Africa’s 2023 Showreel

It’s been a doozy of a year for the African bar community, with plenty of wins as we’ve put the pandemic firmly in the rear view and got down to the serious business of global integration. Of course, we’ve had a couple of setbacks, compared to 2022, but all in all we have plenty to be proud of. Let’s recap, and see exactly how we’ve fared, year on year, and where we need to step up in 2024.

GLOBAL BAR AWARDS

With our milestone five bars in the long list for World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2022, and particularly with Cape Town’s Cause Effect sitting at 53, there were high hopes that we may be able to re-enter the top 50 in 2023. (This is something that’s been eluding Africa since 2012.) However, the year saw a big shake up, and only two of our bars managed to stay in the list, the silver lining being that they each moved up a few places. Here, Hero Bar in Nairobi moved up eight places from 62 to 70, while Sin+Tax in Joburg gained six places from 100 to 94. In Top 500, Cause Effect had the highest rank at 99, a little down from their 88 of 2022, but still doing us proud placing in the top 100. SinTax, The House of Machines and Art of Duplicity all stayed in the list, the highest mover being House, which jumped up a whopping 270 places from 430 to 160. Regrettably, Hero fell off the list this year, from its 457 ranking of 2022.

GLOBAL INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

While none of our bars featured in the top 10 for the Spirited Awards in 2023, we did not go unrepresented, in that South Africa’s Caitlin Hill made top four for Best International Brand Ambassador. This is the highest ranking that anyone who lives and works on the continent has achieved to date – well done, Catlin! Yours truly also made a global top four, for the Best Spirits Communicator at London’s International Wine and Spirits Competition, so we’re slowly moving to an individual African win on the world’s stage. In 2023, Kurt Schlechter and I were both voted into the Bar World 100 again, flying the flag for South Africa (and the continent) as two of the 100 most influential figures in the global bar industry. Kurt moved up 14 places from 79 to 65, while I slipped down eight from 52 to 60. Finally, Sabrina Traubner, head instructor at European Bartender School in Cape Town, was named Instructor of the Year out of 30 worldwide schools. Hoorah!

COCKTAIL COMPETITIONS

While we didn’t have any African wins for brand competitions, both Julian Short and Leighton Rathbone from South Africa did very well, placing top 12 and top 10 in their respective contests.

COMPETITION JUDGING

With South Africa’s thriving wine industry, we have a number of experts who regularly judge global wine competitions, including Jono Le Feuvre, Greg Mutambe, Pearl Oliver, Malu Lambert, Fiona McDonald and Winifred Bowman. On the spirits front, Johan Venter has long been representing the continent as an expert taster in awards programmes such as the International Wine and Spirits Competition; in 2023, the author of this feature joined the panel of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

SCHOLARSHIPS & APPRENTICESHIPS

Africa did well here! Five bartenders were awarded scholarships in the Hanna Lee Communications Travel Scholarship, namely Abednego Opoku and David Nyamekye from Ghana, Joshua Alabi and Olarchi Chigor from Nigeria, and Becca Melvill from South Africa. Two candidates made the top 25 in a scholarship, out of 600 applicants, namely Annette Mulama from Kenya and Dyna Ukala Oluwasola from Nigeria. Kenyan Eugene Nyaundi Mangerere also got into the Portland Cocktail Week scholarship programme. Furthermore, Karin van der Westhuizen from South Africa was awarded a Student Educational Scholarship from Women of the Vine & Spirits. Regrettably, visa issues have prevented most of these scholars from actualising their wins, but hopefully they’ll do so soon. Also, sadly no candidates from Africa were accepted into the Cocktail Apprentice Program with Tales of the Cocktail for 2023. Here’s hoping we see a couple there in 2024.

GLOBAL BAR EVENTS

I’m thrilled to say that Africa was repped at some 13 global bar shows, award ceremonies and events in 2023, from Bar Convent Berlin to Bangkok Bar Show. In fact, we had a full-on Africa posse of some 12 pax at The World’s 50 Best Bars in Singapore, and we even did an Africa takeover at Sugarhall, with Julian Short, Kelvin Thairu and David Nyamekye slinging drinks together to showcase South Africa, Kenya and Ghana. This followed on from another Africa crew in the city earlier in the year, when six South Africans attended Singapore Cocktail Week together. Here, Charné van Heerden, Mthandazo Mweli and Dalu Dubu took over Employees Only for a memorable throw down.

