Coffee and alcohol have become serious bedfellows over the past few years. More than Irish Coffee, blending coffee with spirits has become a master craft and has spawned a number of competitions around who can do it best. The newest competition is Coffee Mixologists, happening at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival from March 10th through the 12th. 16 teams consisting of one barista and one mixologist will have their creativity run through the ringer in a battle for coffee cocktail dominance.
Coffee Mixologists has an international draw, pulling teams from across Europe and as far as North America. Each team had to submit a one-minute video showcasing their signature coffee cocktail from which a panel of experts chose the top 16 entries that would make it to compete live on-stage. Originally meant to be an eight-team bracket, Coffee Mixologists expanded to 16 due to the high quality of entries received.
During the tournament, each team will create their signature cocktail live, upon which they will be scored and seeded for the upcoming round (one vs. eight, two vs. seven, etc.). Each subsequent round, the teams will receive a set of mystery ingredients to make a coffee cocktail on the spot. The winner of each match up moves on to the next round, and it continues like this until only the victor remains.
There’s never been a better time to be an imbiber of mixed of that sweet, sweet caffeinated boozy elixir. For more information on Coffee Mixologists or the Amsterdam Coffee Festival, visit their website here. A list of competitors and their video submissions can be found here.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
*top image via Amsterdam Coffee Festival
