Well folks, the dust has settled and a champion has been crowned. After a knock-down elimination battle, all of us at the Garrison Brothers family are immensely proud to announce Josh Davey as the champion of the 2021 Bourbon Brawl Presented by Garrison Brothers & Texas Monthly.
Josh is fighting out of Orange County, California, with the support of his friends and colleagues back at his home bar: The Blind Pig. Despite starting his bartending journey just a year ago, Josh has already proved more than capable of mixing it up with the best bartenders in the business.
Josh’s cocktail, the Texas Rose, is his first original creation as a bartender, and there’s no doubt that he’s coming out of the gate with a knockout punch in hand. Inspired by one of the all-time classic cocktails, The Whiskey Sour, the Texas Rose combines a pour of our award-winning Small Batch Bourbon with a follow-up shot of Amaro Montenegro, finished off with a blackberry cordial developed by Josh over a month of training. The result is a vibrant, viscous masterpiece that instantly catches the eye, backed by a powerful sage aroma and a deceptively bourbon-forward profile.
When the Texas Rose arrived in the hands of our judges, the reactions were immediate. Christian Orlando, Beverage Director of The Stand NYC, called The Texas Rose “nothing short of perfect”, and Anthony John Cozeck IV of Comstock Saloon noted that “the color is so incredibly vivid” and that the bright array of flavors “didn’t take away from the bourbon at all.” And, of course, Dan Garrison himself summed it up best: “I like this so damn much.”
In the end, it was a night of fierce competition, and any of our eight finalists could have easily walked away with the prize. But when the judge’s scores and public votes were tallied, The Texas Rose stood victorious, and Josh will be celebrating with a new title of Bourbon Brawl Champion, a $10,000 prize, and a barrel of Garrison Brothers Bourbon to call his own.
Congratulations to Josh, and thank you to all of our badass finalists who were able to join us this year. We hope to see y’all again for the 2022 Bourbon Brawl!
And for those of y’all looking to try the winning cocktail, it’s not too late to order our Bourbon Brawl Champion Cocktail Kit! Use the below to snag yours right now!
www.cocktailcourier.com/cocktail/bourbon-brawl-kit
Salud, and we’ll see y’all for the 2022 Bourbon Brawl.
