Report from Mickael PERRON, UKBG Flairbartending.

The two days of Flair Bartending competitions through Barshow 07 packed the Sputnik Stage at Earl’s Court 2, with the public wanting to have a look at the best that London can offers in terms of flipping bottles in the air….this is Flairbartending!

Florian Beuren from London area took the title and the £3000 and his ticket to Taiwan to represent the UKBG at the IBA World Flairbartending Championship are now in his pocket.

Second-place winner Jon O’Connor won £1500. Anthony Trueman, winner of the first day's competition, won a ticket to the Roadhouse UK final.

I would like to give a warm thank you to everyone involved in this competition.

Our aim was to help bartenders show off their style and talent, and we did it!

I also would like tooffer a huge thank-you to Sputnik Vodka and Flairmotion

(Nicolas Saint Jean) for the stand, the set up, and their professionalism & passion.

To the judges, the crowd, and every bartender that took part in this amazing event,

I would like to give a last round of applause. I can't wait for next year to get closer to the stars.

**The UKBG President, Salvatore Calabrese, would like to say thank-you to Mickael Perron for his skills and energy in coordinating this event. You are a star!

Tuesday 5th June

Seventeen bartenders from all over the UK gathered to compete for the first day to qualify for the second day's Flairmotion Head-to-Head battle.

Bartenders were asked to perform a five minutes Flair exhibition routine, and to make, at the same time, two cocktails with a minimum of 30 ml of Spuntik vodka in the recipe.

Luca Cordilglieri (Chairman of UKBG London) & Colin Dunn (Fior Brands) tasted and judged the Flair Bartenders’ drinks (this accounted for 30% of the total points).

Vicki Patras (Café de Paris), Carmine Lamorte (AIBES Italy), Steve Harman (B@1) and Nicolas Saint Jean (Flairmotion) were judging the flair performances.
The atmosphere was incredible, and with Tug (heavyhookedup) as the MC, the Sputnik Vodka stage was ready to rock for the entire the two days of competition.

The winner, at the end of the Bar Show 07, went home with £3000.00 & a ticket to represent the UK at the IBA world Championship in Taiwan.

Wednesday 6th June

The amazing Head-to-Head Battle format, created by Flairmortion, showcased and judged the creativity from the top 16 competitors seeded from Tuesday. They competed in rounds of four-minutes freestyle flairing, showcasing creativity, technique and showmanship.

Tug, Steve Harman and Ilias Vousis judged bartenders battling against each others in four slots of 30 seconds. The best competitor went through to the next round, till the last two bartenders, who went into the Grand Final.

The Semi Finals

The first semi-final saw the first-day winner Anthony Trueman from London, battling against Jon O’Connor from Glasgow, seeded No14th the previous day. Jon pulled out some moves that took the edge over the favourite, Anthony Trueman. I can just tell you that bartenders will now think twice when they collect their shaker on the floor. This move also took the best cheers from the crowd over the two days of competitions. On top of tht, Jon controlled the bottle on his feet like only Zidane could do, and that was good enough for the judges to send Glaswegian Jon O'Connor through to the Grand Final.

The next semi-final turned into the moment to admire Florian (in second place on the first day) taking on Oxford-based Brendan Rodigues (seeded 4th the previous day). The public stands were cracking hot and the atmosphere was unbelievable. Even with his best round, Brendan from Oxford couldn’t stop the German from London. Florian’s magic was impressive; some moves he staged were close to where the imagination can go no further!

The Grand Final

Featuring!

Jon O’Connor, from Glasgow, representing LA Bartenders

Florian Beuren, from London, representing Flairmotion

The Sputnik/UKBG Championship required both competitors for three elements in this final round: A Flair routine lasting for five minutes; present a high-quality cocktail, and take part in a final Head-to-Head battle.

President of the UKBG, Salvatore Calabrese, and former president, Peter Dorelli, took some time off from the other busy Bar Show stands to form the panel to choose the best cocktail. Lead by Jay Du Toit, Roadhouse & last year's UKBG competitor at the IBA World championship, the second judging panel observed the best of the Flair routine.
And finally, the Head-to-Head battle, decided who got the extra point in case of a draw.

After having competed four times over the two days, Florian and Jon felt the pressure one more time when they took the stage, one at the time, to act out their Flair routine and make their cocktails.

Jon went for it at 200%, but Florian’s control of mind and balance (even when pouring the cocktail while kissing the glass sitting on his mouth) took the best score, and he fairly won the first point. HIs cocktail was a beautifully balanced, martini-style cocktail using Sputnik Rose petal as the base spirit.

Florian went for a long, tropical refreshing concoction with Sputnik classic vodka as the base. After a difficult deliberation, the point for the best cocktail was awarded to Florian Beuren.

Finally, Jon and Florian went head-to-head to the joy of the public that swarmed around the Sputnik stand to witness this incredible moment for the UKBG. The space was jumpin' and the crowd's surge of stupendous support gave the competitors that bit of extra energy to produce some mind-blowing moves.