The drinks were flowing and the music was pumping on Friday night at The Calyx in Sydney, as eight media agencies faced off in a fierce cocktail-making grand final.
Coordinated by mobile ad tech company Blis, I was lucky enough to be on the judging panel along with world-class mixologist Natalie Ng and Blis’ Aussie and NZ managing director, Nick Ballard.
The inaugural Blis Golden Shaker Grand Final marked the culmination of some hard yards of practice put in by the teams over the last few weeks, which included some professional training from renowned bartender Toby Hiscox.
One by one, the final eight teams representing PHD, Ansible, UM, Ikon, M2M Media, OMD, Match Media, and Airwave & OMD Programmatic, came up with an original alcoholic concoction to try and woo us judges based on its look, aroma and taste, as well as the amount of flair put into their performance.
It was a very tight contest with some great costumes donned for the occasion (special mentions to PHD for its Alice in Wonderland theme and OMD for embracing the Christmas spirit), but there could only be one winner.
The ‘Ansible Appriquila’ was unanimously chosen by the judges as the best cocktail of the night. Created by Ansible CEO Scott Player, along with mobile media director and agency lead Jem Reis, and media implementation and technology manager Blake Moseley, was simply divine.
Here’s the recipe for those who want to try it out at home:
- Muddle together three passionfruit cheeks (adjust up/down based on size/sweetness), one lime chopped into eighths, and one level teaspoon of white sugar
- Add 45ml of white tequila, 15ml aperol and some ice.
- Shake for 12 seconds.
- Pour into a glass, removing the ice and lime, but letting through some of the passionfruit seeds/pulp.
Top with fresh ice and garnish with a slither of lime and a passionfruit cheek.
