The Rest Of The Bartenders Competing In The Hennessy MyWay Ireland Final pt 2
The Rest Of The Bartenders Competing In The Hennessy MyWay Ireland Final pt 2
Ten of Ireland’s best bartenders are heading to The Sugar Club on Tuesday, 11 August, where they’ll battle it out in the Hennessy MyWay Ireland Final for the chance to represent Ireland in Cognac, France. Here’s a closer look at the remaining finalists and the cocktails they’ll be serving.
Sadhbh O’Dalaigh won iStil38’s Ireland’s best female bartender in 2025 and is currently working in Caribou in Dublin. Her cocktail, named after her late grandmother Maggie, is a touching tribute to the woman who inspired it. Every element of the drink is carefully considered. Pear, one of Maggie’s favourite fruits, is paired with gorse flower, chosen for its coconut and vanilla elements – a scent she always stopped to take in. The rose elements in Amaro Montenegro are a nod to the roses Maggie tended to in her garden, while Hennessy’s oak, stone fruit and vanilla notes tie everything together.
The accompaniment is just as thoughtful: a Hennessy-spiked jam made by Sadhbh’s grandfather, spread onto soda bread using Maggie’s own recipe, all served on a wooden board handcrafted by Sadhbh’s father. This drink is such a beautiful homage to Sadhbh’s Granny.
Stefi Fletcher is a bartender originally from Basel currently working at Bar 1661. Her submission is inspired by all the skiing she did as a kid with her family, with fond memories of starting every day on the mountain with a hot chocolate. Her dad on the other hand enjoyed a stronger version of the stuff, pouring a mysterious golden liquid in his (spoiler alert, it was Cognac).
Stefi invites you to do as her dad did by boozing up your childhood winter fave. Her cocktail, The Chocolat Papa, recreates that ritual. Hennessy V.S.O.P is served alongside hot chocolate, inviting guests to enjoy “the moment of calm indulgence of Cognac followed by the warming embrace of chocolate.”
Pedro Monteiro grew up near the Paraguayan border in Brazil and is the current bar manager at ACES in Limerick City. His submission tells the story of arriving somewhere new and slowly finding your place, mirroring Pedro’s own journey. The cocktail serve begins with a limerick Pedro wrote himself – a nod to the city that’s become home since moving to Ireland. His drink combines Hennessy with clarified apple juice, honey orgeat, a kombu saline solution, and is garnished with dandelion and a zero waste fruit leather. A drink and a show. What’s not to love?
Shaughan Hanrahan is currently tending the bar at Vincenzo Grill House & Stone Oven in Limerick and is a Diplomático Artisans Of Taste Ireland 2025 Finalist. His cocktail on the night is the Bóthar Abhaile, inspired by one of life’s greatest pleasures: the after-work pint, which in Shaughan’s last job, was a pint of Guinness and a slice of brown soda bread. Alongside Hennessy, Shaughan uses a Guinness syrup, paired with a brown bread tincture. To create the tincture, he used stale brown soda bread to give the solution warm malt notes. For extra sustainability points, he used miso from his cupboard to make a miso honey saline solution to bring out the fruit notes in the drink. The garnish is a Guinness tuile with a crouton made from the brown bread used in the tincture. The finishing touch is a side shot of Hennessy, Guinness syrup and honey-miso cream to represent the staff drink after a shift.
Theo Gordon-Boyd from Bangor, Co. Down is the man behind the bar at Ava’s Winebar, also in Bangor. His aim was to create a zero waste cocktail, using hyper local ingredients. The Saunter combines Hennessy VS with a locally made honey syrup, citric and malic acids to replace lemons and limes, which are not native to Ireland. It’s finished with a pine needle soda made from storm-felled branches, served in a glass cut from a recycled Hennessy bottle and seasoned with a saline solution made from local seawater. Every element has been carefully considered, proving that sustainability doesn’t have to come at the expense of flavour. If anything, Theo’s cocktail shows that a little creativity can go a long way. Maith thú Theo.
