Patrón Perfectionists 2024 Australia Finalists

Storm Evans

Storm Evans is a hospitality professional focused on the intersection of the art of service and innovative creative drinks creation. As the Creative Lead of globally renowned bar, Cantina OK!, Storm uses his background as a teacher to work with his team on the wildly successful cocktail program. A tropical transplant from Far North Queensland, Storm has moved himself around Australia from the start of his career to chase the most exciting and growth-focused opportunities. Behind his larger-than-life personality lies a relentlessly reflective individual who inspires his teams fuelled by a deep love for our industry.

Entry Challenge cocktail inspiration
Palome is inspired by the wonderful city of Veracruz (known locally as El Puerto), the citrus port of Mexico. Veracruz (state) is the largest grower of citrus throughout Mexico and all the fresh citrus is funnelled through El Puerto to be shipped to the rest of the world. This allowed the city of Veracruz to develop a diverse and exciting mix of cultures from Spain, Africa, the Afro-Caribbean and Native Mexico. Majority of the food and drink in this region utilises the vibrant citrus this region is known for. Lime, Grapefruits and Mandarins are heavily utilised in both food and drinks. These fruits are handpicked and hand packed. The wonderful city of El Puerto relies on this citrus to bring together its people and culture. El Puerto and Palome embody the power of fresh vibrant citrus and the traditions and ideals set forth by Patrón Tequila.

Storm Evans' Palome

Bar: Cantina OK!, Sydney
- 40ml Patrón Reposado
- 30ml Salmiana Spiked Grapefruit Cordial
- 20ml Soda water

*To make Salmiana Spiked Grapefruit Cordial*
"San Limon" - Salmiana Liqueur
1. Take 5g of coriander seeds and toss onto a hot pan for 30 seconds - one minute
2. Combine 5g tempered whole coriander seed and 200ml of Salmiana in a cambro
3. Stick blend to shred the coriander seeds and allow to sit and infuse for 30 minutes.
4. Strain the mixture through a coffee/oil filter.
5. Combined strained mixture with 200ml water, 300g sugar and 3x drops of Mandarin Essential Oil.
6. Stick blend to combine.
Grapefruit Peel infused Coconut Water Syrup:
1. Measure 500mL of coconut water.
2. Using a speed peeler, peel 1kg of ruby grapefruit skins.
3. Combine the Ruby Grapefruit skins with the coconut water and allow to infuse overnight.
4. Strain the grapefruit skins out of the coconut water and combine with 500g Caster Sugar.
Salmiana Spiked Grapefruit Cordial:
1. Measure 375mLlof Grapefruit Peel Coconut water syrup and 125ml of the "San Limon" into a small cambro
2. Add 25g malic, 25g lactic acid and 10g citric acid to the mixture.
3. Stick bend to combine.
4. Bottle ready to be served

Other finalists

Finn Sugrue's Repertoire

Bar: Nectar, Geelong
- 50ml Patrón Reposado
- 45ml Gastrique Cordial
- Topped with 75ml Soda Water (force carbonated to 55psi)

* To make Gastrique Cordial:
20g Aussie Sandalwood covered with 20g of caster sugar and placed in the oven at 180 degrees to caramelise the sugars (10 minutes). Place the caramelised sugar/sandalwood in a saucepan at medium heat with 30g of Manuka honey and 20g of Champagne vinegar. Once combined, let the mix reduce for another 10 minutes over low/medium heat. Once the cordial is ready, put it into a vacuum bag (including the sandalwood) with: 10g ruby red grapefruit peel, 150g ruby red grapefruit juice, 50g lime juice, 5g lime peel, 2g ascorbic acid, 3g 20% saline solution, 10g fresh tarragon leaves. Seal the vacuum bag and sous vide the cordial for 2 hours at 60 degrees. Finally, finely strain, bottle and refrigerate it.

