Hello, cocktail enthusiasts and cocktailgrammers! We’re on to the third-month roundup for best mixologists of 2020. If you haven’t met the amazing mixologists we have featured so far, don’t forget to visit our August and September roundups. This list is in no particular order so even if your favorite bartender is listed last, it doesn’t mean that he's not very good. In fact, if you think someone you love should be featured here, all you need is drop us an email at the address found at the bottom of this article.
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Thinking outside the box is certainly one of Kamilah’s strengths. Or is it more apt to say thinking outside the glass since instead of serving her cocktails in a fancy glass, she serves them as a cupcake! Yes, you read it right, cupcakes. Making adult treats is a passion for Kamilah @intoxicakeschicago, a self-taught baker, whose business is geared to catering ingenious cupcakes to her growing followers. Her alcohol-infused cupcakes and desserts are available for her patrons around Chicago. She caters to occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, promotion, and retirement parties. She’s also available for industry events and product launches, corporate meetings, social events, parties related to your wedding and your kids, and almost every imaginable party. Don’t worry, she also caters to non-alcohol drinking customers and even offers individually-wrapped IntoxiCakes for your party guests to take home with them. Her menu includes classic cocktails like Vanilla Martini, Rum Punch, Spiked Caribbean Coconut, Vanilla Cupcake topped with Hennessy Buttercream, Cognac Neat, and non-alcoholic choices such as Madagascar Vanilla, Delectable Dark Chocolate, Daiquiri, Lemon Drop, and Classic Red Velvet. Sample her Fall Collection featuring Pumpkin Spice, Spiked Caramel Apple, Apple Whiskey, and Dark Bourbon Chocolate. For brownie lovers, she also added Bourbon Brownies.
Bartender Yang @bartenderyang is a lovely bartender from China known for her amazing flair and magic tricks featuring fans such as shown in the above photo when preparing her cocktails. There is no definitive style for her cocktails but one thing is sure, creating lovely cocktails is a norm for this girl. Recently, she posted a conversation starter on her IG account asking “Will there be any bartenders up there in Heaven, will the pubs never close?” That simple question attached to an 86-second video showing her perfected acts and bloopers earned her more than 34,000 views. Not only that, but she’s also an amazing chef. A real total package if you’re looking for one. Though her limited profile tells us nothing about her relationship status so don’t get your hopes too high, guys!
Josue Romero @the_garnishguy sees himself as a bar explorer, cocktail stylist, content creator, and spirited storyteller. A graduate of Finance from the University of Central Florida, Josue plunged himself into the safer route of corporate jobs after graduation. But he was not happy, knowing how he enjoyed his bartending days in college. So, he decided to leave the corporate world and trained himself in creating cocktails by enrolling in online classes and reading lots of cocktail books. When he got a hang of bartender again, he joined bartending contests and won many competitions. He is now working as a consultant creating cocktail menus for bars and helping newbies to be a professional bartender. To take things to the next level, Josue loved to create cocktails with ingredients that do not belong together in nature but work harmoniously well in the drink. His love for arts helps him to make captivating cocktails. Check out his Blended Dreams and indulge in that alluringly pink drink you won’t want to miss, topped with raspberries and a blood orange wheel. He recommends keeping garnishes just right so it beautifies the cocktail without smothering it making the cocktail too hard to drink. He believes the glass should be the centerpiece of the drink, a garnish in itself, so he wishes vintage glasses to make a comeback so he can enjoy doing cocktails in them again.
Helen Williams @sheshedcocktails lives in Tasmania and loves making cocktails for her family and friends. Her cocktails soon became noticed on Instagram and her following grew that she came to love posting her cocktail photos more. Her cocktails are very colorful and vibrant, usually gravitating on dried fruits and fresh flowers. Another very profound observation is the glasses she uses for creations. Check out her Enter the Dragon made with gin, lavender liqueur, homemade dragon fruit syrup, and other ingredients.
Jason F. Yu
Jason F. Yu @jasonfyu is foremost a bartender but also a photographer, cinematographer, sommelier, archer, Instagrammer, and cookie enthusiast. He loves keeping his cocktails simple and with fewer ingredients. His prime advice is to keep yourself curious and imaginative, learn to tweak classic cocktails and try different combinations. He also runs an Amazon influencer page where he promotes cocktail books, bar tools, glasses, and apparel. Try his Tiki-la Voodoo Doll, a lovely tiki drink spiced with chili powder.
