the daily muddle - events

We have waited patiently for four years, and now its finally here: The 2010 World Cup kicks off June 11th in South Africa! So get your jerseys and your game face on because it is promising to be anexciting ride and we’ll be here along the way to help you celebrate in style. May the best team win! If you are in the mood to go out and celebrate with friends, here are some locations that you can count on to have your game up on the big screen.

Baja Café: Deerfield Beach, FL

Bocabar: Somerset, Bristol

Canvas at Hilton: Sao Paulo, Brasil

Felix: New York City

Forneria: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Gigalum: London, UK

Harbor Beach Marriott Resort & Spa: Fort Lauderdale, FL

Harry’s Bar: San Francisco, Caipi-Mosas for all morning games

Ipanema Grill: Seattle, Wa

Jack Dempsey’s: New York City

Jerry Remy’s Sport Bar and Grill: Boston, Ma

Jobi: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Kukui: Oxfordshire, Oxford

La Parrilla: San Francisco

Legends: New York City

Lobby Bar at Tivole Hotel: Sao Paulo, Brasil

Loca Luna: Atlanta, GA

Navy Beach: Montauk, NY

Novecento: Brickell, Miami, Coral Gables, FL

Patio Bar & Grill: Deerfield Beach, FL

Scuderia: New York City

Squat Bar: Sao Paulo, Brasil

Sushi Samba: New York, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas

The Crimson Lounge @ Tommy Doyle’s: Cambridge, MA

Urban Golf: London, UK

Via dei Mille: New York City

Vox Populi: Boston, MA

Wake Up Paris: Paris, France

Warwick Hotel: Paris, France

Team USBG AND THE FROZEN LEBLONS participated this year in the 10th Annual Chicago Polar Plunge at North Avenue Beach. The Polar Plunge event benefits The Special Olympics of Chicago and Leblon made a  donation on behalf of the USBG Chicago chapter. After racing into the freezing water participants warmed up their bones with a much needed Leblon hot toddy!

Manhattan Magazine just recently held their annual Chef’s Night Out featuring dishes from the hottest restaurants around NYC.Top Chefs such as Jean-Georges prepared delicious signature dishes which paired perfectly with our Leblon Sangrias created by Naren Young.  Who could ask for a more perfect night? Mouth watering plates with thirst quenching Leblon Cocktails!

At the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, Leblon Cachaça held a USBG Caipirinha Competition.  The United States Bartenders Guild had 18 bartenders from 9 cities represent their chapter to compete for the top prize and a golden muddler to bring back to the winning city.

This years competition was hosted by The Modern Mixologist, Tony Abou-Ganim, and was judged by Naren Young (New York Cities BoBo Restaurant), Junior Merino (The Liquid Chef), and Francine Cohen (Editor of Food and Beverage Journal, media partner for the National USBG Caipirinha competition). Winners this year were Peoples Choice: Tad Carducci (The Tippling Brothers) and Judges Choice: USBG Las Vegas Chapter which was composed of Tobin Ellis and Andrew Pollard.

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This summer, it’s time to mix and mash! Leblon and SUSHISAMBA are proud to present MUDDLE, SHAKE and POUR, the ultimate contest of cocktails where twenty aspiring mixologists will vie in making and muddling of summer’s most creative concoction. The winning cocktail of the competition will be featured at SUSHISAMBA for the month of August.

Celebrity mixologists will be part of the judging team at each location:

Jay Law – Miami Florida
Naren Young – New York
Patricia Richards – Las Vegas
Debbie Peek – Chicago

This past week, we hosted the First Annual Muddle.Shake.Pour Competition in South Florida.  11 of Miami’s top bartenders competed from their respective bars/restaurants.  Its was no easy task choosing our favorites, but we had some great judges including: Sarah Ehrlich (our very own from Miami), Jay Law (Master Mixologist from The One Group), Robert Burr (The Gifted Rums Guide) and David Ortiz (Cassi D’s Marketing) to narrow down the field.  One bartender flambéd pears with Leblon (nice work Elad), others lit hot peppers on fire (great cocktail Tom), while others used CO2 to infuse flavors into a cocktail (cool stuff Richie).  This years winner was Julio Cabrera from Senora Martinez.  Congrats Julio!!!  Special thank you to: Sarina from Frankie’s Hideaway, George from Fontainebleau, Tom from Sunset Lounge @ The Mondrian, Adam from Florida Room, Richie at Shore Club, Julio from Sra Martinez, Arthur at Town Kitchen, Jose from Apple Kore, Elad from Gansevoort South, and Matthew at Senora Martinez.

