Belgium bar belle to defend cocktail championship honour

Julie Nullens (pictured), who is expecting her second child in a few weeks, now has something else to celebrate this summer.

She will defend Belgium for the second time in a row during the IBA (International Bartenders Association) World Cocktail Championship in Rome from 28 November to 2 December.

During the contest, 64 bartenders representing the 64 countries member of the IBA will be competing for the title of IBA World Champion.

Julie was selected at the 60th Union of Belgium’s Bartenders national cocktails competition which took place on 12 June at the The Dominican in Brussels. The best bartenders in the country competed for the title of Champion of Belgium 2023.

Julie, of Le bar à Ju at Sprimont, was adjudged to be Belgium’s Best Bartender for the year.

The first runner-up was Edwin Fernando Bravo Vega, of The Dominican, Brussels, while the second runner-up was Daniel Papageorgiou, of La Fourmilière in Brussels.

The 2023 national competition was completely redesigned and upgraded with new testing stages. The bar knowledge and technical skills of the bartenders were heavily tested in five stages:

• A writing test in English about general bar knowledge;

• A blind olfactory test – 5 bar products to discover;

·        The preparation of their signature cocktail creation – 5 identical glasses in maximum 7 minutes;

• An oral presentation of this cocktail in English and a

• A speed test – making 3 international cocktails using 3 different methods (shaker, mixing glass, straight in the glass).

The competition was also open to students of Belgian hotel schools as well as EFPME centres.

Meanwhile, Belgium’s Best Bar Student of 2023 has been named as Claude Remacle, of EFPME in Bruxelles. Runners-up were Larry Godefroid, also of EFPME, and Nolan Leduc, of the Institut Notre Dame in Fleurus.

The contestants were judged by two different juries: the technical jury and the tasting jury.

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