MONTEGO BAY, St James — FRIDAY the 13th of May proved to be quite a lucky day for Barry Anderson, a Dining Room Supervisor from Sandals Royal Plantation, as he ‘spirited’ away a $100,000 cash prize, as well as trip to Guyana in the inaugural ‘El Dorado Rum Cocktail Competition’.

Initiated by Sandals Resorts International in partnership with El Dorado Rum and Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ), the competition was opened exclusively to Sandals and Beaches team members.

After weeks of successful preliminaries across the island, entries were whittled down to the top 11 mixologists, giving each property one representative in the finale.

Charged to replicate their signature El Dorado cocktails from the preliminaries, as well as to submit an original El Dorado Martini mix, the stage for battle was set at Sandals Montego Bay in St James.

But it was Anderson with his Rado Coffee Tini mix who got the approval of the judges in the very competitive contest.

“I absolutely love coffee and I’m always experimenting with different ways to flavour my favourite brew. When I heard about this competition, I knew this was right up my alley so I tried several concoctions before I came up with this knockout mix that I called Rado Coffee Tini. I figured it would go over well with the judges,” said an ecstatic Anderson, after he was declared the winner.

Brand Manager Trishauna Kirlew for El Dorado Rum said she was particularly pleased with the collaborative effort of Sandals and CPJ.

“Sandals and El Dorado Rum have a great existing partnership and we thought this was a great way to inject some fun and excitement on the properties. It evoked creativity from the Sandals team members, got the guests involved as well as highlighted a great product,” she said.

Anthony Drummond from Sandals Whitehouse was adjudged first runner-up, while Dwayne Rochester from Sandals Negril, placed third.

CAP: photo in folder entitled ” sandals’

Barry Anderson, a Dining Room Supervisor at Sandals Royal Plantation (2nd left) pose with his $100,000 cheque, after he was adjudged winner of the inaugural ‘El Dorado Rum Cocktail Competition’ held at Sandals Montego Bay last Friday.