La Maison Cointreau 2016 – The Manila leg

It’s that time again when some of the best bartenders in the metro face off and out-concoct one another for the honor of being called champion. Yes… La Maison Cointreau 2016 is upon us!

This time, La Maison Cointreau 2016 was held at the Belle & Dragon in Makati City.

With seven bartenders from Metro Manila vying for the title, people packed the venue eager to see (and taste) what new concoctions these worthy competitors would bring to the table.

The winner of this competition will be awarded a cash prize and added honor of representing the Philippines at the La Maison Cointreau regional competition in Thailand.

This year’s competition tasked all seven competing bartenders with a particular Cointreau challenge — “The Muse”. Each competitor must create a drink that has to exude the flavor of Cointreau yet is distinctly unique by finding inspiration from any French muse such as Rene Lacoste, Marie Antoinette, Marion Cotillard and Brigitte Bardot. Other inspirations they could pull their creativity from are Daft Punk, the Annecy Venetian Festival and the meeting of French and Filipino cultures.

Our La Maison Cointreau 2016 bartenders went right to work as eager guests looked on, rooting for their favorite competitor.

The La Maison Cointreau 2016 drinks

Below are the much awaited (and carefully created) drinks our seven competing bartenders submitted.

Other entries were:

• A Walk To Remember by Christian Gonzaga Uy (MUSE: Rene Lacoste)
• Kam and Dalandance by Larry Guevara (MUSE: The meeting of French and Filipino cultures)

The winner of this year’s La Maison Cointreau 2016 was to be determined based on the best overall score using the following criteria:

• Presentation
• Story and Relevance
• Technique
• Use of Cointreau

The judges for the final round of La Maison Cointreau 2016 were the following:

• Cheryl Tiu – Editor at Large of Lifestyle Asia. She maintains a personal blog at www.cheryltiu.com
• Chef Katrina Kuhn-Alcantara – Owner of Mesclun, Paulene Chocolats Suisses, Chuck’s Deli and Lit. She studied at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris.
• KC Queyquep – Represents Remy-Cointreau

Here’s the catch, though… Throughout the evening, each of our La Maison Cointreau 2016 competitors had no idea who the judges were.

Each bartender definitely held their own and proved to guests and the judges why they are among the best in this industry. But in the end, only one drink can be crowned the winner of La Maison Cointreau 2016, and that honor went to “GOSSIP” by Cedric Cello.

Congratulations, Cedric! Make us Pinoys proud as you move on to your next competition in Thailand. Cheers!

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