If you think sitting around on a Monday afternoon while some of South Africa’s best bartenders mix up an array of cocktails for you to taste is fun… Well, you’d be right. It’s plenty of fun. However, throw in the fact that they’re competing in the inaugural local leg of the Bombay Sapphire World’s Most Imaginative Bartender Competition, and you’ll realise that these dudes are taking the day quite seriously. With a first prize of a trip to Tuscany to compete on a global scale, you can’t blame them. The stakes are high.

Cocktails are widely misunderstood in South Africa. Yes, they’re much, much more than big pink drinks with small pink umbrellas. Instead, they’re complex combinations of flavour profiles, techniques and subtle infusions from a wide range of ingredients including fruits, herbs and aromatic spices.

You only need to look a bit deeper in cities like New York and London to discover the world of the real bartender. These aren’t students who need to earn some extra cash to pay their way through UCT. These aren’t pretty boys in vests slinging drinks along the Camps Bay strip. These are true professionals at the top of their game. These are people mixing drinks and pushing boundaries in tiny bars that are packed with an appreciative crowd. Some of them are treated like celebrity chefs: they write books; they host workshops; they make the odd appearance on TV. And they do it with plenty of style.

Go to the right bar in these cities and chances are you’ll be served your drink by someone with a handlebar moustache and a bowtie. These are masters of their craft and they dress the part. And on a Monday afternoon – chilling in a bar overlooking a totally unaware Cape Town city – I got to meet our local versions of the ultimate bartender. Yes, there was facial hair. Yes, there were suspenders. And yes, there was a bowtie.

So, the competition. In something that could have been straight off a cooking show, nine contestants were presented with nine identical boxes and the star of the show – Bombay Sapphire Gin. The rules were simple:

1.    Open the box
2.    Check out the ingredients
3.    Use the gin as the backbone for a knockout cocktail.

And like the cooking shows on TV, it was fascinating to see how each guy came with his own technique and style. Some were all about presentation. Some focused on classic combinations. Some used traditional ideas with a little kick of their own. Some were all talk and didn’t deliver with the end product.

Drinks ranged from the overcomplicated, with more style than substance, to the perfectly balanced – and even genius.

The judges tasted and then sat down to pick apart each drink that was presented. Three contenders emerged quite easily. Nick Koumbarakis and Assaf Yechiel were both Capetonian dudes (and, incidentally, both work behind the bar at The Orphanage.) Making up the trio in the final was Ryan Duvenage, representing Durban.

For the final round, the bar needed to be raised higher, and this meant a new mystery box, with new ingredients and new expectations.

20 minutes later we had tasted three very different drinks. One was perfectly executed, but hadn’t shown much flair. One was wild and creative, but wasn’t quite as refined as we were looking for. One was somewhere between the two. The four judges were split right down the middle. After a lot of deliberation a verdict was reached.

Out of a points haul making up a total of 400, the eventual winner scraped through by less than 5. It was that tight. But, at the end of the day, the title said it all. We were there to choose the World’s Most Imaginative Bartender. And one of these guys had shown more imagination than the others.

Therefore the man for that job – the man to send to Tuscany – was Assaf. His celebratory dance moves were as imaginative as his cocktails, and the fist pump said it all: this recognition means plenty to a guy – and an industry – where recognition is rare.

Assaf Yechiel’s winning cocktail – Bombay Brilliant  
– 5 Blueberries
– Torn coriander leaves
– 37.5ml Bombay Sapphire Gin
– 12.5ml Martini Bianco
– 1 healthy barspoon of honey

Tips for creating gin cocktails at home
Use the botanicals in the gin as accent flavours. Bombay Sapphire clearly lists key components/ingredients on the side of the bottle. This makes it easy to mirror them in a drink. Think juniper berries, cloves, cassia bark, star anise, rosemary, Absinthe, almonds, lime and lemon etc. and you’re halfway there. Keep things fresh and take a bit of time for presentation. Gin is a cool, diverse drink and if you splash out on a premium brand like Bombay Sapphire you’ll reap the benefits. Give the drinks you serve a bit of thought. There’s a world of possibility out there.  

By Andy Fenner