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Mojo Cocktail Contest, Merrion Street, Leeds
Cheryl Cox, Simon Jenkins and Fabrice Limon judges at the cocktail competition at Mojo
THURSDAY evening, and I’m sitting at the bar in the Rhum Room upstairs at Mojo, being plied with heroic quantities of alcohol.
All I have to do is taste them, say what I think, and get quietly plastered for free. I’ve had worse nights, to be fair.
The “Never Mind The Booze Comps” event sees eight of the north’s most talented bartenders competing for the top prize of two flights to New York. All they have to do is use their knowledge, skill and memory to create two randomly selected classic cocktails each – and then demonstrate inventiveness and imagination to produce a third drink of their own, using an arbitrary mystery ingredient given to them at the last minute. And they have just ten minutes each to perform.
Now beer’s my thing, really. And though I sometimes stray into mixed drinks territory, I’m hardly an expert. I make a mean Rusty Nail, and love a good spiky Bloody Mary at Christmas – but aside from that cocktails are hardly my forte, so I am delighted to be joined on the judging panel by seasoned experts Fabrice Limon of spirits company Mangrove and Cheryl Cox, who helps to handle the PR for several Leeds bars.
We take a box seat as first contender Adam Wilson steps up to the bar. As one of the team at Mojo, Adam’s on home territory and kicks off with a faultless Sazerac and a good sour Vodka Martini, though his attempt at using a melon liqueur as the mystery ingredient proves less impressive. And though we score him well overall for the drinks, we mark him down for a touch of clumsiness and a lack of bartender banter.
I feel I owe Hummingbird something after delivering a fairly scathing review in this column last year. And though the Chapel Allerton bar’s representative Danny Schofield is trying hard, he lets himself down with nerves, and a lack of banter. If this were not bad enough he serves his margarita in a cracked glass. That said, pairing his mystery ingredient of Toz Rum with maraschino, lime, grapefruit, bitters, grenadine and egg white is one of the more inventive attempts of the night.
Tom Finnon of Smokestack delivers a decent Mary Pickford, but lets me down badly by flunking the Bloody Mary, which turns out too thin not just for my tastes but for Cheryl and Fabrice too. As each of the drinks are tried and tested, they are getting passed around for the Mojo punters to try too. Sadly for Tom, the Bloody Mary elicits some of the most screwed-up faces of the night.
Jonathan Grasty of Sobe turns out a fabulous Cosmopolitan – for me one of the best drinks of the whole event – and his use of a chocolate liqueur to produce a raspberry and chocolate daiquiri is interesting too. But his Mai Tai proves too sweet, and though he tries a little banter, he never quite sets the place alight.
“I’m still waiting for someone to really blow us away,” I say to my two judges as we take a short break. “This competition is still up for grabs,” Fabrice concurs.
Nino from the Maven tries so hard, bless him. His banter is witty and entertaining, his French 75 – gin, Champagne, lemon juice, and sugar – is top notch, and his use of butterscotch liqueur to create a fresh take on the creamy Mudslide is a decent attempt too. But by this time he’s already let himself down badly by completely failing to deliver the classic cherry, scotch and orange Blood and Sand – simply because he can’t get the lid off the shaker. It gets passed around the bar but is stuck fast, and though someone eventually manages to wrench it open, poor Nino has lost too many marks for presentation, and the drink tastes rather thin too, perhaps a result of five minutes agitated agitation by staff and customers alike.
Faultless
Next up is bobble-hatted Mike Foster of Skippy’s who delivers an almost faultless presentation which shoots him straight into the lead. He turns coffee schnapps into a fabulous creamy drink which is rather like tiramisu in a glass, and throws together whiskey, lemon juice and sugar to create a perfect Whiskey Sour. I say “almost faultless”. By deliberately opting for white rum instead of the traditional dark rum in his Hemingway Daiquiri he makes the one mistake which will ultimately cost him the tickets to New York. But for now, he’s in the lead.
Jody Monteith of The Liquorists in Manchester responds to this step up in class by delivering perfectly-balanced classics, the Singapore Sling and a really minty Mojito before giving us an ingenious take on the Pina Colada with a rather dubious mystery ingredient – Hoxton Gin. In among all this, Jody entertains us with some lively banter, delivered in his porridge-thick Scots’ accent. He talks the talk, and the drinks stack up too: game on.
Last on the oche is Rik Davies of Mojo’s neighbour Verve and he is invited to “really dazzle us” if he wants to claim first prize. His drinks are good – especially the rum, dry vermouth, curacao and grenadine of his El Presidente. His Sidecar is beautifully sharp, though he fails to make the best use of the cucumber liqueur which he pulls from the chest of mystery ingredients. And the banter is sadly lacking: “I think he knows his stuff, he’s just not telling us,” says Fabrice, slurping eagerly at the Sidecar.
So, 24 cocktails down, we three rather intoxicated judges adjourn to a corner to complete our deliberations. Amazingly we agree very quickly, with Mike and Jody the top two on each of our scorecards.
I’m leaning in Mike’s favour – partly because I like his hat and partly because I’m not mad keen on letting our Yorkshire prize slip over the Pennines to Manchester. But I’m over-ruled, two to one, that white rum faux pas sadly proving to be Mike’s achilles’ heel.
“This is fantastic,” says the victorious Jody, clutching his air tickets, which will form the basis of a “minimoon” for him and his fiancee, before their wedding in the summer. he tells me. “I’ve never been to New York before and it’s such a Mecca for bartenders.
“I’ve really enjoyed the competition. The format created a level playing field, and having the mystery ingredient made it really interesting. I got Hoxton Gin, and to be honest it’s not something I’d usually use.”
And as for the fact he works in Manchester? “Just say I’m from Scotland,” he adds.
s.w.jenkins@ntlworld.com
Twitter: @jenkolovesbeer
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