With qualification for the IBA World Championships at stake, the best of South Africa's professional bartenders recently met at Johannesburg's Coca Cola Dome to compete in the National Classic Cocktail Competition. Among the six finalists were three representatives from premium bar services and training company, Barcode, including eventual winner and Key Training Officer at the Barcode Academy, Ryan Duvenage.

Sponsored by Havana Club Cuban Rum and Monin Syrups, the 2008 competition was organised by the South African Bartending Association (SABA) - an organisation of local bartending professionals committed to the arts of bartending, flair and mixology. SABA is affiliated with - and regulated by the standards of - the International Bartending Association (IBA), ensuring that the South African champion automatically qualifies for a place amongst the world's best bartenders at the next International Classic Cocktail Competition to be staged in Berlin in 2009.

It is the fourth time that one of Barcode's top bartenders will be representing South Africa at the World Championships, with Barcode Partner Tim Townsend competing in Las Vegas (2004), Helsinki (2005) and Taiwan (2007). Next year, however, it will be Ryan Duvenage - a professional bartender from Durban who is directly involved with training and skills development at the Barcode Bar Academy (www.barcode-academy.com). His two original cocktails - The Conquistador and The Hierba Buena - impressed the blind panel of judges who tasted each competitor's creations for balance, complexity and synergy between flavours and textures.

“The cocktails I entered were an attempt to change the way South African Bartenders, as well as the general public, perceive drinking and cocktails,” says Ryan. “There is a perception amongst the public that cocktails need to be sweet, fruity and brightly coloured and the trend amongst local bartenders is to create excessively complicated cocktails using the most obscure and exotic ingredients they can find, while often missing out on the fundamental goal of producing a well made, good tasting drink.”

“With this in mind, I tried to create drinks with a Classic feel, while adding a modern twist.”

Ryan's winning recipes are detailed below.

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