When I received a message from my colleague Marcus (GBG President) whether I would like to take part in the GBG Bar Master 2023 as a juror, my answer was clear ans quick: "Yes". Marcus and I have known each other for many years. Marcus has always accompanied me during my cocktail competition career. Sometimes he organized the cocktail competition, sometimes he was a judge and sometimes he was there as an advisor and nerve-racking, like at the 2015 World Championships, when I won the World winner title. 

On June 18, 2023, the time had come and I made my way to the GBG Bar Masters in Frankfurt. Once there, the first participants were positively surprised by my presence as a juror. Later in the afternoon, when all the jurors arrived in Frankfurt, we held a short juror meeting. Marcus appointed me as head of jury. Shortly after the meeting there was a surprise test of expertise for the participants of the GBG Bar Masters. At around 7 p.m. we started with the preliminary round of the Mattoni Cup. To do this, the participants had to create a cocktail without alcohol and with Mattoni water and no more than 65 kcal per 100 ml. The winner of the Mattoni Cup at the GBG Bar Master was Thorsten Spuhn. Thorsten was representing Germany at the Mattoni World Finals in Prague.

The next day we continued with the next competition. The participants needed to create a cocktail according to GBG rules. The barteners had 10 minutes to tell the judges about their cocktail creations and how they prepare them. The 4 candidates made it to the next round. In addition to these 4 candidates, there were 2 candidates who received a wild card from the GBG. In the end there were 6 classic bartenders in the final. These 6 bartenders had 30 minutes to come up with a new cocktail during the Black Box challenge. During these 30 minutes, the jurors were able to offer advice. After midnight the time had come and the Classic GBG Bar Master 2023 was announced. Markus Schuler will represent Germany at the IBA World Cocktail Championship in Rome. The elimination of the Flair Barteder also took place that evening. Here Gorkhem defended his title from last year and will represent Germany in the Flair category in Rome. Congratulations to all participants. 

That were 2 exciting days at the GBG Barmasters 2023, it was also great opportunity to meet friends again and to make new friends from the bar industry. See you all soon.

I joined the SBU (Swiss Bartender Union) in 2009. The SBU is a bartender association in Switzerland that organizes various cocktail competitions and is a network  plattform for Swiss bartenders. The SBU is also a member of the IBA (International Bartender Association). The IBA organizes the official Cocktail World Championship. 

I had the honor of representing Switzerland at the World Cup in 2014 (Capetown 4th place) and 2015 (Sophia 1st place). 

At the beginning of 2022 I was invited to support the IBA Board in creating a new set of rules due to my wide experiance in various competitions. While working on the rules, I was invited to be a judge during the World Championship in Cuba in November 2022. It was an honor to judge the international competition, which I took part in a few years back. After various challenges in the classic areas, the representantive of Sweden won the IBA World Champion 2022 title. 

It was a great experience to be part of the 2022 World Championship as a juror, but also to meet old friends and see the new generation of bartenders. I'm looking forward to judging the IBA World Championship this year in Rome, Italy.