Bartender from Matanzas to the Pan-American Cocktail Championship.

Matanzas bartender Joel Pons Hernández is part of the Cuban delegation to the Dominican Republic 2023 Pan-American Cocktail Championship, which will be held in the capital city of Santo Domingo from September 5th to 7th.

I’m really excited about this competition. I train a lot to try to do a good role and put the name of Cuba very high, said the young practitioner of the Flair style exclusively to Radio 26.

A resident of the municipality of Colón, Pons won his participation in the continental competition by taking first place in Flair or free style at the XIX  Fabio Delgado In Memoriam National Bartending Championship, held in the halls of the Hotel Tulipán.

Another five bartenders and three representatives of Havana Club Internacional SA will also attend the tournament in the Dominican Republic, an event that will bring together the best talents in this branch in the region, who will demonstrate their skills, creativity and passion for the art of mixing drinks and creating cocktails.

Bartender Yardo Lázaro González Castro is to date the only bartender from the Greater Antilles to have triumphed in these competitions, having defeated all his rivals whom he faced in the 10th Santiago Policastro Pan-American Cocktail Cup, in Lima, Peru, in 2006.

Born in 1890 by Jerry Thomas, Flair Bartending uses bottles, cocktail shakers, mixers and ice cubes to offer a show of dexterous movements in order to attract and surprise clients.

The style is considered an art form because its practitioner creates new choreographed steps with music in the background.

Photos taken from Pons´s  facebook

Written by Eva Luna Acosta Armiñán.