We love a good cocktail competition, so we were delighted to be invited to attend Cranes’ inaugural Cranes Liqueur Cocktail Competition at Brixton’s Prince of Wales on September 11th.
Cranes Liqueur is a delicious cranberry and blood orange liqueur, and the latest addition to the Cranes brand, which also produces Cranes Cranberry Cider in three different flavours (you can read our review here).
But last week it was all about Cranes liqueur. Bartenders from some of London’s best bars had been challenged to create a new cocktail that would ‘Paint the Town Red’, with the only specification that the cocktail included 20ml of Cranes Cranberry & Blood Orange Liqueur.
The three finalists, Sammy from First Aid Box, Louis from The Shrub and Shutter and Danilo from Graphic Bar, were invited to The POW to show off their mixology skills in front of guests and judges to determine the winner of the competition.
The contest was judged by Tom Arnold, one of the judges of the WFA Flair Bartending World Championship; Sean Cambridge, mixologist and Cocktail bar manager; and twin brothers and co-founders of the Cranes brand, Benjamin and Daniel Ritsema.
In the end there could only be one winner and a cash prize plus a years supply of Cranes liqueur for the bar he’s employed by went to Danilo Sassanelli from Soho’s Graphic Bar. He has also now the title of Cranes Brand Ambassador. Congratulations to Danilo!
Here’s the recipe for his award winning cocktail 160 Cranes:
- 25ml Cranes
- 30ml Calvados
- 5ml Aperol
- 25ml Lime juice
- 5ml cider vinegar
- Bergamot bitters
- Egg white
“It was extremely gratifying to see these amazing bartenders making such exotic cocktails with our Liqueur. They all tasted superb. It was an extremely close competition with Danilo creeping out in front. We had a huge range of people attend the event from influencers to investors; it was a huge success and looking forward to work with Graphic Bar and Danilo in the future.” – Ben Ritsema, Co-founder of Cranes.
We had a fun night, meeting Ben and Dan, watching the contest and drinking the delicious cocktails provided by the Cranes team. Can’t wait to get experimenting with the Cranes Liqueur myself!
To find out more about Cranes Liqueur and Ciders visit www.drinkcranes.co.uk
London-Olios 