The Drink of the Year Awards are back for their third year, and the awards highlight the great work of the nation’s best bartenders over the course of the last 12 months. There is no other awards like it, and it highlights the great work our bartenders do every year.
Previous winners of the Drink of the Year include 2022’s champion, the Africola by Michael Chiem, and 2023’s number one, Bad Apple, by Samuel Thornhill from Byrdi in Melbourne. You can see last year’s list here.
Here’s what you need to know
The Boothby Drink of the Year Awards is designed to put bartenders front and centre in the conversation around our bars, and to highlight the great drinks they make, night in and night out.
It’s a list of the 50 best drinks from bartenders across Australia, which will be announced at an exclusive invite-only gala celebration at Now & Then in Sydney on Monday 18 November (so save the date now).
On the night, in addition to counting down the Top 50 Drinks of the Year, we’ll hand out five major awards:
- The Drink of the Year presented by Jim Beam;
- The People’s Drink of the Year presented by Elijah Craig;
- the Bartender of the Year presented by Glenfiddich;
- the Drinks List of the Year presented by Perrier;
- and new this year, the Breakout Bartender of 2024 presented by Hendrick’s for an up and coming bartender on the list.
We’re asking bartenders to enter the drinks they’re most proud of, the drinks they serve across the bar to punters every night. This isn’t a cocktail competition — this is a recognition of the great drinks bars actually serve. It has to be a drink that has been regularly available over the bar sometime in the last 12 months. It might be for a week, a month, or a season, but it’s got to be a drink that represents that bar and what they do well.
Now, say you’ve got a drink on the list at your bar that was created by someone who no longer works there, but it’s a drink the bar is known for and it’s delicious. You can still enter it — just don’t claim you created it, and give props to the person who did.
Here’s how it works:
- From Monday 23 September 2024, bartenders are invited to enter their drink at the form below. The big overarching rule? It’s got to be a drink that has been on the list or regularly available during the past 12 months — this isn’t a cocktail competition, but a recognition of the top quality drinks our bars serve year in and year out. You’ll need a good photo of the drink, one of yourself, the recipe and some more info. Entries close 11:59PM AEDT October 11th.
- The entries are then winnowed down to the Top 50 Drinks of the Year by Boothby and a small panel of industry advisors. These will be showcased online at boothby.com.au from Monday 14 October 2024. Invites to the awards will be sent to the Top 50.
- The public is then invited to cast their votes for the People’s Drink of the Year presented by Elijah Craig, and a 120-plus person panel of industry experts casts their votes to determine the order of the Top 50, the winner of Drink of the Year presented by Jim Beam, and the winner of Drinks List of the Year presented by Perrier. Bartenders with a drink on the Top 50 will cast their votes for the Bartender of the Year presented by Glenfiddich, and Breakout Bartender of 2024 presented by Hendrick’s.
- Next, get ready to celebrate at the invite-only Boothby Drink of the Year Awards at Now & Then, Sydney, on Monday 18 November. That’s the night when we’ll count from 50 all the way down to number one, and hand out each of the five major awards along the way. There will be great drinks, good tunes, and a room of the best and brightest bartenders in Australia.
Are you ready to put your drink in the mix for 2024? Enter below.
Sam Bygrave
