How John Ross-Jones pulled together a winning drink

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DIPLOMÁTICO ARTISANS OF TASTE

Back in March, across two days in Daylesford, Victoria, 10 bartenders from throughout Australia got together to celebrate community, showcase the great work of artisans in their cities, and compete for the prize of a trip to Brazil as the Australian winner of the Diplomático Artisans of Taste competition.

Across the weekend, the finalists — Leo Reymond (Maison Bâtard, Melbourne), Brett Nebauer (11e Càve, Canberra), Carter Stacey (Savile Row, Brisbane), Jack Somers (Honeydripper, Adelaide), John Ross-Jones (Maison Bâtard, Melbourne), Matt Heid (Manchuria Bar, Melbourne), Olivia Beau (Shaman, Brisbane), Tibo Menut (Eau de Vie, Melbourne), Koby Gelven (Maybe Mae, Adelaide), and Marc Djurasevich (NOLA, Adelaide) — participated in a public speaking and presentation workshop, listened to a brand, cocktail comp and career talk, and got around the table to swap stories and create new friendships.

Of course, this was a competition final, so in the end there would be just one winner. The victory went to veteran bartender and head of beverage for the Lucas Collective, John Ross-Jones. Below, he tells us what it felt like to get the win, and why embracing who you are as a bartender might just get you the win.

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BOOTHBY: How did it feel to win that comp?

JOHN ROSS-JONES: It was incredible. Even though I’ve been doing this a long time, you still get a bit of a fuzzy feeling inside when you win something like that. It was awesome.

BOOTHBY: Can you talk a bit about the experience at the final, because it took place over a couple of days in Daylesford outside of Melbourne.

JOHN ROSS-JONES: I think everything that we did was really worthwhile. From the panel talk to the public speaking session, it was all really worthwhile and in sync with the actual competition.

From top: Tibo Menut (Eau de Vie, Melbourne), Brett Nebauer (11e Càve, Canberra), Olivia Beau (Shaman, Brisbane), Matt Heid (Manchuria Bar, Melbourne), Carter Stacey (Savile Row, Brisbane), Jack Somers (Honeydripper, Adelaide), Marc Djurasevich (NOLA, Adelaide), Koby Gelven (Maybe Mae, Adelaide), and Leo Reymond (Maison Bâtard, Melbourne). Photo: Boothby

BOOTHBY: What do you do to prepare for these comps? You’re obviously a busy guy with a lot of work responsibility as head of beverage for Lucas Collective, you’ve got a family, too.

JOHN ROSS-JONES: Well, I actually often practice to my kids in the car on the way to school. The big difference for me — because the last two comps I’ve entered, I’ve been lucky enough to win — has been actually really practicing that speech. It makes it a bit easier.

BOOTHBY: How do you come up with the recipes for cocktail competitions?

JOHN ROSS-JONES: I think not overthinking it is a really big thing. If a flavour combination works, someone is going to have done it before. So I guess not overthinking it.

The brief is the most important thing, making sure that you stick to the brief but also that you have a bit of fun with it. I don’t think there’s anything worse than a drink or a speech that takes itself too seriously, especially in a final where you know the judges are going to have already seen a whole heap of drinks. My style, always with cocktails, is not to take myself too seriously.

John Ross-Jones took out the title. Photo: Boothby

BOOTHBY: Can you walk us through your drink — how did it come to be? You don’t have to do the speech again, by the way.

JOHN ROSS-JONES: I’ve forgotten that already, thanks mate.

BOOTHBY: It’s gone!

JOHN ROSS-JONES: Yeah, absolutely. I obviously started with Diplomático Planas, which I’ve always loved as a product and which has really bold vanilla and marshmallowy notes. Being honest, it didn’t take me too long to think of the cacao and chocolate for the rocky road element that my whole drink was based on. I used a pretty great raspberry eau de vie, but then created this distillate with cacao liquor, some macadamia and cacao husk and a lactic coconut cordial which gave it a bit of acidity, but also a viscosity — and that was it.

BOOTHBY: It is a really tasty drink. You were only one of two people from the 10 finalists to use Planas, too.

JOHN ROSS-JONES: I just had a feeling all the drinks were gonna be brown. So I thought, as always, you need to stand out a little bit in life.

BOOTHBY: How was the trip to Brazil as your prize?

JOHN ROSS-JONES: It was incredible. The people who were there were epic. Bartenders from around the world, and we got to spend time with Nicky from Panda & Sons and Kevin Kos, and a few others. It was just minute to minute activities. A whole heap of fun.

BOOTHBY: What advice do you give your bartenders when they’re about to enter a comp like the Diplomático Artisans of Taste?

JOHN ROSS-JONES: Read the brief inside out, but don’t overthink it. And have fun with making a drink. But also making it in your own style, so it fits you. knowI always use the Cool Runnings analogy when I talk to my team; they started succeeding when they stopped copying the Swiss bobsled team and embraced being Jamaican.

The minute you stop trying to be the next Orlando Marzo or Jack Sotti or Ago Perrone is when you can give a better representation of the way that you make drink and of yourself. It might sound stupid, but honestly, the minute I stopped trying to copy or imitate what other people had done, I started having more success.