If your life revolves around alcohol and making cocktails (to serve, not drink), then you’d know what World Class is.
It’s regarded as the world’s biggest and most influential bartending competition, instrumental in transforming fine drinking and cocktail culture around the world.
This year, it comes to Sydney, where it’ll turn the city of Sydney into a vibrant hub of events, experiences and festivities as an elite group of finalists battle it out to be crowned the world’s best.
None of this happens until 2020, but we spoke to one boss chick who’s taking it on herself, a bartender at Isabel, the 2019 World Class Finalist who had this to say:
“World Class truly paves the way for innovation in our bars. It helps reshape and redefine what the cocktail experience is by challenging what bartenders know about technique, creativity and charisma. It’s also a great chance to delve into the minds of our peers and see what they get up to, providing a global community where we can learn from and be inspired by each other”.
Meanwhile, she and a guy named Tim Philips-Johansson will be competing in a competition that runs in more than 60 countries and has supported, educated and inspired more than 300,000 bartenders through its training and advocacy programme.
Actually, Tim won in 2012 and co-owns a bar in Sydney. He said:
“Our bars and bartenders have long been celebrated for being the best in the business, qualified by the fact we are one of only two countries to produce two global champions in the competition’s history. Sydney World Class 2020 is an amazing opportunity for us to promote our craft of bartending and show off our amazing city and bars to the rest of the world. I for one am looking forward to hosting the world’s best in my home city”.
Find out more at the World Class Sydney website.