Two of my female co-workers splash about fully clothed in the moonlit Hotel Arts outdoor swimming pool demanding I pickpocket The Thirsty Traveler’s cellphone from his shorts pocket and toss him in the water. “I’m so going into that pool” says Fast Forward Cocktail Challenge celebrity judge Kevin Brauch laughing in the face of his watery post-game fate. “There’s worse people to go into a pool with than two lovely ladies. Look at ’em!” Angus Winchester his esteemed fellow judge and internationally renowned mixologist scrambles off for a smoke his first of the night after sampling a whopping 24 cocktails prepared by some of the city’s best bartenders. Laughter music and the clanking of glassware rise above the splashing swimmers into the blue Monday-night air. Balance. It’s all about balance.
THE FIRST ROUND
At the Cocktail Challenge poolside bar the judges perch on barstools. They jot away at their clipboards as the St. Germain team prepares the evening’s first drinks. Fast Forward food writer Tara McKinnon and Citytv’s Jill Belland complete the judging roster. The sun still up the scene is yet subdued. Hotel guests and contestant entourages lounge about their own cocktails in hand.
“I tend to be a hard marker” says Winchester in a civilized English deadpan. “So I’m the bastard.” Tall and lean the sleeves of his white shirt are rolled. He’ll be judging entries in three categories: sugar ’n’ spice surf ’n’ turf and fruit ’n’ veg. Cocktail competitions are wacky affairs with few rules. Winchester suggests contestants “go mad.” Creativity is a must. This doesn’t mean piling on a cherry-and-pineapple Carmen Miranda hat.
“A garnish is either decorative or it’s working” says Winchester. “In the realm of the modern cocktail the garnish has to do something for the flavour. It either adds something to the drink or you see it across the other side of the room and ‘what the hell’s that? I want one of those.’”
The judges sample each set of three cocktails like doctors huddled over a patient’s chart. “I found it soooo much fun!” says Krista Oullette contestant and Vicious Circle server. “I was nervous at first but the judges were awesome.”
As the competition moves along the sun sinks. Lightly sampled cocktails are distributed among the audience. The event grows boisterous the crowd swells. The lights behind the bar reflect upon the glassware and the pool. “I’m sure that it is due to intoxication as much as it is to interest but it seems like this is what this event is about” says McKinnon. “It’s feeling like you’re in a bar having inventive cocktails and being floored by them. What started out awkward has turned into a party.”
Audience member Brett Bilon agrees. “If they do a good job in the showmanship and the energy when they’re preparing a drink people feel like it’s going to taste good.”
“The eye appeal is half the attraction” adds audience member Janet Reimer. She’d like to see the event feature more audience participation and she’s dying to sample a cocktail as a friend hands her a “Tom and Jerry Blueberry” by Ric’s Grill. “It looks kinda scary” she says of the rim’s dripping appearance. “It looks bloody but I’m sure it looks good in the daylight and it tastes really good.”
BALANCED LIKE LIFE
The cocktails range in complexity and degree of success but reflect the experimental adventurous state of mixology. The cocktail scene may be experiencing a Renaissance but the best drinks retain a classic mystique. “Cocktails are about mood they’re about experiences” says Winchester. Ostentatious experimentation honours this spirit. These drinks of paradise broadcast the drinker’s sophistication wit and elegance. “It’s not just a vessel for consuming alcohol” he says “it’s an icon.
Mixologists are reaching beyond fruit to herb spice and vegetable cocktail components says Winchester. Early in the morning as a guest on Citytv’s Breakfast Television he whipped up a strawberry and basil cocktail. “Why do cocktails have to be sweet?” he asks. “I’ve seen people muddle tomatoes — tomato and basil. You’re seeing carrot juice beetroot. And of course we’re already familiar with drinks with herbs in. To give you the most obvious example bartenders are taking out the mint from a mojito and putting in sage lemon balm and taking out the rum and putting in gin vodkas and flavoured vodkas. Call it some nice funky name and people think you’re some über mixologist.”
Many cocktails despite their physical beauty and bold ingredients fail to stir the judges’ palates. Winchester explains: “Classic cocktails are a balance of strong and weak sweet and sour — the daiquiri the margarita the cosmopolitan. The tongue tastes many flavours. If a drink that doesn’t hit all of those bits of the tongue it tastes a little bit thin flat. A cocktail like life needs to be balanced.”
A WIN FOR THE CITY
After sampling two dozen cocktails the judges’ tally sheets have become ballpoint hieroglyphics — with the exception of Winchester’s. His writing remains suavely unaffected. As the event’s organizers run off to tally the winners Kevin Brauch critiques the event itself. He suggests that taking the bartenders out of their native habitat — bars — tends to make them nervous and gun-shy but as an inaugural event “It’s hard to beat. I would say there were four drinks that stunk and probably 12 drinks that were excellent. That’s a win for the entire city. It shows that there is a standard for mixology in the city. It will challenge and inspire bartenders in Calgary to keep the craft alive to better it. The cocktail is something special. It needs to be appreciated. Events like this do that.”
“I’m coming in I swear!” he yells to my beckoning colleagues in the pool and off he goes.
