National Bartenders Seminar and Competition a great success

The National Bartenders Seminar and Competition, organised by Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association, together with Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, has been training young hoteliers in Sri Lanka for the last 25 years all over the island, in developing bar tendering techniques amongst the hospitality industry.

The 26th National Bar Tenders Training and Competition 2018 started in February spanning over four months and the NBT Committee has been travelling around the country conducting training sessions and competitions in eight regions with the collaboration of Rockland, the Sponsor of the event for the second consecutive year.

The NBT 2018 Seminar and Competition kicked off its training sessions for the 26th time this year on 12 February at Jetwing Blue, Negombo. The very next day the team travelled to the Grand Kandyan Hotel for Kandy Regional training and on 14 February they concluded the Seminar at SLITHM for the Hotel School students. On 26 and 27 February the team completed Down South Region Training session at Eden Resort and Spa and Colombo Region session at Ramada Colombo correspondingly.

On 22, 23 and 24 March the training sessions were conducted at Amaya Beach, Passikudah, at Aliya Resort and Spa and at Araliya Green Hills respectively. The wrap-up seminar was held at Heritance Ahungalla on 5 April 2018.

The regional NBT Competitions were inaugurated from the Grand Kandyan Hotel on 9 May and then moved to Araliya Green Hills on 11 May for the Hill country competition. While the SLITHM completion was held on 15 May at SLITHM auditorium, the Down South regional competition was held on 16 May at Eden Resort and Spa and Deep Down South one on 18 May at Heritance Ahungalla. 

CHSGA representatives and the judges traveled to Passikudah on 23 May for the East Coast Competition at Amaya Beach and to Dambulla on 25 May for the Cultural Triangle competition at Aliya Resort & Spa. Negombo and Colombo regional Competitions were concluded on 5 and 6 May at Jetwing Blue and Ramada Colombo respectively.

During 2018 alone NBT has trained over 500 bar tending personal and over 300 contenders participated in all the regional competitions. The unique feature this year was that CHSGA/NBT held a separate training and competition for the Hotel School Sector for the first time in NBT history.

The Classic cocktail training was conducted by world-renowned award winning bar personality Carl Anthony Brown. Flaring cocktail training was conducted at the Rockland Studio on 2 May and again by a world-renowned flaring personality Jan Marc Menicable.

The Semi-final of the Classic and Flaring categories were held on 11 and 12 June at Hilton Colombo Residencies.

Four months after the inception of 26th installation of National Bar Tenders Seminar and Competition, the Grand Finals came to an end in grand style at Hilton Colombo on 14 June. Binoy Perera from Shangri-La Colombo was crowned the winner of NBT 2018 – Flaring category while J.A.S.S. Sandhanuwan from The Floor by O! and Isuru Sri Krishantha from Elevate became 1st and 2nd Runners up respectively. 

In Classic category Sahan Weerasinghe from Movenpick Hotel triumphed as the winner while Kisal Gunasekara from Waters Edge achieved the 1st Runner-up award whilst A. C. David from Galadari bagged the 2nd Runner-up place.