Now that you know the winner, here’s my take on the other drinks. Stay tuned for the official recipes, to be posted over the next few days.


H.

H. from Elixir infused his vodka with chai and added fresh strawberry and lychee liqueur to make an extremely complex and surprising drink. 


Alberta

Alberta Straub of Cocktails on the Fly made a supremely elegant drink that wowed me with its channeling of a very Japanese sense of beauty through complexity--it was just Kissui with plum wine and Asian pear.


Amanda

Amanda from Rye made a drink that almost won the competition on points by creating a physically beautiful drink of Asian pear, ginger, lemongrass, black sugar syrup, raspberries and lemongrass. It tasted great too--a real success.


Jackie

Jackie Patterson of Le Colonial made a drink that I found really compelling—fresh Asian pear, yuzu juice, sugar, plum wine and calpico peach drink. The amazing rim was a powder of sweet star anise, toasted rice and sugar. I can't tell you how much this cocktail had going on. I loved it, but the judges decided it came in a bit on the sweet side.


Vard

Vard from Sip, a last-minute fill-in for Tim Stookey, made a great drink on the fly. The ingredients were: mint, guava juice, sweet/sour mix, coconut rum and lime. It was complex, balanced and terrific.


Vince

And, last but not least, Vince from La Rocca's Corner made a stunning drink with Kissui, vanilla liqueur, Starbucks Frappuccino and Nestle Strawberry Quik. Let me just say that I've never had anything like that.

As someone who writes cocktail recipes himself, I can say that it often takes a lot of time (weeks, not days) to get something completely right. I hope the bartenders keep these drinks in their repertoires, as they were all worthy drinks.

Thanks to all of them, the Sip staff, Nish and Jill and the 7x7 staff who turned out in droves to show their support.

Remember to check back in a bit to get the recipes.