Bar Fight 2: Rum Night

Bar Fight, a series created by FOMO Concepts, provides a platform for popular bars, bartenders, and their patrons to gather under one roof in an exciting competition.

This time, Michael had to defend his turf from contenders Miko Varias from New World Hotel Makati’s Bar Rouge, and Loreen Hernandez from Versus Barcade. Each made a cocktail with Plantation Pineapple Rum as the base, which they presented to the judges—DrinkManila.com’s Tatum Ancheta and Icy Mariñas, mixologist Enzo Lim, and Apotheke Craft Spirits’ Simon Côté. The crowd gets to place their vote for their favorite as well, which make up 40% of the whole competition. For Php999 + 10% service charge, guests got to enjoy Waterside’s nacho bar buffet, taste all the three cocktails during the Bar Fight, and vote for their favorite bartender and cocktail.

The rum gods must have been smiling down on Michael O’Shea, who won yet again, with his cocktail The Pineapple’s Back. Made with Plantation Pineapple Rum, Hine Cognac, fresh lime juice, pineapple spiced simple syrup, smoked pineapple juice (fresh pineapple smoked for two hours and then juiced), dashes of Angostura bitters, and garnished with smoked pineapple. Michael’s winning drink had just the right level of smokiness to balance the sweetness of the pineapple. The cognac added another layer of flavor, and the smoked pineapple garnish was the perfect accompaniment to the cocktail.

In second place was Versus Barcade’s bartender Loreen Hernandez, with her cocktail Claridad. Named after her grandmother, Claridad is made of Plantation Pineapple Rum, De Kuyper Butterscotch, Giffard Banana Liqueur, fresh lemon juice, Bob’s Chocolate Bitters, and garnished with dehydrated banana. Loreen, who is no stranger to bar competitions (she had competed in this year’s Diageo World Class, and recently won 2018 PH’s La Maison Cointreau ), had mentioned that she only had one day to come up with the cocktail, but she did a pretty good job of combining complementary flavors to highlight the Plantation Pineapple Rum. The butterscotch seems to have gotten lost amidst the banana flavor though, so a little more fine tuning would make this cocktail even better.

Coming in third was Miko Varias from Bar Rouge, with his cocktail Smoky Ananas Comosus. Named after the scientific name for pineapple, Smoky Ananas Comosus is made of Plantation Pineapple Rum, mixed berries puree, lemon juice, peach slices, ginger ale, and cherry syrup. The judges felt that his weak point was consistency since the first drink that he gave them was entirely different from the second batch. His cocktail was a hit with the crowd though, who mostly voted for his cocktail as the winner for the evening. This is his first competition, and his drink was received favorably by the crowd. It’s a good indicator that we can expect more from him in the future.

Will Michael be able to defend his crown for the third time? Or will he finally get knocked off the throne? Visit drinkmanila.com to find out the details for the next round of Bar Fight.