2019-20

2019-20 Competition

Words by Simon Difford

One of the leading international cocktail competitions, Patrón Perfectionists 2019 (with its final in January 2020) encompassed bartenders from 30 countries and cruise liners across six continents. From as far afield as Israel and Colombia, bartenders around the globe competed in national finals during 2019.

The national winners, representing the top bartending talent from around the world, headed to Mexico and the beautiful home of Patrón Tequila in January 2020 to compete in the global final. After the first round, in light of the very high standards, the judges (which included myself and Paloma) selected seven (rather than the usual six) to compete in the last round of the global final.

The seven finalists to reach the last round in the competition were Anneliese Grazioli (Australia & New Zealand), Jared Schmidt (Canada), Sarah Turbett (central USA), Tobias Lindner (Germany), Willy Park (Japan & South Korea), Jason Hussien Ali (Philippines, Singapore & Indonesia) and Giulia Cuccurullo (UK).

Congratulations to Giulia Cuccurullo who emerged the deserving winner to be crowned the 2019 Patrón Perfectionist! Special mention to Jared Schmidt who was awarded second place in the competition and Willy Park third place.

And congratulations to all the global finalists. It was a very memorable week for us all and a great example of competitors coming together from around the world to complete as friends rather than rivals. We present their drinks below (click on their images to see their recipe and inspiration).

2019-20 Competition image 1
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