Cointreau has gone back to the future with this year’s Margarita Challenge celebrating 75 since the drink was created in the 1940s.
The competition will call upon bartenders to reimagine the classic cocktail, with a drink inspired by the Margarita’s storied history.
For this year, the challenge will require contestants to use only equipment available in the 1940s, when American socialite Margaret ‘Margarita’ Sames is thought to have created the cocktail at her Acapulco home.
Bartenders will be assessed in their performance through different categories with different weightings for each. Technique will be given a 40 per cent waiting, ingredients 30 per cent (with the only mandatories a minimum of 20ml Cointreau and salt), 20 per cent will be given to storytelling – with participants required to come up with a good name and back-story for their drink, while visual presentation takes the remainder 10 per cent.
The judging jury consists of last year’s winner Jonathan Stanyard, World’s 50 Best Bars Award recipient Rory J Shepherd, journalist and spirits expert Kelly Magyarics, and Cointreau’s own Master Distiller Carole Quinton.
Ten finalists from around the world will be selected, who will be flow to France of three days of challenges and ‘immersive visits’. The final itself will be held at the Cointreau mansion in Angers, western France.
The best recipe will then be determined with the winner earning a €5000 sponsored budget which will allow them to tour and promote their own creative take on the Margarita at specially selected cocktail bars. They’ll also pick up a trip to France for two.
Entries close on 12 February. Enter here.
