With just a couple years of producing the finest local gin, Inverroche Distillery has created an award-winning bartending competition, which sees the annual champion graduate develop and create their

 

Mixologist extraordinaire Travis Kuhn has a surprise for the gin lovers in KwaZulu-Natal.

 

After being named Champion Bartender, Pichas hand-crafted a limited-edition, first-of-its-kind Inverroche Pioneers Collection gin.

 

As Angostura aromatic bitters continues to follow the journey of some of SA’s top barmen and explore what it takes to make it in the cocktail industry, we chat to industry stalwart – Travis Kuhn.

 

On 24 February we celebrate one of the oldest professions… bartending of
course! Though we think of it as a modern age career, bartending can be
traced back to ancient Rome, Greece and Asia. In fact, there is record of a
bartender all the way back to when Julius Caesar ruled Rome. Along popular travel routes, you’d find drinking houses where you could rest your wary feet with a mug of ale and wine. They eventually spread into towns. In the Middle Ages, innkeepers would brew their own beer and wine which they’d serve to their guests. These became taverns and pubs where locals could share a bit of gossip with their tipple.

 

By Leah van Deventer

The Bartender Accolades and Recognition (BAR) Awards, which normally leave local movers and shakers in good spirits, have in true 2020 fashion had the opposite effect. Sponsor brands are outraged, winners feel cheated and people generally seem to be fed up. So what went awry? 

 

Top image: Peter Labese @TheeGintleman

The fifth annual SA Bartending Accolades & Recognition (BAR) Awards honoured the fallen and surviving heroes of the local South Africa bar industry last night, just as the country emerges from lockdown and bars start reopening this month. 

 

On Monday 23 March 2020 the country’s cocktail-loving community will come together in Johannesburg to celebrate the winners of the fifth SA Bartending Accolades & Recognition (BAR) Awards. 

 

Travis Kuhn has just opened a hot new bar in Cape Town called the Vicious Virgin, alongside co-owners Kelby Schnetler and Leah van Deventer.

 

Travis Kuhn, a multi-award winning bartender, has just obtained a new accolade to add to his collection by being named South Africa?s Most Influential Cocktail ?