If it’s spring it must be competition season and Canada’s best bars and bartenders are winning awards all over the place. Here are just a few that have made news the past few months.
Shaking up the awards world
Meet your new Bartender of the Year
Toronto’s Jacob Martin wins World Class Canada with a breathtaking final at Vancouver Cocktail Week
World Class Canada celebrated its 10th anniversary in the best possible way—with a blowout final at Vancouver Cocktail Week that saw Jacob Martin of Toronto’s Bar Banane take home the title of World Class Canada Bartender of the Year 2023.
World Class Canada crowns its 2023 winner
Jacob Martin wins the 10th annual contest on the closing night of Vancouver Cocktail Week 2023
Canada’s Best Bartender of 2023 is also a certified cheese professional with a refined palate and remarkable sensory appreciation. Congratulations to Ontario’s Jacob Martin, who won World Class Canada’s big prize at the closing gala of Vancouver Cocktail Week on Saturday night.
World Class Canada invites the planet
The competition puts on the glitz to attract the global final
World Class Canada is back,” says Michael Armistead. Is it ever.
After two years of cancelled, postponed and virtual events, competitors and judges gathered in early May at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal for what was more than a festival that crowned Toronto’s Massimo Zitti World Class Canada Bartender of the Year 2022. It was an invitation to the world to make Canada the destination for next year’s global final.
Edmonton’s James Grant named Bartender of the Year 2021
Diageo World Class is back with a thrilling competition and big new plans
James Grant, to the group. From left: Shane Mulvany, Kaitlyn Stewart, Jeff Savage, James Grant, Grant Sceney and Chris Enns. Photos courtesy of World Class Canada
Michael Armistead thought organizing the 2019 World Class Canada finals in Whistler—where he had to transport all the bars, people and gear to the top of a mountain—was the hardest thing he’d ever do. Then along came COVID-19 and the 2021 finals in Toronto.
“Having done it, I know we can do anything now,” says Armistead, who oversees the Diageo World Class Canada Bartending Competition as National On Premise, Reserve and Sponsorship Manager. “With all of the external factors, this was the most complex event I have ever put together.”
Diageo World Class: More than a competition
How the esteemed bartending contest is shaking up the cocktail world
Diageo World Class is more than just the biggest, most prestigious cocktail competition on the planet. It is also a major source of education for bartenders.
“We’re really trying to play our part in driving the industry forward, focusing on educating and giving bartenders the tools they need to achieve their goals, at home and around the globe,” says Michael Armistead, who oversees the Diageo World Class Canada Bartending Competition as National On-premise, Reserve and Sponsorship Manager.
Jeff Savage Crowned World Class Canada Bartender of 2019
The Botanist head bartender wins the Diageo World Class Canada title in Whistler
Jeff Savage is standing on top of the world. Literally.
On June 4, after three days of competition that took the finalists on a cocktail-themed scavenger hunt, through world history and deep into the spirit of the mountains, the head bartender of Vancouver’s Botanist Bar won the Diageo World Class Canada final in Whistler, B.C.
Finalists ready to fight for Diageo World Class Canada 2019 title
Since Canada entered the Diageo World Class competition in 2013, our bartenders have punched far above their weight, consistently place in the top 12 worldwide.
Moreover, Lauren Mote, who won the national title in 2015, is now Diageo’s Global Cocktailian, and in 2017,
Vancouver’s Kaitlyn Stewart won the whole thing, beating bartenders from nearly 60 countries to become Global Bartender of the Year.
So there’s no pressure at all on this year’s regional winners, who are heading to the National Final in June (details to be announced later).
Front of the class
From East and West, bartenders move on to the regional finals of the Diageo World Class competition
Since the beginning of January, Canada’s bartenders have been perfecting their recipes, practising their techniques and preparing for their moment in the spotlight at the Diageo World Class Canada cocktail competition.
On March 1, 13 bartenders from Eastern Canada and 13 from the West made it through to the Regional Finals, which will be held in Toronto and Calgary in late March. From there, five winners from East and West will go on to the National Final in June. The winner of that event will compete in the global final of the world’s biggest, most prestigious bartending competition, which will be held in Glasgow at the end of September.