IBA & USBG WORLD COCKTAIL CHAMPIONSHIP USA 2014

That’s right… It’s back! The IBA USBG World Cocktail Championship 2014 will be back bigger and better for 2014. The USA qualifier to see who will represent the United States Bartenders’ Guild in Cape Town, South Africa September 29 – October 4, 2014 will be in South Florida July 28 – 29, 2014. This invitation only competition will be limited to 10 Flair bartenders with the top overall winner being sent to Cape Town, South Africa to represent the United States Bartenders’ Guild in the World Cocktail Championship and second place overall will be sent to the Pan-Am Games to represent the United States Bartenders’ Guild. To register to be invited to compete in the USA qualifier…

-You must be an active USBG member.
-A written essay of 500 words or less stating why you should be giving the opportunity to compete.
-A link to a 4 minute video uploaded to YouTube showcasing your Flair bartending skills.
-An original recipe submitted by you to showcase your creative mixology skills.

DEADLINE TO REGISTER IS JUNE 1st, 2014.

To register you can CLICK HERE!

USA LIME SHORTAGE!
USA TODAY

Lime prices have shot up in recent months, in large part due to a bad harvest in Mexico.

Last year at this time, the weighted average price for a single lime was 21 cents; now they’re 53 cents apiece, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We’re at an unprecedented price point,” said Ronnie Cohen, vice president of sales for Vision Import Group, a produce importer based in New Jersey, in an interview with USA TODAY Network.

The spike in prices has become so pronounced that people in the lime community are now calling the fruit “oro verde,” or green gold, Cohen said.

A year ago, Vision Import Group was selling 40-pound boxes of the seedless Persian limes for $55. Now the limes are selling for up to $100 per box, he said.

Most of the limes that Americans consume come from Mexico, he said. The high prices of the last couple months reflect a shortage from bad weather that caused blooms on the lime trees to drop, Cohen said.

The high prices are making them a security risk as well, with thieves stealing the fruit.

The high prices are temporary, and there should be some “price relief” in May when the new harvest arrives, Cohen said.

In addition to shortages, lime growers in Michoacán continue to grapple with the influence of cartels, which includes paying extortion money, reports the Associated Press. The Knights Templar drug cartel even controls the wholesale distribution center where growers sell limes to the rest of the world, according to AP.

More expensive margaritas?

Despite the price hike, you probably won’t see an increase in prices at restaurants, said Annika Stensson, spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association.

With these short-term spikes, restaurants tend not to increase menu prices, but they will make other adjustments as needed, Stensson said.

For example, restaurants may take margaritas off a happy hour menu, or promote flavored margaritas such as peach or strawberry, she said. Restaurants also could choose not to use limes as a garnish, she said.

Another option is to substitute lemons for limes, but she added, “Sometimes a lime is just a lime, and that’s what you need.”

Grocers are more flexible with pricing. It’s likely stores will increase prices while decreasing the supply of limes on sale, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas.

“Stores are not going to quit carrying limes. Odds are you’ll still find them,” he said.

TALES OF THE COCKTAIL 2014 OFFICIAL COCKTAIL COMPETITION
PRESS RELEASE

TALES OF THE COCKTAIL® 2014 OFFICIAL COCKTAIL COMPETITION:  TAMING THE HURRICANE

For the 2014 Cocktail Competition, Tales of the Cocktail is getting back to its New Orleans roots by celebrating one of the city’s most renowned cocktails: The Hurricane. A legend of the French Quarter since the 1940s, the Hurricane has become a staple in bars around the world. Now we’re challenging bartenders to pay homage to this classic cocktail with their own creations.

The Hurricane hails from Pat O’Brien’s on Bourbon Street.  Whiskey was in short supply after WWII, while liquor distributors were overstocked in rum; their solution was to force bars to buy a case of rum with every Scotch purchase.  Legend has it that Pat O’Brien’s head bartender, Louis Culligan, came up with the Hurricane as a way to get rid of all that rum.  Culligan revealed his recipe to “Cabaret” magazine in 1956:  4 ounces of gold rum, the juice of 2 lemons, and 2 ounces of “Fassionola,” a brand of bottled red passion fruit mix.

