The Guyana RumFest Committee has been crafting and creating varying virtual entertainment activities for the Guyanese people since the COVID-19 pandemic has begun. Its latest virtual event “Cocktail Mix-Off” has also been captivating the attention of Guyanese.

The segment, which is hosted by Organizer and Guyana RumFest committee member Yonnick David, brings together 12 leading mixologists of the local scene and is slated as a competition to leave one standing as Guyana’s Top Cocktail Mixer.

David told the Buzz Magazine that after the committee saw the success it had after its ‘Quarantine Mix’ virtual activity that was hosted in June, it still continued to see the need persons had for a form of entertainment and somewhat distraction in this period and landed on the idea of ‘Cocktail Mix Off’. He stated that the committee decided to not just let these mixologists come out and make drinks but decided to make it a competition to make it much more entertaining, as well as to give the bartenders a chance to make some money, especially seeing that many of them may be out of work due to the pandemic.

The first round of the competition was hosted on Sunday September 13, 2020, and the top three finalists were selected from the 12 local mixologists. David added that there was a decision taken to add fourth mixologists with the closest score to the top three into the selection for the finals as a wild card. The four ‘Cocktail Mix-Off’ finalists are Devon Ramlakhan, Anil Singh, Mahendra Ramkellawan and Wildcard Finalist, Jermaine Prescod.

Davis explained that during the competition that is streamed live via the Guyana RumFest Facebook page, each bartender has to make three of the same cocktails for the three judges, who make their decision based on the taste, smell, efficiency, presentation and complexity of the cocktails.

David told the Buzz Magazine that he believes events like these to be very useful in providing some level of entertainment for the Guyanese people. “I think events like these give people something to do at home so that their days don’t become monotonous. So I think it’s good to have well organised online events that people can just tap into and have fun. We saw that there were a lot of persons in the comments having fun, and relaxing, taking their minds off of everything for a little bit,” he said.

The Guyana Rum Fest “Cocktail Mix off” final is set for September 20 and will see the first place winner walking away with the title of “Best Mixologists of 2020” as well as a grand prize of $75,000, while second and third place winner will walk away with $50,000 and $25,000 respectively.