Mixed blessing as barmen eye cocktail award
IT'S not clear if Sheffield is shaken or stirred by the revelation that it has two competitors in the World Class British bartending championships next week - out of 16 - but even Tom Higham finds it a little odd. And he's one of them.
"Some of the other northern cities like Manchester and Leeds have a lot more of a cocktail circuit but I don't think they have scraped more than one place between them. Sheffield is more a real ale city," he says.
What's more, he and the other city representative, James Hill, both work at the same trendy bar, Menzels, on Ecclesall Road, where the call is more likely to be for a Sex on the Beach or a Slippery Nipple than a pint of Moonshine.
So next Tuesday, the day of the final, may not be the best time to order a cocktail at Menzels.
Tom, aged 21, goes to London as the northern winner of vodka section, when his Grape Escape (vodka, grapes, orange bitters and homemade rosemary and lemongrass syrup) was one of his winning recipes.
But only just. He should have called it the Great Escape because he got the date of the northern final mixed up and only just made it in time.
For the national final, he's had to come up with three new cocktails. He'll save two of them to use if he gets through to the final four.
"I'm not going to say what they are," he says, not unreasonably. After all, he doesn't want to give the opposition any ideas.
The winner gets a lot of trade media attention, a book deal and entry into the world finals in Dubai next year.
James, aged 28, is a veteran of the competition. He's in the rum section and his old favourite, Ron Burgundy (Pampero rum, maple syrup, Peychaud bitters and Punt e Mes, a red Vermouth) has done him good service in previous years.
"It's named after a lead character in the cult film Anchorman and it uses a red Burgundy," says James, a director of Menzels. This is his third year in the competition - he's finished sixth and third so far so the omens look good - and he's not hindered himself by inventing cocktails such as Crimea River, a blend of Tanqueray gin, rose water, violet liqueur, lemon juice and lavender foam.
"Making cocktails is all about drinks theatre," says James, who has been a mixologist, the proper name for a bartender who mixes cocktails, for seven years.
James likes it "that in Sheffield you can really get to know your customers. It's taken some time to build the cocktail culture here but attitudes are changing and people are now really open to trying new drinks."
One of the judges in London next week will be the mercurial Marco Pierre White and while James is pretty relaxed about it he doesn't mind admitting to being slightly nervous.
"What can go wrong? It never has for me but one of the things that can happen is the lid of the shaker flies off," he says. "Now I wouldn't want to be covering someone like Marco Pierre White with a lot of liquid!"
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
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