Mullen Bartending Cocktail League Launches in Northern Quarter

I judge cocktail competitions regularly, it is just a perk that comes from being the cocktail reviewer for 4 Manchester Women. They are fairly similar and follow the same pattern: a group of bartenders are given a spec and create a pretty looking drink in a bid to tickle your tastebuds and win on the day. Sounds fun doesn’t it? Oh it is, but this… this event is upping the bar…

M League is the brain child of Chris and Sean of Mullen Bartending. Their vision is to crown the ultimate cocktail bar in Manchester by pitting them against each other each week with a different spirit in the form of a cocktail league. The competition kicked off in Cord with the Northern Quarter leg of the competition. The spirit for the night was Excellia tequila, a personal favourite of mine, and armed with a score sheet I was ready to test the wares of the 8 bars competing to win the first of the points in the league… but there was a twist. In normal cocktail competitions we get to watch the bartenders shake, stir and dance their way to the perfect cocktail. This time it was a blind tasting, we had no idea who had made what drink until we picked our top 3…

Max from TV21 created his Winnies 21 using Excellia reposado, Bulleit bourbon, Jack Daniels honey, Amaretto and Angostura bitters. The sweetness from the JD honey and amaretto helped to sweeten this cocktail but the bourbon was too much for me. A great idea though, just needs a bit of tweaking.

Bradlie from Simple created his Alaska twist with Excellia reposado, lime, cinnamon, almond, Angostura bitters and ginger beer. The garnish really overpowered this one and I didn’t get the cinnamon or almond at all. I loved the lime and ginger beer combination though.

Adam from Tusk named his cocktail rosebud and created it by shaking Excellia reposado, grapefruit, rose liquor and apricot. This was fresh and sweet from the grapefruit and tucking into the pink grapefruit garnish really helped to bring out the other flavours in the drink. Unfortunately there were 5 judges and only 1 garnish so we didn’t all get to experience this.

Cameron from Bluu called his drink Tulep to put a spin on the classic Julep. He mixed Excellia reposado, Benedictine, lime and mint. This packed a punch but unfortunately the mint was all I could taste.

Julia from Walrus’s pancho villa contained Excellia tequila, monte alban agave, Mozart dark chocolate, Monin cinnamon, cafe liquor and chilli served with a garnish of burnt chilli. This is where blind tasting is strange because, to look at the garnish, we couldn’t quite work out what it was! Once we had tasted the cocktail we worked it out mind as the chilli really is the main ingredient in this drink. Like with previous drinks, the chilli overpowered the other flavours which, is such a shame because this was one of the most creative drinks of the night.

Onto the scoring part of the competition and in third place was Mat from our host bar Cord! His dingo juice combined Excellia reposado, Herring cherry, lychee liquor, orange bitters served with an orange spiral garnish. The combination of cherry, lychee and orange gave this a lovely fruitiness whilst balancing the drink well allowing the tequila to shine.

In second place was Mark from The Whiskey Jar with his quirky take the high road. He mixed Excellia reposado, Dashmore cigar malt, vanilla and lime juice. This one threw the judges completely as we tried to work out how a fruity drink had a smokey aftertaste and dark little specks! In so many ways this shouldn’t have worked but the flavours were great together.

And…. drum roll please….

And in first place taking the top spot is Veronika from Apotheca with her old excellence! She combined Excellia reposado, cognac, agave syrup, Mozart bitters and a slice of orange peel. This was a great twist on the classic old fashioned with the sweetness from agave bringing out the flavours of the tequila. A perfect interpretation of the brief to ‘play to the strengths of the spirit’. Beautiful, and on the specials menu at Apotheca so you can try one!

After week 1 of the Northern Quarter M League the table looks like this:

1. Apotheca 3
2. Whiskey Jar 2
3. Cord 1
4. Bluu 0
5. Simple 0
6. Tusk 0
7. TV21 0
8. Walrus 0

Check back in a few weeks for round 2 of the Northern Quarter league featuring Monkey Shoulder and the launch of the Deansgate league!

*Photographs courtesy of Night Capture

I was invited to attend as a judge for this competition. Any other drinks, apart from competition entries on the night, were paid for.