Happy High, Mumbai’s premium bartending institute, hosted its maiden Young Bartender Challenge recently, with 41 entries from 15 hospitality institutes from Mumbai and Pune.

The Bartender Challenge is an inter-college bartending competition for students of hospitality, and the maiden edition was conducted in three phases in August and September.

The competition partners were A-Star Academy, which became the neutral venue, and Smoke Lab vodka, Mohulo gin and Smoke Lab water for beverages.

The competition commenced with the master class phase with sessions on mixology, Cognac, gin, vodka and water for the participants, to empower them to perform better. The second phase was an online round with ‘Bharat’ as the theme with participants sharing their recipe on Instagram in a reel format.

For the final, the judges were Jishnu AJ, Bar Manager and head mixologist at Ekaa; Rajesh Israni, Head of Marketing NV Group; Harish Subramanian, Head of Beverage at Papa’s; and Vishwanath Revankar, Dean (F&B Service) A-Star Academy. The winners are:

• Gold Medal (?15,000) Aaryan Katara, IHM Mumbai
• Silver Medal (?12,500) Kailash Chaudhari, Bharati Vidyapeeth Pune
• Bronze Medal (?10,000) Om Awasare, IHM Mumbai
• Best Video (?12,000) Vishal Kandu, ITM IHM Oshiwara

Ajit Balgi, Founder of The Happy High said: “Young Bartender Challenge was born as a neutral bartending competition for hospitality institutes and raised as a platform for participants to gain knowledge with master classes, gain confidence in from the camera when creating a reel with their cocktail and nurture the passion to be ace bartenders.”