PASSION | ART | SPICE | COMMUNITY
The Cochon US Tour DNA Series, “Punch Kings” is a mini-doc series focusing on some of the best bartenders in the country competing within Cochon 555.
The competition focuses on 5 top bartenders in each city creating a punch made with one whole bottle of Breckenridge bourbon. A panel of experts judges each punch, and the score is based on Presentation, Creativity, and Flavor. The winning bartender is then sent to Chicago to compete in the national “Last Call” Competition to become the Punch King or Queen for the year. We watch as bartenders take us through the history, recipes and their stories about punch and cocktails and how they go about crafting a winning recipe.
[Episode 1 – Passion]
This episode explores the passion that drives all the talented barkeeps participating in the Punch Kings Competition put on by Cochon555 and Breckenridge Distillery. Bartenders talk about the constant drive to provide flavors that people are looking for.
[Episode 2 – Art]
This episode focuses on the art and creativity that goes into making cocktails. Do barkeeps consider themselves artists? They talk about being artists and creating consumable art every day. We go into cocktails and how the flavors all work together and being able to do that is an art form.
[Episode 3 – Spice]
In episode 3, we ask the question – What is Spice? (In a punch?) Of course, the answer is, Angostura Bitters. The team goes into how Angostura is at every bar and how you can’t have cocktails without it. The episode ends by talking about how orange bitters are like salt and aromatic bitters are like pepper and you can’t cook without those.
[Episode 4 – Community]
In the final episode of season 2, we look at how the community is the glue that keeps everything moving forward. With cocktail culture exploding throughout the United States, it’s the community that keeps pushing the movement forward.
Meet your 2017 Punch Kings, Last Call bartenders here.
