A good bartender is friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient. A great bartender changes the way you look at cocktails forever. He is a showman and a craftsman, a cocktail rockstar with an encyclopedia of ingredients, and by the time you’ve watched him whip up the best drink you’ve ever tasted, you’ll want him to be your new best friend. It seems like there ought to be some sort of award for bartenders on this level, right? Well, BACARDÍ sure thought so when it created the BACARDÍ Legacy Global Cocktail Competition. This contest, which has been expanding in scale and scope for eight years now, provides a chance for the world’s premiere bartenders to go head-to-head representing their home countries. It also provides a showcase for new rum cocktails that might someday stand alongside the classics like the Cuba Libré and Mojito.
To whet your appetite for the 2016 competition final, which goes down this weekend in San Francisco, check out the videos above and below, which profile past United States champions Ran Duan and Shingo Gokan. Ran, whose home base is Boston, represented the U.S. at last year’s world finals in Sydney and wound up touring nine different countries, inspiring bartenders around the world to keep hustling. Shingo Gokan, who works out of NYC, won the whole ball of wax at the 2012 finale, which was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with a rum cocktail inspired by the tea ceremony of his native Japan.
Stay tuned to Complex for more updates on the 2016 BACARDÍ Legacy Global Cocktail Competition, and to get the inside scoop, be sure to check out the competition’s official Instagram.
