Mor Koral, founder of Salt & Spirit company in Tel Aviv, has been crowned global winner of the 2023 Patrón Perfectionists at the global final event that took place at Hacienda Patrón, Mexico, March 24-30.
This year’s Patrón Perfectionists global final event tasked 15 global finalists with three challenges. Field to Flavor, the first challenge, saw bartenders receive the brief on spot in the middle of agave fields in the Highlands of Jalisco. With a Mexican market stall featuring indigenous ingredients selected by chef Ana Martorell, the bartenders were given 45 minutes to create a cordial made of one of the market’s ingredients and use it to build a Patrón Reposado highball. Challenge #2, The Stories We Share, tasked participants with developing a Patrón cocktail recipe and story inspired by Mexico’s rich culture. The final test, Mi Mesa es Tu Mesa, saw bartenders design a hospitality experience that would delight the judges sitting at a table with a memorable service of a neat Patrón tequila serve paired with a non-alcoholic side cocktail creation. For each challenge, a winner was crowned, respectively: Choni Song (Wild Card winner, from China), Alex Boon (Australia), Max Macaulay (UK).
The global champion, Mor Koral gained a consistently higher scoring across all the challenges and impressed the stellar line-up of international hospitality professionals who joined as judges and mentors over the global final event – Ivy Mix, LP O’Brien, Tara Fougner, Sandrae Lawrence, Haba Flores, chef Ana Martorell, and previous Patrón Perfectionists global champions Giulia Cuccurullo and Harrison Kenney – with the below creations:
- Field to Flavor challenge – A Guava Horchata based Patrón Reposado highball, made with a home-made cordial of Guava, honey, rice syrup, lime juice, Sherry, cinnamon, and ginger.
- The Stories We Share challenge – A cocktail called El Mundo Magico, inspired by late surrealist and Mexico-resident artist Leonora Carrington, with Patrón Reposado, atole de elote, Mexican falernum and lime
- Mi Mesa Es Tu Mesa challenge – Mor put in place a collective ritual around a Mazet style dinner. Rotating around the table at the rhythm of music, judges participated in setting up the food feast with typical Israeli ingredients cooked by Mor. A tribute to togetherness and conviviality, Mor’s service featured a neat serve of Patrón Silver accompanied by her non-alcoholic creation Frankincense & More: clarified “labneh” cheese water, holy honey syrup, lemon juice and water.
Mor was praised by the panel of judges for her consistent execution across the challenges and for being a perfect host, always owning the room with captivating spontaneity and confidence. As part of the global winner prize, she will now embark on a year packed with travel and experiences around the world as Patrón Perfectionists and Academia Patrón community contributor.
“For me the Patrón Perfectionists has been a journey that started in 2017, when I first took part in the program in Tel Aviv,” said Koral. “Since then, I’ve been dreaming of making it to the global final at Hacienda Patrón, in Mexico. I am so incredibly excited to have been able to join this amazing group of people and celebrate my culture, rituals and ingredients alongside Patrón Tequila in its very home. Thank you everyone for embracing the stories and creations, I’ve shared with you, from my fellow bartenders to the judges and the Patrón team. I cannot wait to contribute to some inspiring projects with the Patrón Familia back home in Israel and around the world with the global bartending community!”
Lauren Mote, Global Director of On-Trade Excellence for Patrón tequila, commented: “What we have experienced over the Patrón Perfectionists global final event is testament to the growing excellence of the bar industry. The passion and knowledge these individuals keep on bringing to and sharing with our Patrón Familia make us so proud and grateful to be running this program. To know that the connections we have made this week are going to inspire the bartenders and generate new opportunities for them is an overwhelming joy. This is the spirit of the Patrón Perfectionists program and Mor with her wonderful fellow finalists are worthy representatives of it. We cannot wait to see Mor and the global finalists continue to deliver great projects with Patrón over the next year. Congratulations on an incredible showing this week Mor!”
The Patrón Perfectionists global final event took place at Hacienda Patrón, Jalisco, Mexico, from March 24 to 30, 2023 with the participation of the 15 global finalists below. To stay up to date with the program and upcoming news, head over to the official website.
Patrón Perfectionists Global Finalists 2023
- Sweden – Jayde Henderson @jaydehendo
- France – Gabriel Pons @gabrielpons_lisavi
- Spain & Portugal – Denys Cherkasov – @denis_chequebarman
- Germany, Austria & Switzerland – Telmo Pacheco – @telmo.noidea
- Italy – Andrea Benvegna – @mr.welcome
- UAE – Kaleb Berry – @kalebbarryy
- South Africa – Sabrina Traubner @sabrinatraubner
- Israel – Mor Koral @morko.koral
- Greater China – Lola Lau @lolasaysgo
- Australia – Alex Boon @doonbocksaint_
- Mexico – Adam Alvarado @adamabam123
- UK – Max Macauley @maxmacauley
- USA – Logan Demmy @pour_the_oil
- Canada – @dasht______
- Wild Card winner (China) – @choni_song