Andrew Schneider’s Mount Pleasant cocktail put Cherry Heering front and centre on the London stage

Close to 3,000 bartenders around the world vied to be the best, but in the end it was the U.K.’s Grant Murray who was named winner of the prestigious 2016 Peter F. Heering Classic Challenge at London Cocktail Week in October.

Vancouver entrant, Andrew Schneider, bartender at Vij’s, advanced to the final round of the competition, held as part of the World’s Best 50 Bars gala countdown, and judged by spirits luminaries, David Wondrich, Lauren Mote, Simon Difford, Charlene Dawes, Hamish Smith, and host Andrew Seymour.

Schneider’s cocktail, the Mount Pleasant, landed him in the Global Top Five.  A loose take on the classic Hotel Georgia, a bright and floral cocktail created in Vancouver back in the 1940s.

“Mount Pleasant was inspired by Vancouver and the individuality of its many distinct neighbourhoods, but also Cherry Heering itself,” he explains. “I felt Cherry Heering had remained an accessory for too long; it was time for a drink to celebrate the liqueur itself.”

Schneider’s cocktail substitutes Cherry Heering for the Hotel Georgia’s gin, and Fernet-Branca for orange blossom water. The end result is a dark, rich, herbal, and cherry-driven cocktail that is both challenging and accessible.

“Cherry Heering can add structure to a drink in a way many other products can’t, as it carries sweetness, acidity, alcohol and spice within itself,” he notes.

“It is dark, rich and fruity, and can be substituted in many cocktails that call for sweet vermouth to create a bolder drink. It’s also complex enough to be used in heavier proportions, as we see in the Mount Pleasant cocktail.”

Make Andrew Schneider’s Mount Pleasant cocktail.

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