Tomek Malek @tomekmalek is a Polish bartender who set a record for himself by winning 4 WFA Roadhouse World Championships. He used to partner with Marek Posluszny to form the bartending tandem Tomek and Marek. After setting an impressive 60 wins from 180 competitions all over the world, he has also served as a credible judge and organizer of bartending contests. He now serves as the coordinator for the WFA Grand Slam competition. He also served as head bartender at Dom Wodki. He runs his bar The Roots Cocktail Bar in Warsaw and together with Marek operates Flair Factory where they won eleven world champion titles until 2014. The company offers bar catering, bar hire, trade fair service, flair shows, bar workshops, bartenders’ competitions, promotional campaigns, bar consulting, and setting up champagne pyramids. Try the Green Park Fizz he shows in his photo here.
Melisa Lapido @melis_boozy_cure calls herself intoxicologist, cocktail stylist, and content creator. With more than 15 years of bar service, bartending, and bar management under her belt, but bartending will always be her first love because she loves the thrill of creating a masterpiece with whatever ingredients she can get her hands on. She claims that balance and a bit of experimenting are the most important aspects of creating cocktails. She shares that with people becoming more health-conscious, low ABV drinks and mocktails are the new trends. For home bartenders who have limited access to ingredients, she suggests simple cocktail recipes with liquors that you can buy locally and with lots of fruits to give it the color to make it more enticing. Try her riff of her favorite Old Fashioned made with cinnamon whiskey. She was also featured in Cocktail Artist’s Cream of Coconut.
Jordan Hughes @highproofpreacher is a cocktail maker, visual storyteller, and full-time photographer for food and beverage related brands from Portland, Oregon. He is also a recipe developer and social media strategist and consultant for various brands related to food and beverages. What started as his hobbies - photography and cocktails - became a full-on passion that got him traveling to many parts of the world. He started his website and IG account High-Proof Preacher in 2017 (by the way, he really was a preacher before he moved to photography and cocktails). He was awarded Best Drinks Instagram in 2019 by Saveur Magazine, bagging both editor’s and reader’s choice award. He takes on his strategies as a social media influencer by being picky with the products he promotes so ads are minimal and people got what they came for in his IG account. The best thing about social media marketing, according to Hughes, is that when you capture your audience’s attention your post gets viral and everyone wants to buy it. It’s marketing through passion and want and it feeds the audience just enough to keep hungering for more. He favors mezcal of all the liquors but loves Miami Vice since he cannot choose whether to go for a piña colada or a strawberry daiquiri. Try his Heart of Pomme made with cognac and cinnamon-spiced apple cider.
Jack Jamieson @scottishmixology is a Glasgow-based mixologist who loves all things Scottish. He works as a trainee actuary but loves sharing his creations to the world, highlighting his love for his country by choosing Scottish Gin to be an anchor for his brand. He loves Scottish Gin since he claims it manifests the Scottish love for their flora, landscape, and distilling history. He is a strong supporter of the International Scottish Gin Day which will be celebrated on the 24th of October this year, though it is normally celebrated on the 3rd Saturday of October. Having worked as a waiter for many years, he is familiar with the tourists’ expectations of his country, many coming to his country to see the location for the Harry Potter films but more than those sights, he wants to promote the Scottish culture not highlighted in movies and travelogues. Jack loves to think of his cocktails as floral and fresh as shown on the cocktails found on his IG account. Try his notoriously bicep-killer alcoholic milkshake and see if twelve minutes of shaking is really worth it.
Steven Roennfeldt @stevethebartender is a mixologist from Adelaide, Australia who endeared himself to his YouTube followers with his easy smile. One follower even commented that he actually looks forward to Steve shaking his cocktails since that’s when he sees that Steve smile! Created in 2012, his brand has expanded to millions of visitors with over 800,000 people per month reached through his website, social media, email, and YouTube channel. With a vast experience in the hospitality business since his teenage years, he moved on to create his mobile bartending business before starting his cocktail vlog on YouTube. What he loves about cocktails is that they are very versatile and that there is something that will fit the taste of everyone. Yes, for his vlogs, he had a taste of all his creations, including the nasty tasting ones. That’s another thing to love about cocktails, you are only limited by your creativity and imagination. From his cocktail creations, he has also branched out to gin distilling, and recently, his Three-Fold Gin won a silver medal for the 2020 World Spirits Competition held in San Francisco. Check out his Green Ghost made with green chartreuse if you love more gin on your cocktails.
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