In 2017, East London Dry Gin will bring a new cocktail competition to Australia. Working in partnership with its Australian importer and distributor, Savant Spirits, the brand will invite bartenders to enter a cocktail that heroes the gin for a chance to fly to London to meet the distillers at East London Liquor Company and tour its hometown.

The competition is open to bartenders nationwide and of all levels. Entries will be received from the beginning of next year and the six-week competition will run from mid-March through to the end of April.

Entrants will be judged on their cocktail, which needs to feature East London Dry Gin as the predominant ingredient; other ingredients, method, concept, and photo. These will be shortlisted down to a Top 20 who will be required to provide the panel with a professional image of their cocktail and take part in a in-venue sales challenge as well as a social media component during March and April.

The panel, including the ‘Gin Queen’ Caroline Childerley, will then select a Top 5 to be flown to Melbourne to present their cocktails in front of the panel for the chance to go to London to meet the distillers behind East London and visit some of the best bars in the city and world over.

East London Liquor Company was set up by a group of bartenders who wanted to bring the production of craft spirits back to the heart of the capital’s old spirits industry for the first time in more than a century. Today the company has a distillery, restaurant and retail space in an old glue factory in the East End of London and produces a range of quality handcrafted spirits that also include vodka, rum, and whisky.