June 17th, 2008
RED ROCK CASINO - RESORT - SPA
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
Where flair meets Mixology!
Held at the Red Rock Casino - Resort - Spa in Las Vegas. As with all FBA Pro Tour events, the best flair bartenders in the world arrived once again to have a throw down of epic proportions. However this competition, the Blue Blazer, demands focus on the drink with half of the score coming from the world of Mixology.
Without a doubt the Blue Blazer is the hardest single round flair competition ever. With 3 panels of judges looking for different aspects of the round, the judges meeting was truly exciting. The Flair Judges (Mike McLean, Chris Reynolds, Rick Barcode, Eric Holbert) went after this event just like any other FBA Pro Tour event; they just focused on the flair itself. With so much time and energy from the competitors focused on mixology, the flair scores were sure to suffer in comparison to an event like NATIONS. But where these competitors left off in the flair, they gained points from 2 panels of mixology judges. Luis Herrera and Jim Allison judged categories like Creative Mixology (exploring new and different concepts in mixology in the competition) and Professionalism, Procedures, and Cleanliness. At the same time two USBG superstar judges Gaston Martinez and Anthony "Paisan" Alba handled the highly sensitive categories like Aroma, Taste, Balance, Finish of the drink as well as Drink Presentation.
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