Drinks with a twist

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THE mixologists at the recent Twister’s Twistable Mocktail Contest were truly amazing. They showed off their unusual flair by concocting new mocktails using ingredients such as hazelnut purée, ginger ale, coconut water, cranberry juice, yoghurt, tropical fruits and different types of garnishing – all in just 15 minutes.

The clash of the mocktails, organised by The Star’s food portal, Kuali.com, was held at Studio V in 1Utama, Petaling Jaya, on June 11. The 17 contestants who took part were aged from 14 to 47 and brought along family members, husbands, girlfriends and maids for moral support and cheers. All the mocktails – a cocktail minus the liquor and containing different flavours of juice and soft drinks – were outstanding.

Contestants, winners and judges at the Twister’s Twistable Mocktail Contest.

Some made their drinks very fancy while others spent more time on their beautiful presentations. Only the Twister Apple and Orange drinks were provided; the contestants came armed with everything else, including glasses, fancy straws, fruits and other decorative items for their presentations.

The panel of judges comprised group marketing manager of Permanis Sandilands Sdn Bhd Hemalatha Ragavan, director of food & beverage Hotel Istana Tom Spaan and assistant training manager of Cilantro Culinary Academy Nurlaili Chai @ Chai Lee Lee. The mocktails were judged based on taste, presentation and name.

So which mixologist had the most flair?

Stevena Chin with his signature mocktail ‘Grand Tropicano Twister’.

According to the judges, all the contestants performed well.

Initially, there was a tie but then the judges decided to award first prize to Jerald Tsen Fan Sand, who they said had plenty of flair. He made a perfect blend of ginger, hazelnut purée, tea and Twister Orange to come up with a green-coloured “Twister Zing” and presented the drink in a sexy-looking martini glass.

Tsen, a bartender at Teeq with eight years’ experience as a mixologist, won cash of RM1,000, a Sony video camera and a crate of Twister drinks.

“I was inspired by my parents. My father, Tsen Kin Yin, loves Chinese tea and ginger while my mother, Maria Theresa Sapolo, loves the taste of hazelnut. I decided to combine these two and voilà... my Twister Zing,” said Tsen, a Sabahan who has entered four such competitions in the past.

He once entered a competition with a cocktail that contained avocado which he named “My Mama” because of his mum’s love for the fruit and this unusual creation won him first prize in the Horeca School Of Excellence (2008) at KL Centro.

“Before I create a drink, I can smell and visualise the fruits in my head. And I will be thinking about it for days. Only then do I start experimenting,” said the 24-year-old.

Celina Joseph and her ‘Twister Orapple Punch’.

In second place was Stevena Chin, whose confident manner in which he shook the crushed ice in his concoction was enough to gauge his skill in making mocktails.

According to Chin, he ended up making his signature shot “Grand Tropicano Twister” after much research, tweaking and trial and error.

This part-time chef at The Loaf and final-year Culinary Arts School student at Stamford College received a Canon camera, cash prize RM350 and a crate of Twister drinks.

Chin used pink guava, cranberry, lemon juice and passion fruit mixed with Twister Orange. His creation was a drink with different coloured layers which gave the mocktail a visually stunning effect. As it turned out, his mocktail not only looked fancy but tasted good as well.

“I used pink guava for the base and green fruit-punch soda for the top. The contrasting colours made the mocktail look more enticing and I’m glad the judges liked it,” said Chin, who prefers cooking and baking to making mocktails.

Homemaker Celina Joseph, who came in third with her “Twister Orapple Punch” was elated with her win. The 39-year-old received RM200, a Canon camera and a crate of Twister drinks for her effort.

Celina used fresh pineapple, Lipton lemon tea, Twister Orange, Twister Apple and ginger ale with finely chopped apples and mint leaves for her special mocktail.

Her creative presentation really stood out especially when she added dry ice to create a smoky effect, tiny umbrellas, small cherries on skewers and colourful straws.

“I sent in four entries for the competition, including two hot mocktails, and this one was picked. This is my first time entering such a competition and I’m glad that I made it to the top three.

The champ: The ‘Twister Zing’ won the competition for Jerald Tsen Fan Sand.

“This will truly inspire me to try out more mocktail recipes. I came upon this competition by chance while surfing the Net one day and decided to try my luck,” said the mother of two.

Spaan was quite impressed with the results and summed up the contest as “truly awesome”.

“They were great and played around with some nice mocktail recipes. I was looking for certain criteria like exotic name of the creation, healthy mixture, not so sweet taste, the kind of glass used and the way the mocktail is presented,” said Spaan.

He added, “Jerald’s mocktail concoction was different, the taste is very refreshing and the blend of hazelnut, apple and ginger had a nice twist to it.”

The highlight of the event was the “little surprise” just before the name of winners were announced.

On behalf of Permanis, the main sponsor of the contest, Hemalatha decided to increase the prizes by generously contributing extra gifts in the form of Sony and Canon cameras for all three winners. “I was so touched to see the effort, time and money spent on each creation. They took the trouble to make the best mocktails. The least we could do was try and make them happy,” said Hemalatha who plans to make this an annual event with Kuali.com.

She added, “We are looking at organising a similar competition but on a bigger scale. There will definitely be more prizes and we hope to draw more contestants this time.

“The turnout has been great and I am glad Permanis is part of this,” said Hemalatha who will be announcing the second round of the Twister National Contest next month where the grand prize is a BMW 3 series.