IN PICS | Cocktails from SA’s top 9 bartenders to shake up the world

Nine South African bartenders are shaking and stirring their creativity to invent cocktails worthy of a ticket to Shanghai and the international finals of this year’s Diageo World Class competition.

World Class is the world’s biggest and most prestigious bartender competition.

The national finals in Johannesburg, from July 14 to 16, will include five challenges, each with its own score requirements. The top six entrants will be chosen after the first two challenges and will go on to compete in the remaining three challenges.

What makes a winning cocktail? Each contestant must:

1. Make it a 10: Produce two Tanqueray No 10-based classic cocktails (with a twist) within eight minutes. 
2. Singleton Disco: Create an innovative cocktail that elevates a single malt whisky and showcases flavour in an unexpected but fun way.
3. Whisky Mastery: A compilation of mini challenges involving flavour matching, a knowledge test and a blind tasting.
4. Mystery Box: Incorporate a randomly selected ingredient into two cocktails based on a Don Julio tequila variant.
5. Bar of the Future: Create and explain a concept for the future of the bar industry. Bring it to life with four cocktails and a bar space created on a budget of R5,000.

The winner will compete in the international finals in Shanghai from September 9 to 13.

World Class has supported, trained and inspired more than 400,000 bartenders in 60 countries while partnering them with Diageo Reserve collection.

Here are the finalists:

JOHANNESBURG FINALISTS