By Sacha Delfosse
Suntory Australia has brought Mount Gay Rum’s international ambassador, Chesterfield Browne, to Australia for a series of events designed to engage with bartenders.
As part of his visit to Australia, Browne hosted a ‘Bartenders versus Barbados Challenge’ at La Bodeguita Del Medio in Sydney on Tuesday (Aug 23), which members of Club Suntory were invited to attend.
Bartenders were divided into teams and embarked on a variety of challenges including tossing almonds into a glass, a spoon race with bananas and a variation on the ‘pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey’ game.
Other challenges tested the bartenders’ skills and palette, with one requiring them to blind taste a punch and correctly guess all the ingredients while another ‘boat race’ inspired challenge required team members to make and serve four different drinks and consume them before their competition.
International man of mystery Chesterfield Browne (left) with the three winners
Although the purpose of the event was to “have fun and drink some rum”, as Browne explained, he delivered a brief presentation on the history of the Mount Gay distillery and the rums it produces
“I always like to say we’re not the rum you’re going to see everyone drinking because we are not the Suzuki or the Toyota, we’re the Rolls Royce or the Bentley, when you see us we come fully loaded,” said Browne.
Afterwards, Browne headed down to Hunky Dory Social Club and Café Pacifico where he jumped behind bar and served up Mount Gay cocktails for guests.
He will be in Melbourne tonight (Aug 24), making appearances at both Match Bar and Grill and Golden Monkey, before heading to Brisbane on Thursday (Aug 25) for a function at Riverside.