Samuel Cocks' Myoho Asari

Bar: RE, Sydney
- 30ml Patrón Reposado
- 30ml Saiki Cordial
- 90ml Soda water

*To make Saiki Cordial:
1. Black (A.Luchuensis) Koji:
Soak 500g of sushi rice in 600ml of filtered water overnight. Drain the water then rinse until the water becomes clear. Steam for 20 minutes over simmering water. Once cooled, inoculate with 0.25 grams of the koji spores. Fold the rice through then repeat again with other 0.25g of koji spores. Cover with a clean, barely damp kitchen towel. Keep in at temperature and humidity controlled environment at 30c and a humidity of 70/75%. Keep at this temperature and humidity for 48 hours, then place koji in the fridge for 10 hours. Break up koji and vacuum seal.
2. Black Citric Shio Koji:
Blend 440 ml of filtered water, 400 grams of black citric koji and 70 grams salt in the thermomix to obtain a thick paste. Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 7 days, stirring daily. After 7 days, refrigerate.
3. Black Shio Koji Preserved Grapefruit Juice:
Cover 800 grams of ruby grapefruit with 500 grams black of shio koji and place a vacuum bag with water on top to weigh down the grapefruit. Use an airtight container and place in the fridge for 2 weeks. Scrape off shio koji and juice preserved grapefruit in a thermomix with pectinex (2.5% of total preserved grapefruit weight). Speed 4, 7 minutes, 45c. Strain over oil filter and grapefruit solids.
4. Magnolia Kobus ‚Sakurayu‚ Ice:
Combine 20 grams of umeboshi plum vinegar, 25 grams of salt, 475 grams of filtered water and stir to combine. Adjust the pH of the water/ vinegar/ salt solution to 4pH using the black citric koji powder. Add water solution and 200 grams of magnolia kobus petals into a vacuum bag, seal, and preserve for 3 weeks in the fridge. Strain petals, keeping the preserving liquid. Dehydrate petals at 40c for 4 hours.
Heat 600 grams of water until 95C then take off the heat and add 100 grams of preserved dehydrated magnolia petals and step for 30 minutes. Strain with an oil filter and place into the freezer in an airtight container until frozen solid.
5. Kamairicha Koridashi:
Add 25 grams of kamairicha tea leaves to the bottom of a bowl, placing 500 grams of magnolia kobus sakurayu ice on top of it. Leave at room temperature until all of the ice has melted, then strain using an oil filter
Final Cordial Recipe:
Add 400 ml shio koji cured grapefruit juice, 200 ml kamairicha koridashi with magnolia ice and150 grams wasanbon sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Bottle.

Kayla Saito's I'iwi

Bar: The Mulberry Group, Melbourne
- 40ml Patrón Reposado
- 35ml Grapefruit Meade Cordial
- 100ml Soda water

*To make Grapefruit Meade Cordial:
2 parts ruby grapefruit juice
2 parts Christmas Malley Meade
1 parts grapefruit honey
Ruby Grapefruit Juice:
Use 12 ruby grapefruits. First zest the grapefruit for the honey infusion and set aside. Freeze the juice in a blast chiller or freezer until ice forms on the surface. Remove the first layer of ice and freeze remaining liquid. Repeat until 25% of the liquid remains.
Christmas Malley Meade:
4 parts Christmas Malley Honey
1 parts soft water
10% rice koji
Coming ingredients into a sterilized ceramic vessel and cover with a cloth to allow wild fermentation. Stir daily. Put an airlock after 36 hours and cement for 14 days. Strain through an oil filter and refrigerate.
Grapefruit Honey:
1 parts Christmas Malley Honey
2% grapefruit zest
Infuse for 24 hours at room temp and strain.

Martin McConnell's The Neapolitan Way

Bar: Il Mercante, Venezia
- 40ml Patrón Reposado
- 45ml Grapefruit and Fig Vin Cotto cordial
- 50ml Soda water

*To make Grapefruit and Fig Vin Cotto Cordial:
For approximately 10 serves:
70g Fresh Fig
30g Grapefruit Zest
80ml Grape Juice
300ml Verjus
200g Caster Sugar
Zest grapefruits, and dice fresh figs. Add grapefruit zest, figs, grape juice and Verjus to a pan on low heat. Begin to press with a wooden spoon to break apart. After a few minutes, add sugar and stir until combined. Continue to press figs and stir. Once the sugar has dissolved, strain and bottle.

Benjamin Thomson's Kintsugi Paloma

Bar: The Rechabite, Perth
- 45ml Patrón Reposado
- 70ml Yuzu Grapefruit, Kaffir leaf and Honey Cordial
- 170ml Soda water

*To make Yuzu Grapefruit, Kaffir leaf and Honey Cordial:
250gm fresh-strained grapefruit juice.
125gm raw sugar
80gm local honey
2.5gm citric acid powder
4gm grapefruit zest
6gm yuzu zest
2 kaffir lime leaves
Place all ingredients into a bowl and whisk thoroughly until combined. Transfer into a vac-pack bag and submerge in a Sous-Vide at 58C for 2 hours. Ice-bath the bag and cool to room temperature. Strain the cordial through a mesh sieve lined with cheese cloth and then pass it through a coffee filter. Vac-pack the cordial and refrigerate until use.

Jarah Retana's Ikigai Paloma

Bar: El Primo Sanchez, Sydney
- 50ml Patrón Reposado
- 80ml Japanese Citrus Cordial
- 60ml Soda water

*To make Japanese Citrus Cordial*
74 ml shikuwasa and grapefruit clarified juice
4 ml liquid koji
12 gr sugar
2 ml grapefruit oleo
Mix all ingredients together until sugar dissolves.
Clarified grapefruit and Shikuwasa juice recipe (5 serves):
325 ml grapefruit juice
100 ml shikuwasa (Citrus Depressa)
1.5 gr agar
20 ml water
Mix the juices in a container, then boil the water and add agar to activate it. Then mix it all together and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes, after that filter it with a coffee filter making sure liquid is clear.
Grapefruit oleo recipe:
100 gr grapefruit peels
100 gr sugar
Mix them together in a seal bag until sugars dissolves.

