Chairman’s Reserve St Lucia Rum is calling for entries for the 2019 Chairman’s Reserve Mai Tai Challenge, with the prize of a visit to St Lucia in 2020 at stake.

Between now and August, bars are asked to create their own version of this classic rum cocktail, with four finalists going head to head at a London venue in September. For details of how to enter, contact Emporia Brands, or go to: https://www.emporiabrands.com/chairmans-mai-tai.

2019 marks the 75th anniversary of the Mai Tai, when Vic Bergeron – “Trader Vic” – created a drink in his bar in Oakland, California, for visitors from Tahiti. Their reaction to the first sip was a cry of “mai tai roa ae!”, which can be roughly translated as “out of this world!”. The original included two very different rums – one molasses, the other Agricole – with flavours of citrus and almond, which provides plenty of scope for innovation. “We had an idea to encourage bartenders to play with Chairman’s Reserve in the Mai Tai cocktail because of how well we believed our rums fit the profile of this traditional tiki cocktail,” says Sergin John Baptiste, Marketing Director of St. Lucia Distillers.

The Chairman’s Reserve Mai Tai Challenge is a UK bartender competition that launched four years ago with Emporia Brands. The competition is back again for 2019 after last year’s excellent challenge and final, where Café Pacifico from London were crowned the winners at The Magic Roundabout in Shoreditch and received the amazing prize of two places on the Chairman’s Reserve Rum visit to St. Lucia, following in the footsteps of previous winners Milk in Reading and Alvino’s in Newcastle-upon Tyne.

The 2019 Mai Tai challenge will follow the same format – simply create a signature Chairman’s Reserve Mai Tai serve, register it on the website, then promote it in your bar throughout July and August and on social media. The four teams scoring the most points will be invited to the UK final, during which they will create their own pop-up bar and re-create their signature Mai Tai serve to the trade and consumers. The bar with the most votes will win the once-in-a-lifetime trip to St. Lucia.

“I was taken aback by the passion these skillful bartenders had for Chairman’s Reserve,” comments Margaret Monplaisir, Managing Director of St Lucia Distillers. “Their attention to every detail, their enthusiasm, and knowledge of Chairman’s Reserve was remarkable.”

The 2019 Mai Tai challenge will follow the same format – simply create a signature Chairman’s Reserve Mai Tai serve, register it on the website, then promote it in your bar throughout July and August and on social media. The four teams scoring the most points will be invited to the UK final, during which they will create their own pop-up bar and re-create their signature Mai Tai serve to the trade and consumers. The bar with the most votes will win the once-in-a-lifetime trip to St. Lucia.

“I was taken aback by the passion these skillful bartenders had for Chairman’s Reserve,” comments Margaret Monplaisir, Managing Director of St Lucia Distillers. “Their attention to every detail, their enthusiasm, and knowledge of Chairman’s Reserve was remarkable.”