The Finals
ITALY
Octavius, The Stage, Milano
Monday June 10th
The big winner was Corey Squarzioni from Luca & Andrea in Milano - Italy with his serve “Tree to Drink”, with Roots Mastic, Suze Rose Liquor Briottet & Elderflower Tonic Fever-Tree
The top 3 were:
Leonardo Todisco from Rita & Cocktails in Milano with “Augusto”: Roots Mastic, Fernet Branca, Campari and celery bitters !
Alessandro di Fabrizio from La Nuova Lavanderia in Pescara with “Mother’s Milk” with Roots Mastic, lemon, tangerinem Bergamot liquor & Gentian bitters
And Stefano Zuliani from MOR in Trieste, with “S&P”: Roots Diktamo, Roots Mastic, Ouzo, tonic water
See all the finalists’ cocktails:
Meet the Judges
Mihai Ostafi
Mihai was born in Romania. His bartender carreer began back home almost 8 years ago in Arad. In London his first job was "Skygarden" situated on the top floors of the Walkie talkie building After almost one year in Skygarden, he got the opportunity to do another major opening: Oriole bar. He is the head bartender in Oriole & from the beginning of 2018 Mihai became new brand UK Ambassador for Roots
Benjamin Cavagna
Benjamin Cavagna is from small town between Milan & Verona. He studied philosophy in Milan while discovering his passion about whiskies and spirits, which he collects. During university he started working behind the bar and loved bartender’s life. Five years ago he met Marco Russo & Flavio Angiolillo, now friends and business partners, and he started to work at 1930, the same family of MagCafe, Backdoor43 and Iter.
During the years we have had the honour to receive entries and finalists from some of the best bars in the world, such as Oriole, the Connaught bar, the American bar at the Savoy, the Aviary, Scarfes among others and finalists were judged by personalities such as the likes of Ben Reed, Simone Caporale, Mattia Pastori etc.