Starting this Friday (25th August 2017) is the Cambridge Cocktail Weekend. Happening over the course of three days (25th-27th August) the different rounds of the Grand Slam will be taking place between 7-9PM. The Cambridge Cocktail Weekend is in its 2nd year following a very successful inaugural event. It all kicks off Friday afternoon with a variety of masterclasses and the first heat of the first WFA Grand Slam to happen in the UK, aside from Roadhouse, since 2010! As previously mentioned, this kicks off at 7PM.
Take the best cocktail bars in Cambridge, your favourite drinks brands, great live music and DJs, stunning street food, and (almost) every cocktail under the sun. Mix them all together inside the Cambridge Corn Exchange, serve with a fantastic party atmosphere to create the ultimate bank holiday weekend celebration. The Cambridge Cocktail Weekend is designed to celebrate the great cocktails and bars that Cambridge has to offer, alongside some of global spirits superstars all showcased in one place. Last year the Corn Exchange was packed to the gills with bars and cocktails, and saw over 2,000 through the doors, with plenty of partying and dancing until late to brilliant live bands and DJs.
Taking place throughout Saturday and Sunday will also be a variety of short masterclasses and workshops, free for all. These will teach you things you didn’t know about cocktails, different spirits such as vodka and gin, as well as bartending and flair bartending workshops with our very own Head of Gradings & Grand Slam Consultant @thomasdyer-3:
The Grand Slam
The first time the Cambridge Cocktail Weekend will be featuring on the WFA Grand Slam calendar, expect to see a number of the world’s best bartenders in show including Jumbles St Pierre, Roman Zapata, Alexander Shtifanov, Miikha Mehtio and Deniss Trifanovs.
Held across 3 days (Fri-Sun), the Grand Slam kicks off on Friday evening at 7PM with the 1st qualification heat. Each flair bartender has 4 minutes for the qualification rounds and 6 minutes in the final rounds. Each will be tasked with making 2 cocktails during their performance. Both cocktails will be judged and tasted by a table of very experienced judge, one cocktail will be the Chegroni, featuring the main sponsor Fabbri Marendry Bitter Amarena Fabri; the other will be the bartender’s own creation. Just to make things a little harder the bartender must make the Chegroni cocktail with working flair, using only the original bottles. The drinks can be made in any order.
Fabbri are the main sponsors for the WFA Cambridge Cocktail Weekend Grand Slam and have presented us with many bottles of their fantastic Fabbri Marendry Bitter Amarena Fabri to play with and use in the competition. A beautifully made liquor it goes perfectly in the special Fabbri cocktail for the Grand Slam:
The Chegroni
40ml Marendry,
15ml Sweet vermouth,
12.5ml Marie Brizard Cherry,
5ml ODK Wild Berry,
Top with soda.
Method: build and stir.
Garnish: Orange peel and cherry.
Glass: Tall hobstar, highball
And of course, no Grand Slam would be complete without a hefty prize: 1st £2200, 2nd £1200, 3rd £700, 4th £500, 5th £300, 6th £100. The top 3 will also be awarded the WFA Black Grade and 4th-6th will be awarded WFA Purple Grade. In addition to the big competition there will also be prizes for the ‘Best Cocktail’ (£200) and ‘Best Female’ (£250). And not to worry if you miss any of it, the whole competition will be streamed live – just look for a link on the WFA Facebook page.
So the Cambridge Cocktail Weekend is certainly looking like an event not to miss! With a huge variety of food and drink, live music, masterclasses, industry greats and a WFA Grand Slam going on – what more could you want… Did we hear someone say a WFA shop? Well that is going to be there too! Featuring all the favourite stock such as WFA t-shirts, flair kits, a home bartending kit, flybottles and more:
