The Eleventh Mattoni Grand Drink – New trends in non-alcoholic cocktails

The World Finals of the 11th Mattoni Grand Drink, the prestigious contest in the preparation of non-alcoholic drinks, took place in the spirit of the latest bartending trends, which is the backing away from sweet and sweet-and-sour flavours.

The winning drink was a combination of celery, grapefruit-flavoured Mattoni, mango-peach yogurt and extracts from strawberries and pineapple that was prepared by the Italian barman Alfonso Miniero. This pinkish-coloured cocktail Mattoni Shudder brought him 10 000 USD in prize money and his home-based Barman Association received an additional 5 000 USD. “The combination of ingredients in my drink corresponds precisely to what the Mattoni General Manager Antonio Pasquale said. It is in the style of wellness. It is a light drink, with sufficient vitamins and sugar. In short, it has everything an active person needs,” Miniero stated.

“The idea to create this drink came during the summer because the hotel where I work was offering wellness non-alcoholic drinks with their snacks,” Miniero, the creator of the winning drink, disclosed about the history of its origin. He is an employee of the Naples Holiday Inn. He is not a novice in the Mattoni Grand Drink contest as he has competed already three times. The first time he entered he was ninth, in 2006 in Karlovy Vary he already took third place, and in 2007 in Riga he was victorious. In second place, only by one point, was the Hungarian Peter Szekeres and the third place was captured by Sergio Pezzoli from Belgium, the World Cocktail Competition 2005 Champion.

Derrick Lee, the President of IBA, and Jan Finferle, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Latvia, took on the auspices of this contest held in the capital of Latvia. “Mixed non-alcoholic drinks are practically everywhere an essential part of modern lifestyle of the youth,” says Gabriele Guzzo, the Director for Strategic Marketing of the Karlovy Vary Mineral Water Company.

Representatives of a record number of 19 countries showed up on the starting list. Along with participants from the entire European continent, also representatives of Argentina and Australia entered into the contest. The quality of the field of contestants was truly unique. Five finalists of the last Barman World Championship displayed their skills in the preparation of non-alcoholic cocktails.

“The best world barmen have learnt that the Mattoni Grand Drink Contest is a very special occasion and we always have a large overflow of applications,” the Contest Director Petr Veselý boasts.

Together with the barman elite the most modern trends also make their appearance at the contest. “More and more vegetables and various seasonings are used. There is a definite withdrawal from sweet and sweet-and-sour flavours,” Veselý describes the situation.

However, only the best bartenders are able to create a trendy drink based on mineral water. “It is extremely difficult to obtain a balanced taste, because mineral water has only a faint flavour. With alcoholic drinks the base can be substantially upgraded. Only the masters can achieve that with non-alcoholic drinks,” Veselý concludes.