Are you a Discerning Drinker?
Join thousands of like-minded professionals and cocktail enthusiasts, receive our weekly newsletters and see pages produced by our community for fellow Discerning Drinkers.
Hayman's The Original Gin Competition 2025 Winner
The Grand Final of the 2025 Hayman's Gin Cocktail Competition was held at Hayman's Distillery in London on 23rd June, with 15 cocktails created by professional bartenders from 9 different countries around the world.
All 15 cocktails were made by Hayman's Brand Ambassador, Alexa Farrow, for the panel of judges: James Hayman, Giulia Cuccurullo, Sandrae Lawrence and Simon Difford, who were tasked with finding the most delicious, innovative and balanced cocktails, with broad appeal to become contemporary classics, so also easy to replicate.
Winner
The winner of the competition is George Roufidis from The Netherlands with his cocktail Crimson Reverie. He wins £1,000 plus an all-expenses-paid trip to London to spend time at Hayman's Distillery.
Runners-up
Congratulations also go to the runners-up who have won £500 each:
Rain Zheng from Shanghai, China with Tuxedo 1863
Saldrin Mascarenhas from London, England with The Heritage Pearl
Grand Finalists
Many thanks to 915 who entered, we very much appreciate your time and effort, particularly the 12 other talented Grand Finalists whose cocktails we enjoyed.
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
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
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
Final at Hayman's Gin Distillery
The finalists' cocktails were recreated by Alexa Farrow, assisted by Hayman's Distiller, Phil Gabriel, for the judges: (left to right), Sandrae Lawrence, Giulia Cuccurullo, Simon Difford, and James Hayman
70 Semi-Finalist's Cocktails
See all 70 Semi-Finalist's 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.
