The Tasting Panel magazine

June 2012

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Mad for THE INDUSTRY TAKES A BITE OUT OF THE BIG APPLE AT THE THIRD ANNUAL MANHATTAN COCKTAIL CLASSIC by Shauna L. Der T HE TASTING PANEL joined up with L.A. based cocktail blogger Shauna L. Der (www.theminty.com) to cover the variety of seminars, tastings, competitions and parties that made Manhattan even more cocktail-happy than usual at this year's third annual Manhattan Cocktail Classic. With more than 100 events drawing in over 8,000 mixologists, brands and buyers from all over the world (including a very-hyped opening night Gala which sold out in ten minutes), including seminars like Chatham Imports's rhetorical "Is there a book idea on your cocktail menu?" and Jonathan Pogash's discussion on the importance of fresh ingredients, this year's MCC proved that when the industry comes to Manhattan, cocktail madness will follow. SWEET SPEED RACK Manhattan After months of speed-shaking, cheering and voting, the regional fi nalists and wildcard winners from the all-female mix-off Speed Rack went head-to-head in an exciting fi nale before the MCC kickoff. Conceived by Ivy Mix and Lynnette Marrero of LUPEC NYC, the fi nal bout saw New York's Yael Vengroff go up against Houston USBG President and LUPEC Houston founder Alba Huerta. Here, event co-host Chris Patino crowns Vengroff the fi rst-ever Miss Speed Rack USA, while runner-up Huerta cheers her on. With sponsors like St-Germain providing cocktails for a full-house of enthusiastic cocktailians, notable attendees included Hollis Bulleit, World Ambassador, Bulleit Bourbon (pictured), who, on behalf of the Los Angeles chapter of LUPEC, presented Speed Rack with a check for nearly $2,700 to go to breast cancer research. 114 / the tasting panel / june 2012 PHOTO: SHAUNA L. DER PHOTO: COURTESY OF ST-GERMAIN

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