The World’s Ultimate Bartender Championship is nearly here. To enter, all you need to do is visit ultimatebartenderchampionship.com and attend the Australian final in Adelaide on Monday 15 June during Bartenders’ Weekender in Adelaide. Do that, and you might find yourself on the bartending trip of a lifetime to India.
We’re just a few weeks out now from Bartenders’ Weekender, which takes place between June 14 and 16 in Adelaide. And while there are loads of events on across the three days, you’ll also have your chance to compete in the Monkey Shoulder World’s Ultimate Bartender Championship.
The prize is a trip to India later this year to compete in the global final and experience a once in a lifetime trip with bartenders from around the world.
And as Rachael Bartlett, Australian brand ambassador for Monkey Shoulder says below, this comp is all about the skills you’ve developed working night after night behind the stick. It’s a comp open to anyone over the age of 21 and working in a bar — you can register now at ultimatebartenderchampionship.com.
Below, Rachael talks about what each of the four challenges you’ll need to compete in on the day, the prize, and shares some advice on how to win.
BOOTHBY: Rachael, tell us just what is the World’s Ultimate Bartender Championship? What is happening on the day?
RACHAEL BARTLETT: It is a global competition. We’ve run it over the last few years in Singapore, India, a little bit in the UK, but it is all Monkey Shoulder based. And it’s a little bit different to your classic competition. There’s, weirdly enough, no creativity involved. There’s no, ‘do a social media post.’ You don’t have to come up with a cocktail or a story about how you got the recipe from your mum’s cousin’s sister’s dog. None of that. It is purely skills based.
The Australian round is going to be held in Adelaide at Bartenders Weekender. If you want to enter, you want to compete, you’re going to need to get yourself to Adelaide. And the winner of the competition is going to go to India in end of November, early December to compete in the global finals. We’ve got finals around the world, in the UK, the Netherlands, the US. The winner from each of these countries will all descend on India later this year to battle it out for the title of the World’s Ultimate Bartender Champion.
BOOTHBY: And there are four challenges — what will they be?
RACHAEL BARTLETT: So the first challenge is to remember to register. That is the unofficial first challenge. So go to the website, register. We will then send you a quiz.
Everyone needs to complete this quiz to be able to then participate on the day. And it’s all kind of bar general knowledge, about cocktails, trends, history, stuff about world’s best bars, all these different little bits that you don’t need to study for. It’s not like a school exam, but it’s knowledge that you’ll have picked up from socials and conversations with colleagues. Your scores from that will then contribute to your final score on the day.
You’ve registered, you’ve completed the quiz, you’ve made it to Adelaide. It’ll be on Monday the 15th of June, starting at 10am, but it’s more of a kind of drop-in situation. It’s not like you need to commit your whole day. You’ll get there and there’ll be four of the skills-based challenges, four stations, almost like a little circuit.
It will take 15-20 minutes to complete so you can do it in and around other activities on the day. It’s in the same building that the Better Bars Summit is going to be so there’s literally no excuse not to drop in and try your luck. But the four challenges on the day, there’s going to be a nosing round, a perfect serve Old Fashioned round, a pouring accuracy round based off the Satan’s Whiskers Pour Test. So that’s more of an accuracy than a speed round.
And then there’ll be a table service round. We’ll get scores from those four rounds, and the top four will then compete in the final round on the day, that will kick off at 2pm sharp. And that is a head-to-head speed round, Speed Rack style, to get our Ultimate Bartender Champion for Australia.
BOOTHBY: Who can enter?
RACHAEL BARTLETT: Anyone over the age of 21 can compete who’s working in a bar, whether you are a bar back, whether you’re a 15-year veteran, anyone who reckons they can make a drink can absolutely enter.
The prize involves a trip to India to compete in the global final where you will spend several days being hosted, your flights, your accommodation. I’ll be there. A kind of all expenses paid trip of a lifetime.
BOOTHBY: That sounds amazing. What advice do you have for people wanting to compete?
RACHAEL BARTLETT: Don’t overthink it. It’s all skills that you’re using on a day-to-day basis. You’ve all learned how to make cocktails from a spec sheet — in theory you should be making that drink the same quality, the same level every time. If you’ve got an Old Fashioned on your menu, it should be the same dilution. It should be the same temperature using the same things day in, day out. So it’s not rocket science.
The nosing round is not going to be the hardest thing on the planet. You’re going to be smelling 10 different spirits or liqueurs, writing down what you think they are, what brand is it — they’re not super obscure, not super niche.
Same with the pour test round. It’s based off the Satan’s Whiskers pour test. There’s a whole load of content about that online, but there are different measures: it will be five, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 50 millilitre pours. You use a jigger — it’s not even free pouring. We’ll weigh each tin to make sure you’ve got it right. That would maybe be the only one to prepare is just really nail your actual accuracy — you’re aiming for accuracy as well as speed.
And then with the table service round, you’re going to be remembering eight drinks, going to the bar, collecting the eight drinks from the bar, making sure they go to the right person. Again, you do that day in, day out. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.
BOOTHBY: What happens if you make it through to the final top four?
RACHAEL BARTLETT: So if you make it through to the top four, we will notify you, it’s on the same day, so don’t go too far away. It will be two semi-finals and a final. Head to head, you’re going to make six drinks. You’ll have the spec sheet sent to you beforehand, but we’re looking for balanced drinks. We want obviously the correct ingredients in there, we want the right glassware, we want drinks that people would pay money for in a bar. Quick, good quality drinks. You need to be quicker than the person next to you.
And you know, it’s Monkey Shoulder — that’s a bit of a hint as to the style of the drinks.
The World’s Ultimate Bartender Championship is nearly here. To enter, all you need to do is visit ultimatebartenderchampionship.com and attend the Australian final in Adelaide on Monday 15 June during Bartenders’ Weekender in Adelaide. Do that, and you might find yourself on the bartending trip of a lifetime to India.
