Could You Be America's Most Imaginative Bartender?

express yourself in the most imaginative bartender competition poets muse justin lavenue mib 2015 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’re going to cut to the chase on this one. Are you a bartender? Are you the one that your friends rely on when you’re out and about? What should I get? Do you think I’ll like this? Are you the one whose kitchen looks like a smaller-scale set of any number of Food Network shows?

Better yet, do you look at Kanye and go, “You call that genius? I’ll show you genius”?

If so, this competition may be for you.

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Starting April 18^th, you can register to try your hand at being named the Most Imaginative Bartender in the country. Sponsored by Bombay Sapphire, and in its tenth year, The United States Bartenders’ Guild is on the hunt for the most creative bartender in the country.

This is the big one, y’all, and for the first time ever the Top 10 finalists will travel to London this August–home of Bombay Sapphire and its new Laverstoke Distillery—to battle it out for the 2016 North American title. The grand prize winner will be featured on a special edition cover of GQ Magazine’s December Men of the Year issue.

How. Cool. Is. That? Not only could you be named the most imaginative bartender, reaching heights that your fourth grade teacher who gave you an F in art could never dream of, but you’d be in G-freakin’-Q.

Not sure if you’ve got the whiskey stones to enter? Check out the cocktail from 2015 Winner, Justin Lavenue, of Austin’s The Roosevelt Room:

The Poet’s Muse (pictured)

2 oz. Bombay Sapphire Gin
.75 oz. Poet’s Cordial
.75 oz. Yuzu-Lime blend
2 dashes Umami tincture

Method: Hard shaken over a large ice cube. Strained into a large coupe glass with the large ice cube dropped in. Garnished with a lime peel Rosette. Served on a Zen Garden.

Poet’s Cordial Prep: 1 L Pistachio Milk (1 park unsalted pistachio meat, 2 parts water, blended and strained), 800ml Wildflower Honey, 2 cinnamon sticks, 4 Star Anise pods, 1 vanilla bean, 2 tablespoons Matcha Green Tea Powder. Combine ingredients, mix well, and let rest for three days. Fine strain and bottle.

Citrus Blend: 15 parts fresh lime juice, 1 part Yuzu concentrate. Mix well and bottle.

Umami tincture: 30 Shitake mushrooms (chopped), 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 6 oz Bombay Sapphire, 1 tablespoon Himalayan Salt. Saute the Mushrooms in butter for 10 minutes. Add Bombay Sapphire and salt and steep for another 10 minutes. Strain mushrooms off and freeze to let fats coagulate. Strain off fats and bottle.

For more information on how to enter, check out the official contest website.