Before we get on to the competition and hear about it from the winner’s perspective, can we just take a moment to say that team El Dorado sure know how to impress. Ordinarily we wouldn’t speak on behalf of the competitors much less put words in their mouths but we can honestly say that this was particular comp was quite the experience.
Destination Guyana for an action-packed itinerary of two distinct parts: the first in and around the capital of Georgetown, a tour of Uitvlugt sugar cane fields, the local market and the Demerara Distillers, where we were all quite literally gobsmacked by the production side of things. Not being funny, but generally if you’ve been around one distillery, you’ve seen them all but here, the heritage stills, including the handsome wooden pot stills dating back over 250 years, are things of pure beauty and craft.
It wasn’t all rum fun, the second part of the trip shone a light on the biodiversity of the region, taking in an overnight stay at Iwokrama River Lodge, a hike through the rain forest, a boat ride in the dead of night to check for wildlife and a trip to Kaieteur Falls. Who wouldn’t be smitten with a brand after that?
Anyway, enough of us wittering on and on to the main event, the inaugural El Dorado Heritage Competition. Five competitors took part this year but we bet the next one will be even bigger – by popular demand.
This years winner is Mike Dojcsak from Bar Sazerac in Hamilton, Ontario. Why did he win? There were a number of reasons: he was confident, personable, projected himself well and made two extremely quaffable drinks. Most importantly, he adhered to the brief. Sounds simple but it’s one of the things that in our capacity as judges, often gets overlooked.
We had the pleasure of sharing a week with you, seeing how passionate you are about your craft. When and why did bartending come into your life?
To get really deep into an answer, I think everyone in life is looking for what their ‘thing’ is. At the beginning of Covid, I moved home to live with my parents for a couple of months. During the evening I was working as a server at a new restaurant; in the day I was doing a desk job. Covid did a lot of things for a lot of people and I’m really grateful for some of the downtime it gave me to ask myself when I was at my happiest and the answer was when I was a working full-time as a server.
Rather fortuitously, at the time I got hired, they also needed a bartender – so I was handed a book of recipes and got on with learning them. One day a customer came in and asked me to create a cocktail for him on the fly and I did. And he really loved it. That’s when I thought, “Ah-ha, this is the thing, this is what I want to do!” That was four years ago and I haven’t looked back since.
When did you first hear about the El Dorado Heritage competition?
Actually, it was Kyle Ferreira, the owner of Bar Sazerac who was invited to enter and he suggested that I enter too. On the night of the deadline, he fell asleep and didn’t get his submission in but I did and the rest is now history. Kyle is someone I have idolised for ages and it would have been really weird if we’d been competing against each other. Luckily, everything fell into place and he’s been one of my biggest supporters.
Tell us about your entry drink, what was the story behind it?
My first drink was called The Lost & Found based on the overarching concept of heritage. For me, heritage is less about ethnic background and more about what you leave behind when you go – what’s lost in history can be found again.
My mother is a rum and coke drinker and my grandma drank pineapple, so I wanted to do something based on those two flavour profiles. My drink combined with El Dorado 8 Years Old, El Dorado 12 Years Old, pineapple spiced Demerara, tepache, coconut bitters, citric solution and saline, stirred.
You really ticked all of the boxes, not just in terms of creating an incredibly tasty drink but also delivering on the brief. Tell us how you approached it?
Honestly, listen to and read what is being asked of you. The best lesson I ever learnt was from the first competition I ever entered. I had a lot of fun with it, but my biggest critique was: “You put on a killer show, but the competition was asking, ‘how does this fit into your life?’ You should have tied that in a bit more.” And I took that feedback to heart and have worked on it ever since.
You also had to create a market challenge drink, a cocktail based on an indigenous ingredient found in the local market. How did you approach it?
Before we left for Guyana I started reading about its terroir; I wanted to know what Guyanese people eat, what they drink, what’s native to the soil there. I spent a lot of time researching those things and I had a few directions I was thinking about going down.
So why did you go for sorrel?
People talk about having a muse, that was how sorrel felt to me.
My first ever bar initiative presented to the team at Bartender Atlas was a rum and hibiscus drink, and hibiscus is a type of sorrel. When I read that sorrel was indigenous to Guyana and saw the sorrel flowers in the market I knew I was going to use it in my drink. Also, my partner Sarah and I have a Rose of Sharon tree which is a type of common hibiscus. So it all tied together.
It’s clear that you put a lot of time, intention and energy into your entry and your presentation really engaged the entire room. What drives you?
First of all, I’m super competitive. I was in a band before, playing shows to thousands of people, so for me to present my cocktail to 50 people is . My long term vision for the next five to 10 years, is I want to be in the conversation of the top 1,000 bartenders in the world. I don’t know anyone who puts more time into this than I do – if you want to be the best, you’ve got to learn from and be humbled by them.
Obviously, the competition was the main part of the experience, but how was the rest of the trip for you?
Absolutely perfect – we had two days before the competition, then another two days after and it couldn’t have been better. I think it would have been harder for us to let go and enjoy ourselves if the competition had been at the end of our time in Guyana – we would all have been in our heads for the entire week. The itinerary was really well thought from the beginning to the end, ever detail was considered and just enjoy the experience. culminating with our amazing trip to Kaieteur Falls. I mean, how lucky could I be, being in South America, experiencing the country in such an incredible way and making new friends? It was so surreal and so, so cool
Amen to that! Now back to you: how would you describe yourself in three words?
Silly goose energy. Part of the reason why I’m so high energy is I was an obese child, I wasn’t good at sports, I wasn’t super good looking so for me to get attention I was always the one cracking jokes and that’s stuck around. Don’t try to be cool – everybody’s weird, so just own it.
We saw the ‘presentation Mike’, but what is the ‘every day’ Mike like behind the bar?
Pretty close to what you saw, but about 75% less volume! Seriously, the one thing that I thought might have made a bigger difference in my presentation versus some of my competitors was that I felt most of them were just talking to the three judges. We were in a room full of journalists and brand people who were excited and it was important that they were brought into the presentation. I made sure that everyone was included.
What advice would you give to future competitors?
Really think about it and give it some intention then really talk about what it means to you. What I’ve learned from taking part in competitions is, people can smell a mile off if you’re just throwing something together. Don’t try and pin a story to a cocktail, have a story and the whole thing will come together seamlessly.
Lastly, where is the giant cheque you were presented with and what are you going to do with your $5,000 US prize?
The cheque is upstairs at home, on a guitar stand. Thankfully, I didn’t have to cut it up or open it up at the border! As for what I’ve done with the winning: $5,000US is around $7,000 Canadian so it works out very well. I’ve put some of the money into our house account, bought an upright freezer – hey, I’m a bartender, I need space for my ice and glassware! I also treated my partner to a Mac Studio and bought a guitar for myself.
