams, so it’s like an ice-breaker and doesn’t count from a judging perspective. “
She adds: “There will be a different challenge every day. The judging starts with the speed round. We have to make 10 themed cocktails in 10 minutes, perfectly. We can use our own recipes and we’re encouraged to use music, so it’s a whole performance, but it’s not so much to test your creativity as your speed.
“One of the challenges I’m really excited about is called Retro Disco Future. The retro drink could be 1920s-style, and for the disco part, we have to make a 1980s-style drink; then there’s the future. It can be the same drink, but three different versions showing how it evolves over the years.”
Walsh continues: “We’re judged on each challenge and there’s no knockout phase. On the second-to-last day, the final six are selected and are given 24 hours to open a micro pop-up bar, so we have to prepare that in advance and bring over the props and menus we’ll be using. The people that don’t make it through to the final six help to build the bar.”
Walsh will be taking props for all the challenges and preparing a crucial presentation that explains how the drink is developed. Botanic Avenue, the cocktail that won her a place in the Irish final, was based on a garden party that her parents gave 10 years ago.
Advertisement
“My mum grew camomile and made tea from it if I was in a bad mood. I used manzanilla sherry, which has hints of camomile, and Cynar, an Italian artichoke-based liqueur, as my parents grew artichokes and we ate lots of them.
“Part of the garden was wild and there were dandelions everywhere, so I used a dandelion syrup to sweeten the cocktail. By the time the judges got to taste it, it was as though they were in the garden. You can tell the story while you’re making it so they’re already perceiving the taste.
“Then I took the judges upstairs to an imaginary garden. I had gin bottles full of camomile flowers and my dad played 100-year-old records on the gramophone.
“I showed the photographs of my parents’ party and I had the original invitations Mum sent out, with images of a Victorian garden party. Even the chairs were old. I borrowed them from the shop below where I live.”
Walsh will push her luggage allowance to the limit as she keeps the details of her cocktails close to her chest, but Owen Hughes, from Knockranny Hotel in Co Mayo, who scooped the title of National Cocktail Champion 2015, sponsored by Edward Dillon, in February, will travel a little lighter.
Advertisement
He will be packing a green blazer to represent Ireland at the International Bartenders Association World Cocktail Competition at the 64th IBA World Congress in Sofia, Bulgaria, in early October. It is equal in prestige to the World Class award, but the brief is quite different. It features entrants from 64 countries with each assigned a category in which to compete. Recipes are submitted in advance and a backstory is not part of the presentation, which focuses purely on the mixologist’s skill.
“A pre-dinner drink is our category this year and Grand Marnier is my sponsor,” says Hughes. “There are 19 pages of rules, which cover all the categories, so I have to stay within them. I’m allowed six ingredients in total and only 2cl of a sweetened product.
“Since Grand Marnier is sweet, I’m allowed only .5cl of anything else sweetened. Then I’ve got to use a base alcohol, which leaves just four other ingredients that I can use.
“The combinations are endless, when you think of how many spirits, liqueurs and fortified wines are out there. It’s all a question of getting them to taste nice. A pre-dinner drink must make you want to eat, it has to cleanse the palate and prepare it for food. I haven’t got my recipe finished yet.”
Hughes often makes his own infusions and juices, but they are not allowed here. “I have made infusions in the past with berries from fuchsia trees in the grounds of Knockranny for a fuchsia vodka cocktail. I made bitters from oxalis, a plant in the wood sorrel family that has a similar appearance to clover. It has a lovely sharp, citrussy flavour to it,” he says.
Advertisement
“In competitions in general, you’re not allowed to use homemade ingredients, and particularly in the IBA one. If there’s anything you have to make up, you have to do it there, so you don’t have time to make infusions.”
For the competition, timing is critical. “You don’t do a 15-minute presentation. You go in there, do a good job and make it look clean and professional,” says Hughes. “Get your drink done in time — that’s the big one. You lose 75 points for being 15 seconds over, and that’s out of a possible 220.”
So with the stakes so high, what sort of preparation is necessary before heading to competitions at this level? “The main thing I need to do to prepare for the competition is a lot of yoga,” says Walsh, who is not entirely joking.
“It is so important just to stay calm, but I’m also studying all the brands I’m working with and practising the technical side of things.”
Hughes is working on fine-tuning his drink, using the Knockranny head chef Seamus Commons as a sounding board.
“Seamus has a wonderful palate and it is great to get his input on the different tweaks I make to perfect the cocktail,” says Hughes. “I was told a long time ago at a competition that it doesn’t matter whether you win with a drink or not, the real question is for you: can you sell that drink in your bar?
“If your customers are going to like it, it’s a good drink, whether it wins or not.”
In the mix
The Blind Pig, somewhere off Grafton Street, Dublin 2 The secret location for this cocktail bar will be revealed when you email for your reservations. Try Corn ’n’ Oil, an old Caribbean classic based on Gosling’s Black Seal Rum. reservations@theblindpig.ie
777, South Great Georges Street, Dublin 2 This Mexican eaterie has the largest selection of premium tequila in the country and a tantalising cocktail list. Try Dragon Negra with a touch of raspberry. 777.ie
The Rooftop Terrace, Marker Hotel, Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2 Forgotten classics like the smoky Scotch-based Mamie Taylor are featured alongside their own signature Watermelon Martini. themarkerhoteldublin.com
Saba, 26-28 Clarendon Street, Dublin 2 The Phuket Passion which has passion fruit purée charged with Champagne and a dash of Chambord. sabadublin.com
Vintage Cocktail Club, 15 Crown Alley, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 An impressive list of old-time classics starting in the late 1600s. vintagecocktailclub.com
The Pins Bar, The Twelve Hotel, Barna, Co Galway Try an apricot Sling Gin with apricot brandy. thetwelvehotel.ie
The Weir Room, River Lee Hotel, Western Road, Cork city The Naughty Detox featuring Cork dry gin and elderflower is a local favourite. theweir.ie