Shanghai’s World Class competition spotlights global cocktail culture

A silent disco. A synthesis of spirit and sound. Cocktails celebrating industry legends, and the taste of home while in shimmering Shanghai. These were just some of the complex cues before the world’s best bartenders to craft cocktails. Spanning six continents, they were present at the recently-concluded World Class competition, hosted by Diageo, at W Shanghai, the Bund. In its 15th year, the competition with the theme ‘Future Legacy’, highlighted unique flavour profiles and vibrant cocktail culture, with an eye on sustainability, community and an emphasis on inventive storytelling.

Keegan McGregor, from Highwayman Bar, Halifax, Canada, competed against 44 global finalists and won the title of World Class Global Bartender of the Year 2024. It was the closest finish yet, with just a point separating the winner and runner up, Indonesia’s Aris Sanjaya Putra (founder, Island Bartender, Bali) who took home the People’s Choice Award for his Roots to Flower inspired menu. For the final round, Shanghai Showdown, eight bartenders created their dream bar, with the help of a local artist and two comrades from the cocktail community.

Keegan McGregor celebrates winning World Class Global Bartender of the Year 2024
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Keegan’s winning menu of six drinks featured hat tips to popular cocktails: Clover Club, Buck, and a classic Canadian Meat Hook, using premium, zero ABV and shiitake spirits, green tea, bee pollen, marmite and coffee vermouth cooked in a coconut. The cocktails were at once refreshing, savoury and spirit-forward in keeping with Keegan’s intent to make sure his patrons feel like they are “invited to his house for a kitchen party”. “The camaraderie amongst the competitors has been inspiring and kept me going. The biggest piece of advice I was given was to be myself and that’s exactly what I did.”

He also took home the prize for his Urban Orchard Community Hero project, embellishing walls of bars and restaurants in Halifax with local art, driving up diverse foot traffic and using sales from his drink Harmony in Hues, to take the project to locations across Canada. The project envisioned by World Class offers all the finalists an opportunity to make a difference in their communities while taking their craft forward.  

Santanu Chanda represented India’s innovative cocktail culture, using indigenous ingredients
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Santanu Chanda (mixologist at Home, New Delhi) represented India’s innovative cocktail culture, using indigenous ingredients with a paean to the past and a nod to the future. For the Haipai Local challenge using Don Julio tequila, he crafted Blue Hills and Red River, a riff on the margarita, with Assamese lemon, a Khasi cordial, garnished with an Assamese roselle sorbet. To highlight Shanghai’s vibrant coffee culture, Santanu chose to hero coffee by pairing it with tequila, passionfruit, carrot and cascara vermouth, served with a full carrot, for a closed loop cocktail. For the Future Stride challenge with Johnnie Walker Blue Label, he created a simple yet sophisticated cocktail with panch phoron (spice blend from Bengal) using a smoky finish. At the Industry Legends Challenge using Tanqueray No .TEN gin, Santanu crafted a flight of three drinks, one to honour Indian bar industry legend, Yangdup Lama, while also straddling present trends and an exciting future, with a spotlight on Indian flavours like camphor vermouth, mountain timur berry tincture and gondhoraj oil.

Bartender Shingo Gokan with Santanu Chanda
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For the penultimate, Sense the Moment Challenge, the competition hall came alive with a silent disco. Attendees, with headphones on, grooved to the playlist of their favourite competitor,  as mixologists created a multi-sensory experience with Singleton single malt, syncing their drinks with sound. Santanu had his audience moving to ‘Jimmy, Jimmy’, as he distributed colourful wigs and brought the party to his stage. 

Bhanu Gupta, business head, Luxury and Super Premium, Diageo, says World Class is all about the bartending ecosystem. “We want to provide a space to mixologists for mentorship, community and giving them this global stage to present with confidence,” she says of the competition that has trained and supported over four lakh bartenders globally for over a decade. 

The bar takeover at Speak Low, Shanghai, as a part of the Cocktail Week
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To keep with the Gen Z trend of low ABV and non-alcoholic drinks, there was a round with seedlip, a zero ABV drink and bespoke teas from Tingtai Teahouse. “The new generation is experimental and affluent, yet drinks less. We have to learn to speak their language, and inspire them to drink better when they do drink,” says Ruchira Jaitly, CMO, Diageo, India, that also champions Society 2030: Spirit of Progress, a 10-year Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) plan to promote responsible drinking while championing inclusion and ensuring grain-to-glass sustainability.

As the competition reached a crescendo, a cocktail festival across Shanghai saw guest shifts at award-winning bars like Speak Low, Sober Company and The Odd Couple, Coa Shanghai, Hope & Sesame Guangzhou, Epic (showcasing Shanghai’s disco era), and the Japanese-influenced Suzu Bar.

A gin cocktail at the liquid storytelling session 
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But, there was more to the event than just the competition. Bartenders and attendees were also treated to masterclasses on liquid storytelling, a D-I-Y vermouth session and industry forum sessions on social sustainability, micro communities, technology at the bar, cocktail content, and vibe architecture. For cocktail enthusiasts, the event also offered a  unique opportunity to savour premium spirits such as the Don Julio 1942 Tequila, Ron Zacapa XO rum crafted in Guatemala, Mortlach single malt (distilled 2.81 times) and curated cocktails with Johnnie Walker Blue Label Lunar New Year Edition. 

Santanu concludes, “My biggest takeaway was seeing how the bar culture is evolving rapidly. It’s fantastic to see how east meets west, and how Europe’s drinking culture is mingling with the Asian bar scene. World Class is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”