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Contact:

Angel Postell                           Debbie Rizzo

843-557-4077                         617-233-8024

angel@hometeampr.com      debbie@drinkpr.com

  

Coleen Speaks of Hummingbird, Raleigh, N.C., and A.J. Goodrich of Bar Mattachine, Los Angeles, CA win BevCon® Cocktail Competition Presented by The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley

 

LOS ANGELES, CA |(Aug. 6, 2018) —BevCon®, the annual beverage industry-only conference happening Aug. 19-21 at the LINE Hotel in Koreatown, Los Angeles, and The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley announce the winners of their new national cocktail competition showcasing flavors from The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley.

Bar professionals from across the country submitted entries to the first-time competition. Recipes were judged on cocktail name and appearance, aroma and garnish, taste and flavor, craftsmanship and incorporation of The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley’s products, as well as interpretation of the theme California Inspired. Entries were judged by Angel Postell, BevCon® founder; Jeff Greif, editor-in-chief of Chilled magazine; writer Virginia Miller; and Bacardi mixologist Manny Hinojosa.

Coleen Speaks of Raleigh, N.C.’s Hummingbird crafted the “Mascarita” with The Perfect Purée El Corazon and Chipotle Sour blends. Her winning entry is a nod to Mexican wrestling and tequila. The word mascarita translates to “masked one” and is often used by Mexican wrestlers as a part of their stage names. With BevCon’s new Los Angeles location, Coleen thought it would be fun and edgy to play up the Latino culture of Los Angeles by using Mezcal as her base spirit. She chose El Corazon for its rich red color and Chipotle Sour for its spicy flavor profile. She rounded out the recipe with lemon juice and Campari, which imparts a slightly bitter flavor and deepens the drink’s rich red color.

Speaks’ drink will be served on-site at the Opening Party on Sunday, Aug., 19 at The Unique Space and at the LINE Hotel from 12:30-1:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 20.

 

“Mascarita”

Coleen Speaks, Hummingbird, Raleigh, N.C.

Ingredients:

2 oz. Bruxo Mezcal Espadin No. 1

¼ oz. Campari

¾ oz. The Perfect Purée El Corazon blend

¼ oz. The Perfect Purée Chipotle Sour blend

¾ oz. lemon juice

Dehydrated blood orange (garnish)

Edible begonias (garnish)

 

Method:

  1. Combine ingredients with ice in a shaker and shake until well chilled.
  2. Strain contents from shaker into a coup.
  3. Garnish with a dehydrated blood orange slice and edible begonias.

 

A.J. Goodrich of Bar Mattachine at Clifton’s Republic in downtown Los Angeles created “Semper Sempervirens” for the L.A. Favorite category using The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley’s White Peach. Goodrich, a cinematographer, was inspired by a memory from a 2011 trip through the Redwood Forest while working on a documentary about same-sex marriage.

Goodrich’s drink will be served Monday, Aug. 20 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at The LINE Hotel and Tuesday, Aug. 21, at the BevCon® seminar “Let’s Get Lit.” The bittersweet backstory to Goodrich’s drink makes it a fitting liquid accompaniment to the popular seminar featuring new work by top beverage writers and authors.

As Goodrich tells it, he was making a documentary in 2011 about same-sex marriage (before it was legalized), walking across the country for eight months from Los Angeles to New York talking to people.

“I was tired and pretty homesick for California by the end of it! On the way back home to L.A., I picked up an ex-boyfriend in Portland and we decided to go through the Redwood Forest on our drive down the California coast. We stopped and hiked through the trees, and shared a bittersweet farewell kiss inside one of the giant tree trunks. I made it home back to L.A. and he eventually returned to Oregon — sadly, he passed away very suddenly a month later,” A.J. recalls. “This drink is an ode to him, to the tallest living trees on Earth (the California Redwoods, aka Sequoia Sempervirens) and to our late summer moment in the trees, which will stay with me forever.”

 

“Semper Sempervirens”

A.J. Goodrich, Bar Mattachine at Clifton’s Republic, Los Angeles, CA

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 oz Redwood Empire American Whiskey
  • .75 White Peach Syrup (1:1 Combo of The Perfect Purée White Peach Puree and fine white sugar)
  • .75 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 oz. club soda (cold)
  • .5 Suze Saveur d’Autrefois Liqueur float
  • rosemary sprig & grated nutmeg for garnish

Method:

  1. Combine whiskey, lemon juice, The Perfect Purée White Peach syrup and egg white in a cocktail shaker.
  2. Dry shake for 10 seconds.
  3. Add a large rock of ice to the cocktail shaker and shake well.
  4. Double-strain into a frozen fizz glass.
  5. Drop the cold club soda into the cocktail.
  6. Tap bottom of the glass with a muddler until you get a foamy head and a fine line in the drink.
  7. Drop Suze float into the glass.
  8. Garnish with a rosemary sprig and freshly-grated nutmeg

 

About The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley

Since 1988, The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley has indulged the culinary passions of chefs, mixologists and food enthusiasts with products that provide ultimate fresh fruit flavor without the peeling, dicing and simmering required for making purées from scratch.

The company’s line-up of fruit purées, specialties and blends features 40 premium flavors, ranging from pantry staples raspberry, strawberry and banana to the exotic lychee, passion fruit and pink guava. The fruits are harvested at the peak of season, puréed and packed frozen to maintain optimal freshness, flavor and color no matter what the season. As the leading U.S. producer of premium fruit purées, The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley is revered in restaurants, hotels, bars, bakeries and catering kitchens for the just-picked taste and unmatched consistency of its products.

All flavors can be frozen for up to 24 months from date of manufacture. When thawed, the purees, concentrates and specialties last 7-10 days in the refrigerator, and blends for 21 days.  For more information, please visit www.perfectpuree.com.

About BevCon®

In two short years, BevCon® has quickly become one of the country’s most exciting and inspiring industry only beverage events. Professional bartenders, sommeliers, buyers, beverage makers, distributors, importers, media, marketing, public relations professionals, and other related companies all gather in an intimate setting to learn from one another, share resources, network, and become inspired to grow their respected businesses. This will be the third year for the popular event which takes place Aug. 19-21 in Los Angeles, CA. To learn more, visit www.bevcon.org.

Press releases are generated outside of Spirited magazine and the information contained does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Spirited or its parent company, Sonoma Media Investments.