The Swiss World Class finale will take place on June 1st, and I asked Tanja Lendi, Sales Manager for Diageo, about her impressions of the two bursts.
How would you compare the two bursts this year to the previous years? Are there any trends that you could find?
Compared to the last years the bartenders had the chance to choose from either the dark spirit collection in Burst 1 (Zacapa, Johnnie Walker Super Deluxe, Malts, Bulleit) or the white spirit collection (Tanqueray N°10, Ketel One, Cîroc, Don Julio) in Burst 2. This gave the bartenders much more flexibility in the creation of their cocktails. Overall I don’t think we can compare the years or the Bursts. Every topic, every burst is a big challenge and asks for a lot of creativity and a sense for the perfect ingredients.
The trends we saw this year we already saw developing in the last years. The creation and the use of homemade ingredients are kind of a new standard, the bartenders getting more brave in using exceptional ingredients. The understanding in general of flavors and ingredients is very high.
Even more important is that the consumers are starting to understand the profession of a bartender and the difference from a standard to a high quality cocktail.
What were the most memorable presentations during the bursts; what stood out or felt special?
The most memorable presentations are the ones where you can feel the passion and love for the details. Or where we discover something new, like in burst 1 we saw a creative way to smoke a cocktail or special ingredients like a waxed Tanqueray N°10. Something also very important is authenticity. Especially in Burst 2 where 2 books had to build the story for the drink, the bartenders shared some nice stories about their origin, their childhood etc. For example in the French Part most of the bartenders are originally from France and they took us with their stories to fields of lavender, lemon trees and vineyards so we could almost feel the sun warming our skin.
Maybe we can say a memorable presentation has not only to delight our palate but also to touch our hearts 🙂
Thank you very much!
Check out the interviews with some of the finalists:
- Florent Sabatini from Funky Claude’s in Montreux
- Grégoire Leclerc from the Four Seasons in Bergues
- Sophia Larrouture from the Four Seasons in Bergues
- Luis Estrada from Lucid Bar in Renaissance Hotel in Zurich
- Nicolas Berger from Chat Noir in Carouge
- André Borba from Das Weisse Schaf in Luzern
