Representing Canada, Keegan McGregor of Highwayman Bar in Halifax, Nova Scotia gained the coveted title of 2024 World Class Global Bartender of the Yr on the enviornment’s supreme and most prestigious cocktail competition, hosted by Diageo on Thursday evening at W Shanghai – The Bund.
With hundreds of contestants competing one day of the globe over the outdated couple of months, the checklist used to be narrowed down to 44 regions save to compete one day of four days in Shanghai.
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Right here’s World Class’ 15th year web web hosting this esteemed match, with Shanghai joining the ranks of world cities love London, Sydney, São Paulo, Glasgow, and Mexico City.
This year’s match used to be dubbed ‘Future Legacy’ – with an emphasis on storytelling and creativity that reflects and celebrates the prolonged dawdle of the enviornment cocktail commerce.
Embodying the match’s theme, the 44 contestants competed in a series of six are residing match challenges judged by commerce heavyweights love Shelley Tai, Erik Lorincz, Tiffanie Barriere, Millie Tang, Eric van Beek, Shingo Gokan, Ryan Chetiyawardana, Demie Kim, and indispensable of extra.
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Following essentially the major six challenges, the checklist used to be whittled down to the Top 8 contestants who competed within the Shanghai Showdown Final, an immersive bar pop-up abilities.
Right here’s who made the final minimize:
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Aris Sanjaya (Indonesia)
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Borja Insa (Spain)
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Danilo Frigulti (Gigantic Britain)
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Jake Down (Australia)
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Keegan McGregor (Canada)
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Liao Jien Ming (China)
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Luca Bruni (Italy)
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Pedison Kao (Taiwan, China)
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Correct away following the Shanghai Showdown, some 500 company attended the World Class Global Bartender of the Yr awards ceremony on the WET Bar, with the enduring Shanghai skyline as a beautiful backdrop.
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In a roundabout plot, Keegan McGregor used to be crowned the 2024 World Class Global Bartender of the Yr, joining the uncommon winners membership alongside the outdated 14 commerce heavyweights, and following on from 2023 winner Jacob Martin, who also hails from Canada.
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“My World Class dawdle started six years ago, so it’s a terribly particular abilities to be identified as the World Class Global Bartender of the Yr 2024,” acknowledged newly crowned champion McGregor.
“The camaraderie amongst the opponents this week has been both appealing and has saved me going. The greater a part of advice I was given used to be to be myself and that’s exactly what I did.”
On the match, Toronto used to be named the next vacation save for the World Class Global Bartender competition in 2025.
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The week-prolonged match also incorporated mark popup areas love the Johnnie Walker Blue Lounge; the Singleton Bar; Tanqueray No. Ten Cocktail Studio; the Ketel One Secret Garden; Don Julio’s Tequila y Tacos truck; Mortlach: After Dusky tasting stutter; and Ron Zacapa Tales from Above the Clouds immersive abilities.
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Bettering the week’s events with further collaboration, learning, and pattern for the enviornment’s ever-evolving world cocktail custom, heaps of packages took position alongside the challenges where match attendees would possibly perchance perchance well also participate in tasting experiences, panel discussions and tutorial commerce boards spanning issues love ‘The Most difficult Cocktail to Galvanize,’ ‘Brewed Collectively: An Exhibition of Tea and Coffee in Cocktails,’ ‘Socialization Strategy: Empowering and Unifying the Bar Community for the Future,’ ‘Future Sips: Tech-infused Mixology,’ ‘From Cocktail Tradition to Current Tradition,’ and indispensable of extra.
About World Class
World Class is on a mission to inspire folk to drink greater and develop unforgettable experiences within the plan.
Whether at house or in a bar, World Class encourages shoppers to deem and care about what, where and the plot in which they drink, and in doing so, uncover the greater of cocktail custom.
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World Class has supported, professional and impressed over 400,000 bartenders one day of the globe for the past 15 years, while partnering them with the enviornment’s most difficult spirits.
World Class is the authority on the enviornment drinks commerce for knowledge on the most modern drinks, inclinations, cocktail recipes and commerce perception.
[Cover image courtesy of World Class]
