The next round of the Mullen Bartending League kicked off at Whiskey Jar a few weeks ago with the spirit being Monkey Shoulder. I was nervous about this one as I am not a whiskey drinker despite friends trying repeatedly to find one that I can stomach without screwing my face up in disgust. I don’t know what it is about it, maybe it is the peat… maybe it is the smokiness. I’m not sure, either way, I’m not a fan. So the contenders had to pull something really special out of the bag for this round to impress me and get decent marks.
Jim from Apotheca tackled a tricky ingredient akin to that of Julia from Walrus in round one… chilli. His ‘Rob the chilli monkey’ combined sweet vermouth, Mozart bitters, Monkey Shoulder and chilli garnished with fresh chilli and a bar of chocolate. Like round one, this was too heavy on the chilli for most of the judges but the dark chocolate was much welcomed and did help to tone down the spice. Unfortunately the Monkey Shoulder was lost a little.
Matt from Cord named his cocktail ‘bloodberry old fashioned’ mixing Monkey Shoulder with raspberry syrup, Martell brandy and cinnamon garnishing with a cinnamon stick. We couldn’t work out the flavours of this one at first due to the blind tasting. We could tell there was a fruity note but the cinnamon didn’t mix so well with it. The Monkey Shoulder was present though which is good.
Matt from Bluu’s ‘queen of scots’ was a sight to behold. He wrote the judges a note to explain why he had combined Monkey Shoulder with lemon juice, prickly pear, Chambord, Xante, Gomme and cherry beer before garnishing with lemon, cherries and pear. Unfortunately the lemon took over and this was all we could taste. It looks beautiful though and, with a touch less lemon, would definitely have been in the running for top 3.
Laura from TV21 went for something completely different with her ‘peanut monkey shoulder’. She mixed Monkey Shoulder with Drambuie, vanilla, gomme, almond and peanut butter. Unfortunately her garnish of a Reese’s peanut butter cup would not stay so it arrived to use without. The smell was so packed with peanut butter that we were a little disappointed when the flavour wasn’t as strong. It was nice and perhaps a little more peanut butter would have intensified the flavours. That said, it might have lost the Monkey Shoulder at this point?
And that leaves us with the top three…
In third place was Mark from Whiskey Jar with his crudely named ‘monkey sack’. So crude our hosts refused to utter the name to the female judges. We soon got over it to enjoy his stronger cocktail of Monkey Shoulder, allspice, cacao blanco, Diplomatico executive reserve served in an Absinthe rinsed glass with an orange peel garnish. The Monkey Shoulder was there but in a warming way with a sweetness coming through from the cacao blanco. Even I loved this one!
In second place was Bradlie at Simple with another crudely named ‘monkey spunk’… I can sense a theme here! His cocktail was a twist on an Irish coffee made with Monkey Shoulder, caramel syrup, vanilla syrup and coffee with a cream float garnished with biscuit sprinkles and brown sugar. The drink was slightly warm but not hot which, was shock but one that helped the flavour of the Monkey Shoulder to come through. A nice change from the usual we all enjoyed this one and I happily polished it off.
This week’s winner and taking three points was Rick from Tusk! His ‘infused confused old fashioned’ mixed fig infused Monkey Shoulder, cinnamon & spice infused honey and Jerry T bitters before garnishing simply with a slice of orange. The fig was a perfect accompaniment to the Monkey Shoulder giving it a wonderful sweetness that is further enhanced with the infused honey. Absolutely lovely and one to convert even the fussiest of ‘none’ whiskey drinkers.
That leaves the leaderboard looking like this after round 2:
1. Apotheca 3
1. Whiskey Jar 3
1. Tusk 3
2. Simple 2
3. Cord 1
4. Bluu 0
5. TV21 0
6. Walrus 0
We are at Bluu tonight with G’Vine Flouraison gin for round 3. A firm favourite among a lot of the judges and one we have high hopes for. Details of the winners later in the week!
I was invited to judge this competition by the organisers. Any other drinks, other than those judged in the competition, were paid for.
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