GLOBAL BAR SHIFTS

Indeed, quite a few Africans were invited to get behind foreign sticks during the year, by independent bars. Here, Hero’s Kelvin Thairu dominated, hitting the ground running from his first ever global shift at Locale Firenze in Florence in March to working Baba Au Rum in Athens, Salmon Guru in Madrid, Paradiso in Barcelona, Vesper in Bangkok and A Bar Called Gemma in Stockholm. Moe Riungu joined Kelvin at two shifts here, namely Baba Au Rum and Paradiso. Julian Short from SinTax did loads as well, working Cambridge House in Paris, Moebius in Milan, Origin Bar in Singapore and The Bar in front of the Bar in Athens, alongside Charné van Heerden. As usual, Kurt Schlechter did his bit too, pouring serves at REM in Rome, Nutmeg & Clove in Singapore and Crimson Room in Bangkok.

GLOBAL PANELS

As for speaking at global events, we certainly upped our game from 2022, when (to my knowledge) the continent didn’t feature at all. Most significantly, we presented a seminar called “Africa is Now!” at Tales of the Cocktail, moderated by myself and Colin Asare-Appiah and featuring Lara Rawa (Nigeria), Stephen “Kojo” Aidoo (Ghana) and Richie Barrow (Kenya).

I’m proud to say it got great feedback, as one of the highest-ranking presentations at the event. Richie and I then teamed up with Cameron Hawkins (South Africa) to discuss “How the world is shaping Africa, and how Africa is shaping the world” at the global Creators Hub bar show in Cape Town. Here too, Evert de Jong, Kurt Schlechter, Charné van Heerden and David Donde discussed “Journey to World’s 50 Best”, taking about what their respective bars have done to make the list, and what others should aim for. Over at Athens Bar Show, Julian Short repped Africa on the “Cocktail Trends from Around the World” panel, while I presented a seminar called “What’s Shaking in South Africa.” Finally, other talks included Kurt’s seminar on “Barterroir and how we built our four bars into our four pillars of nature” at Bangkok Bar Show; Evert’s “Get it out loud! Breaking down toxic work environments should be our mission” panel at Bar Convent Berlin; Cassandra Eichhoff’s “New Influential Market” at Bar Convent Berlin; and Sabrina Traubner and Cass pairing up to present “How to win a cocktail competition” at Bon Vivant. As part of their global shifts, Julian presented a masterclass on South African Bar ownership at Cambridge Public House, while Richie assisted Kelvin in doing a bartender masterclass at Paradiso. Massive well done to all these speakers for stepping up!

HOSTING GLOBAL BARTENDERS

Last but not least, we hosted several global bartenders in Africa too. Iain McPherson’s Panda & Sons (Edinburgh) shift at Cause Effect V&A Waterfront was a total banger, as was his masterclass on freezing techniques.

Sexy Fish’s (London) menu launch at Cause was equally fun, and the REM (Rome) team showed us a good time too. REM went to SinTax as well, as did Amelia Restaurant and Lounge (Dubai and Lebanon) and The Cocktail Trading Company (London). The later team were treated to a safari during their visit, taking a leaf from Hero’s playbook. Speaking of Hero, they hosted Salmon Gurr (Madrid), Little Red Door (Paris), Baba Au Rum (Athens) and Shingo Gokan from the SG Group during the year. Shingo came straight to Cape Town afterwards, where he did a shift at The Drinkery after speaking at the Creative Hub. Talking to Strangers histed their inaugural takeover with Satan’s Whiskers (London), who also presented at the Creative Hub.

CHEERS!

Joh, that was a lot, did we did a lot! Naturally, I didn’t mention every single thing on my radar, and I’m sure I missed plenty that wasn’t, but I’m delighted with the continent’s progress, and I can’t wait to see what 2024 brings. Thanks for reading, and see you at the bar!