The event, organised by Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands and Patrón Tequila, took place at N&C Showrooms in Shoreditch, London, with more than 700 industry figures and public in attendance.
The teams – six of the best bartenders from each city – were tasked with building a bar in 24 hours; each serving cocktails using their sponsor brand.
London made Patrón tequila cocktails, Paris was supported by Bombay Sapphire, Singapore was backed by Bacardi rum and New York City represented Grey Goose vodka.
The winner was decided by the public – who could choose where to spend their cocktail chips – and a judging panel that included Difford’s Guide’s Simon Difford and The Cocktail Lovers’ Sandrae Lawrence.
Led by Duck and Waffle’s head of cocktail development, Richard Woods, the London team also comprised Iain Griffiths of Dandelyan, Sly Augustin of Trailer Happiness, Nathan Shearer of Callooh Callay, Luca Missaglia of Aqua and Andy Shannon of The London Edition Hotel.
On winning, Woods said: “It's amazing and a relief. Ultimately we're the best cocktail city in the world - we were given a brief and we delivered. The best bar won. The biggest challenge was the timing. It was a huge ask putting something like this together in this time period. We wanted to create a space that captured the sustainable ethos of Patrón and would capture consumer’s imaginations.
“It's about giving tequila a second chance that emphasised the idea of second chances by demolishing the preconceptions of what tequila is. We want people to put their hand prints on the wall as it takes 60 hands to make Patrón but loads more for a great night.”
