No. 3 Gin's Unrivalled Classics Competition 2024

After an intense competition spanning eight months, at the final held in its distillery in Schiedam, The Netherlands, Martha May Markham from the UK was judged the winner of Unrivalled Classics 2024.

Marth'a winning cocktail, Toe The Lime mixed No. 3 Gin with clarified Key Lime pie cordial made with condensed milk, cream cheese, cardamom and orange tincture.

Martha, who comes from London's Bar Swift and has been bartending for eight years, displayed her passion and skill during regional and local competitions. She has won a multicourse dinner at Michelin-star restaurant Burnt Ends, which is famous for its modern Australian barbeque menu, paired with a selection of No.3 Gin cocktails. In addition, she will take centre stage at the Bar Convent Singapore with a takeover at the iconic Atlas bar in Singapore.

This year's final saw contestants that included Loiver Hernandez (USA), Germán Álvarez (Spain), Giusy Martinez (Italy), and Andrey Bartlett (Germany) fly to The Netherlands for an all-expenses paid two-day brand immersion with No.3 Gin, which included a tour of the famous De Kuyper Distillery and a Martini masterclass with Dukes Bar's legendary Master Bartender, Alessandro Palazzi.

Building on the success of the 2023 Global Cocktail Competition, this year, entrants were challenged to take inspiration from the iconic Gimlet cocktail and create their own unique interpretation using a minimum of 40ml No.3 Gin and a maximum of six ingredients, including a maximum of two homemade components.

Taste, flavour and presentation dictated more than a third of the total score in the judging criteria, bolstered by skill, technique, and brand knowledge. This year's panel of judges included Emma Stokes (Gin Monkey), Myriam Hendrickx (Rutte Distillery) and Alessandro Palazzi (Dukes Bar), who carefully assessed each contestant's entry based on:
- Historical knowledge of the Gimlet
- Individual contemporary approach to their unique creations
- Balance of flavour in each recipe
- Overall presentation
- Consumer appeal

For the competition, No.3's brand ambassadors hosted 15 masterclasses in key cities in the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the USA to educate bartenders on No.3 Gin and the Gimlet cocktail before entering. The masterclass material coincided with the judging criteria to ensure that those entering had an informed understanding of the competition.

2024 National Finals Winners

Unrivalled Classics was open to professional bartenders working in Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and, for the first time, bartenders in the USA. These are the finalists who progressed to compete in the Global Final.

U.S

Deepak Mahar
Junoon Restaurant, NYC, US
Red Gold Gimlet:
2 oz No. 3 London Dry Gin
¾ oz Saffron Cordial
Cardamon Essence
Garnish: Saffron Mango leather


Saffron Cordial: 1 pinch of Saffron for 100ml of water, one whole lemon peel. Boil on a low temperature, add 50 gram of sugar and 1 gram of acid solution.

Cardamom essence: 5g of cardamom distilled in water.

Saffron mango leather: Took all the citrus peel and boiled it with water until it gets thicker and then I mixed it with sugar and white wine vinegar and then need to put it into leather paper or leather Mets then need to put it into dehydration machine for 4 hours.

Loiver Hernandez
Café La Trova, Miami, US
The Magic Gimlet:
1 ½ oz No. 3 London Dry Gin
¼ oz Lillet Blanc
1 ¼ oz Bay Leaf/Watermelon Cordial
Garnish: Bay Leaf Vegan Foam and bay leaf


Bay Leaf, watermelon cordial: In a pot add 1000 G of water, 150 G of fresh Bay Leaves and let it boil for 5 min and let it rest for 30 minutes. Then add the mixture to the blender and mix on high for 2 min. After, double strain with cheesecloth and after mix the same amount of this bay leaf water with white sugar to obtain the syrup. Make clarified watermelon, squeeze freshly squeeze watermelon juice for every 1000m add 6 drops of Pectinex, leave that sitting for 2 hours. Start clarification of juice with fine strainer and cheesecloth. Combine 10oz of bay leaf syrup, 10oz of fresh squeezed lime juice, 25oz of clarified watermelon water, 5g citric acid,1.25g malic acid.

Bay leaf magic foam: 14oz of bay leaf syrup, 2oz of freshly squeezed lime juice, 3g citric acid. 1oz No. 3 London Dry Gin. 4oz watermelon juice clarified. Add 9g of Magic foam liquid.

