Australian-made rhubarb aperitif brand RHUBI has wrapped up its ‘#JustAddRHUBI’ bartender challenge, with four winning cocktails announced.

Led by co-founder and former Diageo World Class Australia Winner 2021, Evan Stroeve, the competition asked venues and their bartenders in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Just Add RHUBI as a ‘secret sauce’ in their cocktail
making.

Stroeve said: “We are overwhelmed by the number of entries for the ‘#JustAddRHUBI’ secret sauce challenge! This challenge was set to celebrate the versatility and ease of switching out key ingredients for RHUBI in cocktails – and the creativity we’ve seen come out of this competition just confirms our belief that RHUBI is made to be experimented with.”

Stroeve has been busy travelling around the country to try the finalists’ drinks, working alongside the Vanguard Luxury Brand’s field teams to judge cocktails on their creativity, taste and sales volume.

Above Board’s Paige Chambert took out the top spot in Melbourne with her ‘Sneaky Link’ cocktail (Rhubi Mistelle, gin, lemon, Campari and peach, pictured main).

In Sydney, Kendal Kim from The Rover put forward a one-of-a-kind effervescent serve ‘La Dee Da’ (Tanqueray Gin, Poorman’s Orange, Rhubi Mistelle, House of Okar Tropic, pisco, chamomile cream soda and fizzy grape).

George Curtis from Before + After was crowned the winner in Brisbane with his innovative crowd pleaser ‘Ruby Tuesday’ (Rhubi Mistelle, cacao, clarified raspberry cordial and soda).

Perth based bartender Benjamin Thomson from The Rechabite scored the top spot with his take on a gin sour named ‘Paint the town red’ (Rhubi Mistelle, Four Pillars Yuzu Gin, Marionette Bitter Curaçao, strawberry, saline, rhubarb bitters and
lemon).