Congrats to local bartender Jackie Ho, who won the Belvedere Vodka regional luxury cocktail competition on Thursday night at Club M1NT. The mixer who normally holds court behind the bar at Northern Chinese eatery Yun Fu topped 20 other mixers from around the Asia region. He will now join two other finalists, Taiwanese Aki Wang and Australian Andrew Griffiths, moving on to the international finals in London and Warsaw later this autumn. Apparently, the competition had been going on long before the evening party portion, with drinks mixed and sipped by the judges since early afternoon, and separate rounds for shot-cocktails and long drinks. Amazingly, none of them had passed out by the time the party began. Ho's winning drinks were the Forest Hill, with homemade Chinese sweet sugar cane juice and mandarin skins, and the Wild Flower featuring Grand Marnier and wild chrysanthemum tea. Of course, both also featured the requisite brand name vodka. After being announced as winner, the excited Ho shouted to us: 'I don't know what to say. My heart's still pumping!' No doubt, he was carried along by the overly partisan crowd chanting 'Hong Kong! Hong Kong!' No doubt Ho is a talented cocktail creator, but the response seemed a bit exaggerated. Of course, free booze has a way of encouraging people to act up, get noisy and be stupid.
