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360 Vodka's Being an Eco Friendly Vodka Seminar

360 Vodka's 360 Degrees of Mixology Contest

Summer Flair 5 Finals

Graham Kimura

People ask me if I’m a “Flair Bartender” or “Mixologist”. I reply I am a “Bartender”. I've been batending for about 15 years now and have competed in many competitions in Flair bartending and Mixology. My very first competition happened to be vodka infusion one and I ended up winning it. The feeling I had was pretty cool. The funny thing was I was only bartending for about 3 months then.

After that, I entered my first Flair competition back in 1999 for Beefeater Gin. I ended up winning that one too. See back then I barely knew how to flip a bottle and tin. Well because I won that, they sent me to NY to compete in the international finals. Wow…. What a wake up call that was. This is where I experienced my first real taste of what Flair bartending was about. I knew I was going to get killed in this competition but after I got home I went on the web site and bought everything I could on Flair bartending from Scott Young's Extreme Bartending videos and Ken Hall videos. From then on it was “practice”, “practice”, “practice”. I then started entering Mixology competitions to see what that was about and it definitely is completely different style. I was even lucky enough to go to Japan and hang out with Mr. Tomoyuki “Catman” Hojo -san. He definitely was the inspiration for all the Flair bartenders in Japan that exist today.

Since then, I have learned a lot from everyone and continue to learn as I go and believe me there is still a lot to learn. The last competition I entered was the Absolut Top Barteder show called “On The Rocks” (season 1) where I competed for $100,000.00. I ended up taking runner up and because of the show, I was very lucky to have found a great new family with 360 Vodka, the world’s first Eco-friendly Vodka, who brought me on as their National Brand Ambassador and Head Mixologist.

So I say to all bartenders, “ Don’t hate…Drink and Donate”!!!!!

Graham Kimura