PHOTO: Cocktails were evaluated by scent at Almaty bartenders contest

18th Kazakhstan bartenders contest KAB MIXOLOGY AWARDS 2011 ULTRA’S was held in Almaty, Tengrinews.kz reports. Winners were selected by their cocktails' scent. The first prize was given to bartender Gabit Kadyrov. His cocktail was called Lady in bandlet in white. The cocktail was made of blackberry liqueur, orange, cranberry syrup, basil and Martini Rosso. The second prize was given to Murat Ordabai; Amal Avazbayev won the third. 14 Almaty bartenders took part in the contest. The main difficulty of the contest was that the participants did not know the ingredients for their cocktails before the contest. The bartenders had only seven minutes to prepare their cocktails. The first criteria for judges' evaluation of the drinks was their scent. The other priorities included interactivity, appearance and associations. The taste was given only the fifth priority and the techniques were the sixth priority. The guest of the event, a manager of Russian Center of bar aesthetics Sergei Gribkov gave Almaty bartenders a master-class on creative cocktails. As it turned out, the classic Mojito can also be made of grapes and cucumber and it does not have to be sweet. The maestro made a Hot Mojito with Tabasco sauce. Besides, Almaty bartenders tasted cocktails made of yogurt, thyme syrup and Pesto sauce. Previous bartender contest was held in Almaty in Movember 2010 and had 20 participants from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The judges evaluated the cocktails taste and the bartenders' techniques. By Irina Mikhailova