Speed Rack: Women Shaking Cocktails for a Cause (Episode 707: June 17, 2018)

There are plenty of cocktail competitions for bartenders, but Speed Rack was one of the first to highlight women working behind the bar. Lynette Marrero and Ivy Mix founded Speed Rack in 2012 to not only empower women in the cocktail culture, but also to raise money for breast cancer research and charities. They’ve succeeded at both over the last six years, and will be staging the first Speed Rack competition in Australia next month. We’ll talk with Lynette Marrero on WhiskyCast In-Depth, and while we’re talking about cocktail competitions, we’ll check in with Lynn House as the eight regional winners in Heaven Hill’s 2018 Bartender of the Year competition gather in Sea Island, Georgia for this week’s finals. In the news, China has joined the growing list of US trading partners targeting American-made whiskies for punitive tariffs as the trade war expands. Kentucky’s Castle & Key Distillery has successfully defended a trademark infringement suit over its use of the original Old Taylor name for its distillery, and on Behind the Label, we’ll look at the tricky question of when whiskies made in one country can be labeled as coming from another country.

Links: Speed Rack | Heaven Hill Bartender of the Year Competition | World Class | Castle & Key | Sazerac | Waldhorn Distillery | Scotch Whisky Association | Hven Distillery | Kyrö Distillery | Uncle Nearest | Royal Salute | Distilled Spirits Council | Balcones Distilling | Bruichladdich | Bunnahabhain | Brasil Duty Free