Stay tuned for the Northern Florida Muddle. Shake. Pour and then the two winners will battle it out for Florida’s top bartender!

Flavored ice is delicious.  Flavored ice with alcohol is even better.  We teamed up last week with Glazierepura, a new product with the technology capabilities to freeze spirits at a higher proof.  Sam Hazen, of Tao fame, hosted the cocktail party and it was a blast.  Muddling on the Beach was spinning Brazilian Beats at STK (what a beautiful private room!!).  Guests enjoyed Mango, Raspberry, and Passion fruit ice cubes and sipped on the STK signature Cocktail the Barely Brazilian which is a wonderful blend of Leblon, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice, and thyme.

As Las Vegas introduced its first mixology event called Social Mixology Tuesdays, top mixologists and industry insiders checked out the event to an over-whelming response. Over the past few weeks, Leblon was invited to be the featured spirit and guest bartenders such as Tony Abou-Ganim, Anthony Alba, Kristen Schaefer, and Naren Young got behind the bar to muddle up some great fresh fruit cocktails.  Tobin Ellis and John Hogan of Barmagic Las Vegas have a great concept going on and something Las Vegas has been looking for.

The night before the Las Vegas Nightclub and Bar Show kicked off Tony Abou-Ganim hosted National USBG members from around the United States to an artisanal cachaça and caipirinha tasting. Tony prepared fresh fruit caipirinhas and guests enjoyed a traditional churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse) experience at Texas de Brazil. Gerard Schweitzer presented to the USBG members a tasting of the top artisanal cachaças on the market today.

The Leblon Virtual Mixology Challenge kicked off at the Global Gallery on the 16th floor of The Plaza in Downtown Orlando overlooking the Orlando city lights and Lake Eola on Sunday, November 16, 2008.

A guest list of 450 of Orlando’s “young, industry, trendy and influential” guests, as put by Sarah Ehrlich, Leblon’s Florida Regional Manager, included such guests as Professional Wake Boarder Parks Bonifay, Chris Kirkpatrick from N’Sync, Leblon Owner Gerry Schwitzer, and radio personalities Tiffany Martin from Real Radio 104.1 and Mel Taylor from 101.1 WJRR.

Everyone had an amazing time being entertained by not only samba dancers and capoeira performers, but also by the opportunity to sample 8 different cocktail recipes submitted by some of Orlando’s most prestigious venues.

Our Virtual Mixology Challenge Finalists were:
Quinn from Tempanos
Sean from Samba Room
Scott from the Rosen Center Hotel
Christian from Latin Quarter
Brianna from Club 23 on Church Street
Pat from Howl at the Moon on International Drive

Finally, our winners:
Jeremy from Luma on Park
Jessica from CityWalks’ Rising Star

All finalists were awarded Leblon gift bags and our 2 winners, Jessica and Jeremy, will each enjoy an all-expense paid weekend trip for two to South Beach’s Shore Club.

All guests left the evening with an amazing swag bag which included a Leblon muddler, Leblon CD, 200ml bottle of Leblon, necklace, and brochure heading over to Club 23, which later hosted the Leblon after party. The event was a tremendous success and the cocktails were a hit!

Hope you can join us at Chaise Lounge (1840 W. North Ave, Chicago) where you will get to taste, vote and mingle with some of the hottest Samba dancers in the Midwest.

The evening starts out with a prix fixe dinner from one of Chicago’s best culinary talents, chef Cary Taylor. This is one of the best meals and deals in an elegant environment.

The fun does not end until your taste buds have been tantalized, your mind has been stimulated, your thirst quenched and your feet ache.

The New World Symphony event was held at the Gibson Guitar showroom in the Design District of Miami, a very cool event space with a real rock and roll feel.  About 300 people showed up to support New World Symphony.  It was a mixed crowd of professionals and hipsters and everyone had a great time.  There was a terrific performance by Locos por Juana and the guests were all dancing, mingling, drinking Leblon and having fun! The music was great and the Pineapple Mint and Grape Five Second Caipirinhas were delicious!