How you reinterpret this drink for 2014 is up to you, but in order not to stray too far from the original concept, your recipe must follow these three rules:

1. Your base spirits must include (but are not limited to) at least one rum.
2. Your sweetening agents must include (but are not limited to) passion fruit.
3. It doesn’t matter how you get there, but the color of your drink should be red — or at least reddish, which is one of the hallmarks of the Hurricane.  So is the Hurricane’s signature curvaceous tall glass; bonus points for crafting a drink that looks good in one.

Judges

Jeff Berry
Ian Burrell
Wayne Curtis

Participating Products

Angostura Bitters
Angostura Rum
Appleton Estate Rum
BACARDI Superior Rum
BACARDI Gold Rum
BACARDI 8
Bayou Rum
Blue Chair Bay Rum
Boiron Freres
Cana Brava Rum
Diplomatico Rum
Don Q Rum
El Dorado Rum
Employees Only Grenadine
Fee Brothers Bitters and Syrups
Giffard Liqueurs & Syrups
Gosling’s Black Seal Rum
Gubba Rum
Leblon Cachaca
Papa’s Pilar Rum
Perfect Puree
Plantation Rum
Pusser’s Rum
Pyrat Rum
Rhum Clement
Rhum J.M
Rougaroux Rum
Sailor Jerry Rum
Sorel
Sugar Island Spiced and Coconut Rums
Wild Hibiscus & Hibiscus Rose Extracts

• Rules for the Tales of the Cocktail® Official Cocktail Competition:

1. Competition is open to any bartender currently working in the bar, restaurant or spirits industry.
2. Each participant shall use the official entry form online at TalesoftheCocktail.com
3. All recipes shall be original creations.
4. Recipes shall be expressed in ounces, drops, or dashes and scaled for a single serving.
5. Your cocktail must utilize at least one of the participating products.
6. Recipe must include a detailed description of the garnish.
7. All ingredients utilized should be expected to be available to most bars or easily acquired/made.
8. All ingredients should be available year-round, so nothing seasonal. And all ingredients should be obtainable — or should be able to be made from scratch — without undue difficulty or expense anywhere within the continental US.
9. Cocktails made with inappropriate ingredients will be disqualified with determination of what constitutes an inappropriate ingredient up to the discretion of the staff of Tales of the Cocktail® and the judging committee.
10. Cocktails will be judged on Originality, Use of product, Taste, and Presentation.
11. You do not need to be present to compete or win.

The winning recipes will the following:

• The first place recipe will be named the  “Official Cocktail” of Tales of the Cocktail® 2014
  • The Official Cocktail will be in the Toast to Tales of the Cocktail® Press Conference and in the official program.
• The first place recipe will be featured with photography in the Mutineer Magazine and Mutineer online publication
• The top three winning recipes will be featured in on TalesoftheCocktail.com and featured in the Tales of the Cocktail® newsletter which reaches over 20,000 readers.

Timeline for the Tales of the Cocktail® Official Cocktail Competition 2014:

Friday, April 24, 2014:  Deadline to submit recipes

Thursday, May 1, 2014:  Winner and top three announced

To enter you can CLICK HERE!

GARRISON BROTHERS TEXAS STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY LAUNCHES IN NY
Press Release

We’re thrilled to announce that the first and only bourbon whiskey ever legally made in Texas – Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey – is now available for purchase in New York. Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey is made from corn to cork, one barrel at a time, and handcrafted from a sweet mash of premium, #1 food-grade organic grain.

Every day at Garrison Brothers Distillery, they dedicate themselves to making a better bourbon than they did the day before, which means bourbon drinkers can expect a better bottle of Garrison Brothers every time they buy one. Garrison Brother Distillery is a small family-owned farm and ranch, where they study the craft and get better at it every day, giving each barrel they produce its own distinct personality. They are devoted to the distilling process at Garrison Brothers Distillery and add personal touches like hand-numbering and signing each and every custom bottle the distillery distributes.

Please see the official press release below for more information on the brand. I’d love to work with you on announcing the launch of Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey in New York. As one of America’s great bourbon whiskeys, please also keep the brand in mind for upcoming stories that may be a good fit. Proprietor and distiller Dan Garrison is also available for interviews. Let me know if you need any further info or high res imagery.

Thanks in advance!

