Since early last year, I've made it my mission to discover a cocktail that is truly representative of our great state, much like the Manhattan is of New York City and the Sazerac of New Orleans. Along the way, I've been joined on this mission by the Colorado Bartenders Guild, the Colorado Distillers Guild, Westword, the Museum of Contemporary Arts Denver and our newest partner, Whole Foods.
Together, we created the Colorado Cocktail Project -- and we challenged our local booze enthusiasts (you) to concoct an official Colorado Cocktail. Now the deadline is upon us: Last call!
You have until midnight tomorrow, March 25, to enter your original creation into the Colorado Cocktail Contest.
Judging from the entries we've already received, I'm truly excited to see what all the bartenders around Colorado have to offer. Once the submissions are in, the judges will start the process of taxi-ing our way around town and sampling every cocktail submitted -- and readers will be able to try them, and vote, too. Along the way, every bartender, drink and local spirit it's made from will also featured here on Cafe Society.
From the field, we'll narrow down the entries to ten finalists, who will compete in the Colorado Cocktail Project finals at the MCA on Monday, June 27. But before you can get in the finals, you need to enter.
Here's a refresher on the rules:
* The base spirit (at least half of the spirit in the cocktail) must be a Colorado spirit -- one produced by a Colorado distiller.
* There's a seven-ingredient maximum, including garnish
* All ingredients must be commercially available (your homemade JuJu Double Mocha Bitters, for example, would be difficult to reproduce in someone's home or in another bar)
* So that the judges (and the public) can sample all entries, the cocktails must be available at the bartender's establishment, preferably on a menu, through June 10.
* Submission deadline is March 25.
To enter, cut and paste the form below into the body of an e-mail and send it to [email protected].
Your name:
The establishment where you work:
Your drink's name (if it doesn't have one, we'll help name it!):
Your drink's ingredients:
Your drink's preparation:
Price of your drink at the bar:
In fifty words (or less) tell us how your cocktail captures Colorado:
Your name and e-mail or phone number:
Cheers!