Nick Corletto's Shimokita Showdown

Bar: Maybe Mae, Adelaide
- 40ml Patrón Reposado
- 30ml Citrus & Oak Cordial
- 100ml Soda water

*To make Citrus & Oak Cordial
If you have access to fresh Yuzu, use the following steps; otherwise skip to Citrus & Oak Oleo with store-bought Yuzu Kosho.
1.Yuzu: Zest 5-6 Yuzu using a microplane (or as finely as possible) into 2tbs of Maldon or Flakey Salt. Pound this with a mortar and pestle until salt is finely ground and the result is a firm paste. Juice the yuzu into the mixture and continue to mortar and pestle until a smooth paste. Store up to 2 months.
2.Citrus & Oak Oleo:
Lightly toast French and American Oak chips (combined weight of 80g) and rest in 1L of water overnight. For the cordial begin with 1kg sugar, 1kg of Red Grapefruit (900g Red Grapefruit, 100g Fresh Yuzu if available). Zest fruit into sugar, leaving zested fruit to the side. Once fully zested and the sugar has absorbed the oils in the zest, juice the grapefruit into the sugar. Add 3g Malic Acid, 1.5g Citric Acid, 1.5g Tartaric Acid. Add 520g of water, that has had the French and American Oak chips lightly toasted and rested in the water overnight. Add 1 tsp of Yuzu Kosho (store-bought or house made). Stir to combine.

Tom Opie's Stone Hijuelos

Bar: The Waratah, Sydney
- 50ml Patrón Reposado
- 75ml Roasted Buckwheat, Fermented Grapefruit, Agave, Oxidised Mushroom Switched Gewurtztraminer Cordial, Buckwheat Shio Koji
- 80ml Soda water

*To make homemade Cordial
Cold macerate 100g roasted buckwheat in 500mls of water for 3 days, when it's bubbling and clearly fermenting and has a distinct roasted note, strain off the buckwheat. Dilute 500g of agave with the buckwheat tea and blend 200g of peeled grapefruit into the mix (for aeration which will help the fermentation but also to incorporate flavour). Allow to ferment for 9 days, stirring multiple times a day. 1% pectinex and strain through a chinos or coffee filter (this should clarify easily).
Buckwheat shio koji: with the strained buckwheat, steam for 45 minutes. Take off the heat and cool to at least 30 degrees. When it has cooled, inoculate with aspergillus oryzae, making sure you have clean hands, mix it through thoroughly. Empty onto a clean, neutral cloth on a tray and heat at 28 degrees and 90% humidity in a fermentation chamber. After 24 hours, give it a mix, after 36 allow the lid or door to sit ajar so that the spores don't die. After 48 hours it should smell distinctly of peaches, mushroom and buckwheat. Take this buckwheat koji and mix with equal parts water and 10% salt, as well as 1% grapefruit peel that we peeled before. Ferment open to air for 10 days. This will be our salt element for the cordial.
Take a bottle of good quality Gewurztraminer and empty into a freeze safe container. Freeze for a day. Take half of cup of porcine Mushroom and cover in 4 cups of boiling water. Simmer for half an hour, until the mushrooms are hydrated, and the broth is distinctly umami. Strain the wine through a chinois, when all the liquid has strained, measure the loss of water and replace it with mushroom broth.
Finishing the cordial: Measure out 100g of shio koji and blend with 100g of our buckwheat/agave/grapefruit mix. Strain this through a coffee filter, topping up with more cordial to increase yield. When this has finished clarifying, we have our cordial that has been salted with shio koji. There will be a "ricotta" leftover from the curds of the shio koji, this is what we take to make our chocolates. Measure out the yield of cordial and add 30% of Switched Gewurztraminer Add 1.5% malic acid and 1% citric acid. We've already added our salt and sugar sits around 10% after adding the Gewurztraminer.

Leah Dunnigan's Scotland's Yards

Bar: The Baxter Inn, Sydney
- 45ml Patrón Reposado
- 40ml Veggie Patch Cordial
- 45ml Soda water

*To make Veggie Patch Cordial
Cordial made of 1-part lacto- fermented beetroot, 2 parts carrot skin oleo and 2 parts of whole grapefruit oleo.
1. Lacto Fermented Beetroot: The Beetroot is left to sit in 2% Saline for 4 days in a vacuum sealed bag at room temp, then it is then blended with small amounts of fresh saline and strained through a coffee filter.
2. Carrot Skin Oleo: made with the skins of carrots for a more bitter flavour with equal weight sugar and left for 3 days in a vacuum sealed bag at room temperature, then strained through a coffee filter.
3. Whole Grapefruit Oleo: peel 1 grapefruit and put the peels with equal weight of sugar and 1 shot of water in a vacuum sealed bag for 3 days and then separately put the remaining chopped grapefruit into a vacuum sealed bag with equal amounts of sugar for 3 days. Strain both individually and mixed the peel oleo to inner grapefruit oleo at a ratio of 3 : 1.
All three of these components are then mixed to mix umami, fresh, bitter, sweet, and sour flavours at the correct ratio.