Garrison Brothers’ Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Now Available in New York

3,000 Bottles of the American Micro Whiskey of the Year Launch in Liquor Stores and Bars Across the State

New York, New York – Garrison Brothers Distillery™, Texas’ first legal whiskey distillery, is thrilled to announce that New York will be the third state beyond Texas and Arizona, for distribution of its highly acclaimed straight bourbon whiskey. The distillery has released 3,000 bottles of its award-winning straight bourbon whiskey to bars and liquor stores throughout New York, as part of its partnership with Blueprint Brands.

The first straight bourbon whiskey ever legally made – from corn to cork – outside Kentucky or Tennessee, Garrison Brothers’ Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey™ has long been a labor of love for proprietor and distiller Dan Garrison, who, with the assistance of a “small staff of rednecks,” releases a unique vintage of its straight bourbon whiskey each fall and spring. While all previous vintage releases have sold out in Texas and Arizona, and demand across the nation and globe far exceeds what the small distillery can produce, New Yorkers can now be treated to a taste of the Spring 2014 vintage, and coming soon, the Fall 2014 vintage when it hits shelves later this year.

“We are extremely proud of this bourbon whiskey,” says proprietor and distiller Dan Garrison. “We’re so confident of its quality, taste and character that we’ll put it up against any Kentucky or Tennessee bourbon in blind taste tests. Yes, even Pappy.”

The experts apparently agree. In his 2014 Whisky Bible, respected taster and writer Jim Murray gave Cowboy Bourbon from Garrison Brothers a rating of 96 and named it the American Micro Whisky of the Year.

And now the brand is ready for New York. Tapped as the third state in its expansion plan, Garrison Brothers is confident that its highly acclaimed Texas straight bourbon whiskey will ‘wow’ even the finest of palates among New York’s bourbon aficionados.

“New Yorkers not only love to drink but they also care about what they put into their bodies and can recognize a pure high-quality product when they taste one,” Dan Garrison says of New York’s vibrant cocktail community.  “Our careful attention to an organic, made-by-hand distilling process, coupled with New York’s strong farm-to-market presence, makes us a perfect match.”

Garrison Brothers observes sustainable business practices throughout the distilling process, like using ultra-pure rainwater and maturing the whiskey in custom-built, new White American Oak barrels harvested from sustainable forests.

“We continue to make and barrel every batch by hand, the old-fashioned way,” says Garrison, who prides himself on the attention he devotes to the distilling process, and personal touches like hand-numbering and signing each and every custom bottle the distillery distributes. Unlike Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon distilleries, which make bourbon from “sour mash,” Garrison makes a “sweet mash” utilizing locally grown grain that is ground fresh daily and never reused. The organic white corn is harvested from farms in the Texas Panhandle, and Garrison grows his own organic soft red winter wheat on his ranch in the heart of Texas Hill Country.

Garrison Brothers Distillery is Texas’ first and oldest legal whiskey distillery, having secured federal and state operating permits in 2007. Since then, Garrison and his dedicated crew have been painstakingly cooking and fermenting a sweet mash of organic Texas corn, wheat and barley, which they distill from a small antique copper pot still nicknamed The Copper Cowgirl. In 2011, the distillery installed two additional 500 gallon pot stills, and today, more than 6,000 barrels of bourbon are aging in custom-built barns on Garrison’s ranch in Hye, Texas.

“Making straight bourbon whiskey requires a commitment of time, money and patience that most craft distillers are unwilling to make,” Garrison said. “Dozens of high-priced consultants and professional investor-types told us this could never be done. It’s been done now.”

Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey is now available across New York State.

About Garrison Brothers Distillery

Founded in 2006, Garrison Brothers Distillery™ is a small-distilled spirits plant located in the heart of Texas Hill Country. The first legal whiskey distillery in Texas and the only one outside Kentucky and Tennessee to produce authentic bourbon, the small, family-owned business manufactures its spirits straight from the kitchen, still-house and barrel barns on their ranch in Hye, Texas. Garrison Brothers began offering tours and tastings in 2008, and now hosts more than 25,000 guests every year.  Anyone interested in learning more about Garrison Brothers bourbon or taking a tour of the distillery,  can CLICK HERE!

THE ROADHOUSE UK FLAIR COMPETITION

ARE WE RUNNING OUT OF CASKS?
By Ian Buxton

VIVA SANGRITA COMPETITION
By Bon Vivants