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What a mix-up!

Published:Sunday | August 29, 2010 | 12:00 AM
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Bartender of Sandals Negril, Denton Kent, celebrates winning the award for the Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ) 2010 Best Bacardi Mojito. Kent eclipsed 33 other competitors from resorts, cafés and restaurants across the island to lift the title. Also joing in the celebrations are Devon Reid (left), marketing and sales manager for branded beverages, and Tom Tyler, co-chairman of CPJ.
Jacqui Tyson samples a Bacardi Mojito during the final round of the Caribbean Producers Jamaica 2010 Bacardi Mojito Competition on Sunday. Tyson was one of four judges at the competition which was held at Iberostar Grande Resort.
Denton Kent serves a Bacardi Mojito, balanced on his head, to competition judge Sophia MaxBrown, during the finals.
Three of the four finalists in the Caribbean Producers Jamaica 2010 Bacardi Mojito Competition prepare fruits and mint leaves ahead of the final face-off on Sunday. From left is Denton Kent of Sandals Negril, the eventual champion; Oneil Higgins of Coyaba Beach Resort in Montego Bay; and Phillip Lovejoy of Kingston-based Medusa. Higgins and Lovejoy won third and fourth place, respectively.
Iberostar Grande's top bartender Dean Robinson pauses to dance while preparing fruits ahead of the finals. - Photos by Claudia Gardner
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Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

It was 34-year-old Denton Kent, a bartender at Sandals Negril Beach Resort and Spa, who earned the distinction of having prepared the best Bacardi Mojito in Caribbean Producers Jamaica's (CPJ) 2010 Bacardi Mojito Competition on Sunday.

Kent, who is originally from Lucea, Hanover, also took home the $100,000 winner's prize and earned for himself a trip to Puerto Rico in September to observe the Regional Bacardi Mojito competition.

Kent eclipsed 33 bartenders sent to compete by other hotels and eateries across the island's resort areas to emerge top of the competition, which was held at the Iberostar Grande Resort in Montego Bay. His three runners-up were Iberostar's Dean Robinson, Coyaba Beach Resort's Oneil Higgins and Kingston-based Medusa's Phillip Lovejoy, who placed second, third and fourth, respectively.

The four judges of the competition who tasted and smelled the contestants' Mojito cocktails all day were Jorge Lopez Albarran, president of the Puerto Rico Bartenders Association; Richard Hall, former general manager at SuperClubs and operator of Deliworks in St Andrew; Jacqui Tyson of From Thought to Finish; and businesswoman Sophia Max Brown operator of St Andrew-based fashion stores, MaxBrown.

Forgotten soldiers

A Mojito is a cocktail which is traditionally made from mint, sugar or cane juice, lime and rum and carbonated water. In preparing a Mojito, lime juice is added to sugar or cane juice and mint leaves, following which the mixture is crushed to release the essential oils. Rum is then added, after which the concoction is stirred, topped with ice and made complete with carbonated water.

Co-chairman of CPJ, Tom Tyler, told The Gleaner that the annual competition was first staged last year. He said the aim was for it to serve as a catalyst for establishing a bartenders' association in Jamaica which would enable Jamaican bartenders to participate in regional and global mixology competitions.

"The bartenders of Jamaica are like the forgotten soldiers. They are not getting that much recognition. There is the hotel association, the chefs' association and there really should be some sort of bartending association. If you go to some of the other islands like Puerto Rico and the Dominican republic, they have associations. The first thing you need to do to is to pull them together, and that's what this competition is about," Tyler said.