Annette: Mixing with the best

Hero Bar’s Annette Achieng Mulama is Kenya’s star mixologist – she beat 276 entrants to win Diageo World Class Kenya 2024. She is in Shanghai representing Kenya at the World Class 2024.

Annette is a three-time finalist for the same competition, and the only female to make the finals and win this competition since its inception some 9 years ago.

World Class is the world’s largest bartender competition that brings together the most talented bartenders from over 55 countries to crown the ‘World Class Bartender of the Year’.

Annette Achieng Mulama of Hero Bar had just won World Class Kenya, when we sat down for our interview on a Monday. Her voice, now worn out, is a scratchy, rasping whisper, bearing witness to wild celebrations.

One of her finals presentations comprised a margarita featuring Berbere spice and a salt air rim.

“This was my interpretation of the DonJulio’s Classic of the Future challenge where we were asked to picture a future margarita and paloma cocktails in 2042 when DonJulio will be celebrating a century in the industry,” she explains.

She says the salt air rim was an expression of the future, a contrast to the current use of a rim of salt.

The use of Berbere spice, which is native to Ethiopia was a show of diversity and the cultural exchanges between countries.

She won the judges over for her authenticity, hospitality,  likeable attitude and professionalism, which was no surprise to her colleagues given her training in hospitality and tourism management.

Her second challenge dubbed, Mystery Box, entailed picking a box with a surprise drink and thereafter selecting two ingredients from the kitchen and two from the bar.

The participants are then given an hour to prepare and present two cocktails.

“I’m glad I didn’t run into a rum because brown spirits need extra care. They have a unique taste which people don’t like.”

She wowed the judges with her teachable spirit, exceptional preparation skills and spontaneous creativity that pushed boundaries especially in how she used the ingredients.

But her win did not come on a silver platter. Annette has spent the past three years preparing for this competition.

“I entered the competition for the first time in 2022, barely two months out of Nairobi Bar School. I was there to learn and was surprised when I got to be a finalist. I used excessive ingredients in my Martini,” she says.

“I told myself I lose nothing by trying. From then, I studied most talented winners in the competitions to learn what they were doing.”

In 2023, she also made it to the finals, this time a little more confident.

“I forgot to talk about the chilli I had infused in my drink. My voice was still shaky,” she says of what she suspects eliminated her from the competition.  

“This year I made cocktails daily and posted on Instagram. I received feedback that helped me improve ahead of the competition,” she says. 

Coupled with practice, she has over the years relied on her trusty go-to books for knowledge and skills.

“Making cocktails comes naturally to me, but I have had the help of books to help improve my skills. ‘The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique; Shrubs’, ‘An old Fashioned Drink for Modern Times’, and ‘The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts’  are my go-tos. In fact in this year’s semis, I made a welcome drink that utilised some cool ice techniques.”

The drink itself was a hibiscus tea with edible glitter, sweetened with rhubarb root syrup, frozen in a slanted position.

“I added Tanqueray to this. As the iced hibiscus tea melts, it adds floral texture and subtly sweet taste to the Tanqueray as the glitter pirouttes in the drink, giving it a maroon and pinkish hue. Given that one can stay with a welcome drink for up to 40 minutes, it never becomes boring.”

To add more flare to this drink, she says, “I added a bouquet of edible flowers to accompany my welcome drink. Everything on my plate was edible. I didn’t want to do the usual flower on the side and garnish on the rim.”

“I spent a lot of time with our pastry chef, Catherine Kariuki who helped me plate and work colour and flavour pairings,” she says.

What are her favourite techniques?

“I like flavour forward techniques like cherub’s, which involves muddling of strawberries, and infusions. I like a mix of flavours in my drink, so I’m always looking to come up with something exceptional by combining herbs and spices.”

She is confident of success in Shanghai: “World class has grown and challenged me.”