Blossom Bar’s Jen Laforge Wins U.S. Finest Roots Cocktail Competition

At New York’s Ousia Mediterranean restaurant on Monday, Jen Laforge of Boston’s Blossom Bar won the U.S. Finest Roots Cocktail Competition. Laforge beat out 19 other esteemed bartenders in the national competition

The competition brief was simple: Create a low-ABV cocktail using no more than five ingredients, including a base of any of the four Roots liqueurs, Rakomelo, Mastic, Kanela, and Diktamo. The mix had to be a riff on a classic cocktail and connect in some way to the bartender’s “roots.”

Contestants were given five minutes to prepare their drinks while recounting their back stories to judges. Laforge won with her cocktail, “Always Sunny.”

VinePair CEO and co-founder Adam Teeter was among the competition’s three judges. “I fell in love with [Roots products] on a trip to Greece three years ago,” Teeter says. “I then got to know Nik, the founder, and have been incredibly impressed by the quality of his product.”

Ingredients in Always Sunny:

• 1 1/2 oz Roots Diktamo
• 1/2 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 oz Coco Lopez

Always Sunny Directions:

• Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake with ice.
• Pour over crushed ice in a collins glass.