Congratulations to all winners and many, many thanks to our Jury, all participants in the 2013 Sake Challenge and, of course, everybody who helped behind the scenes to make it a success.
After squaring off in the semi-finals in Berlin, Köln, München, Hamburg and Zürich, 13 Sake Challengers qualified for the Final on the 13th of January 2014 in one of Berlin’s most trendy bars Le Croco Bleu. Unfortunately, the flu seems to have gone around and only 10 Challengers actually managed to appear before our Jury. Composed of Gregor Scholl, the host of the day at Le Croco Bleu, Ricardo Albrecht, of the Bar Immertreu, and Sanjay Cachemaille of Barworkz and Cocktailian, we had a high calibre expert Jury throughout the whole Sake Challenge. For the Final we were also honored by the guest appearance of Markus Orschiedt, Editor-in-chief of «Mixology», as Juror!
20 Sake Cocktails later we had our 3 winners, as well as 2 Bartender who shared among themselves the price for the «Best Drink», as well as one Challenger whose Drink was judged to be the best combination of Sake and western drinking culture, earning his Cocktail the title «Sake Goes West».