Christoper Ward
The Plumed Horse, LA, US
Project G:
2 ¼ oz No. 3 London Dry Gin fat washed with
¾ oz Acidified lime oleo saccharum
Garnish: 7 drops of Saratoga Olive oil – Persian lime olive oil


Acidified Lime Oleo Saccharum: Equal parts sugar to lime peel as a ratio by weight. Place your lime peels in a sealable container and lightly muddle them to help express the oils. Weigh your sugar and pour over the peels, using gloves, use your hands to massage and press the peels and coat them with the sugar, the more you agitate the peels the more oils they will express. Let sit for at least few hours or overnight.
Once the Oils have been extracted the oleo is present - strain the liquid away from the crystalized sugar and peels using a fine chinois place in a container and store.

To acidify the Oleo, use citric acid powder in 9% ratio of citric acid by weight to the oleo for my mixture. Recipe:
448g - Oleo Saccharum
40g - Citric Acid Powder
3g - Maldon Sea Salt
Blend the ingredients together using a hand blender and let rest overnight so that the air settles out. Reserve in the fridge for use.

Italy

Giuseppina Martinez
Misture Cocktail Bar, Napoli, Italy
Sussurro del Vesuvio:
40 ml No. 3 London Dry Gin
30 ml Cherry tomato cordial
10 ml Toasted bread syrup


Cherry tomato cordial:
500ml Fresh cherry tomato juice (blended and strained), 250g Sugar, 5g Citric acid, 10ml Red Tabasco, 5 Cardamom pods, 3g Coriander, 2.5g Salt
Method: In a container, combine the tomato juice, sugar, citric acid, Tabasco, and salt, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. In a vacuum-sealed bag, place the tomato cordial, cardamom, and slightly toasted coriander, and cook sous vide for 2 hours at 60 degrees Celsius. Strain and bottle

Toasted bread syrup:
500g of bread, sliced and toasted, 25g of Amylase, 200ml of Water
Method: Place the ingredients in a container and blend until well combined. Once well mixed, transfer to a vacuum-sealed bag and cook sous vide at 60 degrees Celsius for 2 hours. After the cooking time, filter with a superbag, pour the liquid into a saucepan, and let it simmer, stirring continuously until it reaches a syrup-like consistency. Let it cool, filter again with a superbag, and bottle.

Spain

Germán Álvarez
Especarium, Barcelona, Spain
Wonderland:
50 ml No. 3 London Dry Gin
40 ml Wonderland Cordial
Garnish: Tea cookie with grapefruit jam, juniper, and cardamom. And edible flowers.


Wonderland Cordial: 450 ml water, 30g of Earl Grey tea, 15g of dried lemongrass and 10g of dried orange cold infused for 24 hours. After mix with 150ml of sugar syrup and 75ml of acid solution (water with citric, malic and tartaric acids).

Germany

Andrey Bartlett
The Local, Hamburg, Germany
All day Gimlet:
45 ml No.3 London Dry Gin
30 ml Yacult Punch
15 ml Hoped Verjus
5 ml Tempus Fugit Kina L'Aero d'Or
Garnish: Dehydrated Greek Yogurt Sugar


Yacult Punch:
Combine 200g of full-fat Greek Yogurt and 150g of Chivers Lemon Curd and mix till well combined. Mix the resulting mixture with 70g of freshly pressed grapefruit juice and 300g of No.3 London Dry Gin and stir to combine all the ingredients. Let rest for 1 hour at room temperature, and then strain through a coffee filter, if not clear run it again through the same one. Measure out 150ml of the resulting mixture and combine with 25ml of 2:1 white sugar syrup.

Hoped verjus:
Combine 200g of Avaa Verjuice with 20gm of Ella-type hops in an ISI wiper, charge with 1 NO2 charge, shake 5 times, and let rest for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes release the gas and strain the resulting mixture through a coffee filter.

Dehydrated Greek Yogurt Sugar:
Dehydrate 400g of full fat Greek yogurt that is thinly spread on a non-stick baking sheet at 70C for 24 hours, once fully dried, blend into a fine powder. Sieve the yogurt powder to collect all the non-fine particles. Combine the fine yogurt powder with powdered sugar, with 2:1 ratio, yogurt powder to sugar.

UK

Martha May Markham
Swift, London, UK
Toe The Lime:
50 ml No. 3 London Dry Gin
45 ml Lime cheesecake cordial
6 dashes cardamom tincture
Garnish: Digestive crumb with oak smoked sea salt

Lime cheesecake cordial:
Peel 8 limes and 4 lemons and juice them. Cover peels with 285g of caster sugar and leave to macerate for 12 hours in the fridge. Pour juice over peels and mix and strain. 500ml cordial pour over 125g full fat cream cheese and 50g condensed milk and mix slightly. Leave for 10 hours in the fridge. Strain through coffee filter until clear.
Cardamom tincture:
Toast the seeds of 25 cardamom pods in a pan, mix with 25ml neutral spirit along with the cardamom shells leave for 6 hours at room temperature.