The January 12 to 14 Saint Lucia Food and Rum Festival will celebrate the island’s culinary excellence and the finest rums of the Caribbean and the world.

A centerpiece of the festival is the Chairman’s Reserved Spiced Rum Cocktail Competition. The preliminary round of competition is a judge-exclusive event hosted at the Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort on Thursday, Jan. 11, and features 17 bartenders vying for one of the spots in the finals.

The bartenders will have given a total of five minutes to prepare their previously submitted cocktail recipes for judging. These cocktails may include any ingredients of the bartender’s choice and a minimum of two rums with Chairman’s spiced rum as the base spirit. The five highest-scoring bartenders will move on to the final round at The Main Course event on Jan. 14, at the Pigeon Island National Landmark.

The final round of the competition will feature a Mystery Bar from which the bartenders will have 20 minutes to review the mystery ingredients and design a drink recipe. The recipe must use Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum as the base spirit and consist of no more than 6 ingredients. The bartender’s written recipe must include the cocktail’s name, list of ingredients with measurements, the method of preparation, and the cost. The bartenders will then have 10 minutes to prepare the cocktails for judging.

The cocktails will be judged out of a possible 100 points. A total of 10 points for name, originality, creativity; 20 points for timing, method, neatness; 10 points for visual appeal, presentation; 40 points for aroma, taste, balance; 10 points for the use of Caribbean ingredients; and 10 points for the Use of Mixology Technique.

The winning cocktail is expected to become the island’s signature cocktail especially for visitors. For more information visit: http://www.stlucia.org/food-rum-festival/