Hayman's Cocktail Competition 2025
Hayman's The Original Gin once again, for a third successive year, invited professional bartenders around the world to create cocktails using their award-winning gin, and, as an incentive, they are offering cash prizes and an all-expenses-paid trip to their London Distillery.
The aim of the competition is to find new contemporary classic gin cocktails which both bartenders and home cocktail enthusiasts worldwide can make. Hence, the ingredients must be easily available without the need to pre-combine.
On Monday, 2nd June, I was joined by the Hayman's team at my bar to sample the 70 Semi-Finalists' cocktails to discover the Top 15 finalists.
There was no shortage of great cocktails made with Hayman's London Dry, Old Tom or Sloe Gin, and some using a combination of dry or old tom gin with sloe gin. We were also impressed by the photography and effort that competitors put into their entries. Many thanks to all who entered.
After a long day, there was some tough decision-making to arrive at the 15 Finalists to go through to the grand final at Hayman's Distillery later this month. Each of the Top 15 cocktails will be expertly recreated on Monday 23rd June 2025 by Hayman's Brand Ambassador, Alexa Farrow, and presented to a panel of judges, including Sandrae Lawrence (The Cocktail Lovers), Giulia Cuccurullo (head bartender at London's Artesian), James Hayman of Hayman's Gin and myself.
Finalists will also be asked to submit a short video of themselves making their cocktail, which will be played alongside the tasting, and it's for this reason that we're announcing the winners a week earlier than originally planned.
Congratulations to the 15 bartenders who have cocktails heading to the next and final round:
To Peach Their Own by Sarah Foley, Bar Sur Mer, Seattle, Washington
Everlasting Pear by Eric Maldonado, Clemente Bar, Manhattan, New York
Bell of the Ball by Alex Koehl, Isla & Co., Brooklyn, New York
Double Feature by Ryan Gannon, Inga's Bar, Brooklyn, New York
Hey Man by Robert Cooper, The Plotting Parlour, Brighton, England
The Heritage Pearl by Saldrin Mascarenhas, Hutong at The Shard, London
Fruit & Nut by Isaac Birdsall, American Bar, London
Nick & Sloe by Burak Yilmaz, Maison Dali, Dubai
Hay'groni by Alex Dzombak, Lobby Hamilton, Hamilton, Canada
Tuxedo 1863 by Rain Zheng The Tuxedo, Shanghai
Zeppelin by Chen TsungWen, FReNCHIE FReNCHIE, Taichung, Taiwan
The Hourglass by 欣瑞 萬 Xin-Rui Wan, Bar Often, Tainan, Taiwan
Pale Signal by Cal Ross, Panacea, Auckland, New Zealand
Soft Dew by Ka Wing Chan, Dio, Hong Kong
Crimson Reverie by George Roufidis, Door74, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Prizes
The winner receives £1,000 and an all-expenses paid trip to the Hayman's Distillery in London, England, to include a 3-night stay in a boutique hotel. (If the winner is UK-based, then they will receive a whopping £2,500 to make up for the lack of expensive jet-propelled travel) plus a two-night hotel stay (no jet lag!).
In addition, two runner-ups will receive £500 each.
70 Semi-Finalist Cocktails
See all Semi-Finalist cocktails
Hayman's London Dry Gin
Launched in 2008 and a classic London Dry gin in style, it is distilled with ten botanicals: juniper berries, coriander seed, nutmeg, cinnamon, angelica
Hayman's Old Tom Gin
Hayman's Old Tom is a modern-day recreation of an original family recipe dating from the 1860s. It is made with the same ten botanicals that feature in
Hayman's Sloe Gin
This traditional sloe gin liqueur is made by steeping wild English hand-picked sloe berries, harvested in the Autumn in Hayman's Gin for several months.