In order to prepare for Halloween, Leblon recently held a cocktail challenge in the birthplace of this spooky celebration, Salem Massachusetts. Salem’s best Bartender’s met on September 30th to shake it out at Rockafellas and the results were delicious!  The “Gato Negro” by Justin Edward Philbrook from 62 on Wharf won best of show narrowly beating out the “Original Sin” by Kimberly Ann Phillips from Rockafellas.  Kimberly’s Original Sin was served in a hollowed out apple and captured the essence of Fall and the attention of everyone at the event.  Honorable mentions were earned by David “Murph” Murphy from Finz Salem for his “Smashing Apples” creation, Marie MacIsaac from Rockafellas for her “Black Widow-tini”, Matthew Sullivan from Rockafellas for his “Mango Lantern”, and Adam Gerhart from Fresh Taste of Asia for his “Vampirinha”.  Happy Halloween!

We were invited to be part of the 10th Annual Tasting Benefit that was produced by Project by Project.  The event brought in over 700 guests and restaurants such as Bouley, Chanterelle, Morimoto, Matsuri, and Ringo who served specialty items (each one unique and equally as delicious) throughout the night.  With the theme this year naturally geared towards politics our friend Junior Merino served up two cocktails throughout the evening:  The Caipi-Bama and the McCaipirinha.  One cocktail representing the Blue States and one cocktail representing the Red States.  Lets just say there were more Caipi-bamas being sipped throughout the evening then McCaipirinhas.  We wonder if this is any indication of how the polls will turn out this year.

As Fashion Week took over New York City we decided it was our responsibility to provide some relief to friends and of course models. Our Fashion Relief party was held at Coffee Shop, a trendy restaurant located in Union Square, NYC. The party was great but the drinks were even better, with the amazing Skinny Caipirinha and chilling passion fruit batidas that helped beat the heat. The icing on the cake was the enormous turkey legs that were enjoyed by all!

I have just returned from the annual Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans held from July 16-20 in the searing heat of the Crescent City. The event is the best event of its kind in the world and also attracts the biggest name bartenders, owners, managers, authors, consultants, liquor companies and all sorts of other cocktail geeks. For anyone serious about this wonderful drinks industry, then this is a must attend week. Put next years date in your diary now: July 8-12.

In between countless inspiring seminars and events, I had the pleasure of getting some face time with Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller, two cocktail historians and true industry legends to learn some fascinating insights into Cachaca. Why do they know so much about Cachaca? Well if it involves anything alcoholic, then they probably know virtually everything about it. You see they’ve just released a wonderful book on the history (and future) of Cachaca called The Soul of Brasil.

They’re research – as always – is exhaustive – and they’ve dug up many unknown facts and artifacts for us all to learn from. It’s not much to look at; in fact I’ll be honest in saying the small amount of pictures that are present are terrible. But it is packed full of great information and it is an indispensable tool for anyone fascinated by this great spirit.

I also had the chance to get them on camera at the historic Muriel’s Bar and Restaurant in the heart of the famous French Quarter and share a few yarns and (overly sweet) drinks (not made by any of us of course) about Cachaca in general. I thank you both for your precious time. Click here to see the full interview.

For more information about these walking drinks encyclopedia, log on their website: www.martiniplace.com

We love the Aspen Food & Wine Classic! It’s quite possibly the best combination of food, wine, and partying in the country… picture two or three 60-yard long tents, filled with table after table of wine from the best vineyards in the world, spirits from the best distilleries, and food from some of the best chefs you’ll ever enjoy. It’s practically a reunion of the Food Network personalities and anyone else who is important in the culinary world. If you have the means, we definitely recommend it.

This year in Aspen, Leblon teamed up with the Children’s Health Foundation to raise money for children at “Greenalicious”. This CHF charity event was held at the Belly Up, Aspen’s premiere music venue. CHF brought in 400 VIP’s from the “A” list and it was a great success. The caipirinhas were flowing like a huge river of slushy, yummy watermelon, and smiles abounded. Five-star tapas from famous chefs like Michael Nischan wowed the crowd as well.

On the main stage, a very cool cover band, The Hollywood Stones, cranked out some dead-on covers of Mick and the gang. The crowd was in full tilt party mode and singing “Hey, you, get off my cloud!!” at the top of their lungs. I think even Ivanka Trump joined in when she and Flo Fulton from J Mendel weren’t sipping their Leblon caipirinhas! Definitely coming back for another year in 2009!

Wow, what a great party last night! we threw a great gig at the Penthouse of the Pelican Hotel in South Beach, Miami. what a blast! great music spinning from DJ Marcelo (check out his two songs to download in the music section). and we had the pleasure of tasting five amazing cocktail creations from five of the top bar chef hotspots in Miami. Thank you everyone for coming.