As part of their course in Liverpool, our trainees had a session on Events Management.

The trainees were told at the beginning of the activity, that they would be working together as one team and would form an events company who were bidding to host the Euroclub Launch Party in Liverpool the week before the contest. They were given a brief which included 12 different job roles and between them they had to decide who would take on which role based on their talents and expertise.  

One of the trainees, Jordan Baines, put himself forward to the be the Bar Manager and one his tasks included coming up with a Eurovision themed cocktail with a catchy name.

Jordan said “I wanted to go for the Bar Manager role because I wanted to get an insight into bar management including looking at profit margins and how much it would cost to make a cocktail.

I had to come up with a Eurovision themed cocktail, so I started off by researching popular drinks from Ukraine. I knew that I wanted to integrate vodka as part of the cocktail, and I also wanted the drink to represent the colours of the Ukrainian flag – blue and yellow. I did an initial design, costed it up and presented it back as part of our Events Management activity. Everyone was really happy with what I had come up with.

I named the cocktail the ‘UK-rainian’ to reflect the countries of UK and Ukraine. This was to reflect the UK hosting on behalf of Ukraine (last year’s winner).

I spoke to my trainers about attempting to make it during our mixology class the following week. They agreed, and in our mixology class we experimented with a few different versions to decide what would work best.

The version we created in our mixology class consisted of vodka, blue curacao, pineapple juice and aquafaba. This was served in a blue sherbet rimmed coup glass and garnished with two slices of lemon peel.

The other trainees got to try the cocktail and they really enjoyed it! They said they liked the combination of sweet and sour. They also liked its appearance as it looked party-friendly and perfect for Eurovision.

I’m looking forward to watching Eurovision in Liverpool and making this cocktail for my friends.”

At the course graduation, two of Springboard’s trainers came along and made the UK-rainian for the graduates and their guests. This was a slightly different version to the one made in the mixology class.

This version had a base of vodka and blue curacao and rather than having an aquafaba foam, cream was used to give the cocktail a richer taste. It was again presented in a blue sherbet rimmed coup glass and this time garnished with a lemon slice and dried heather.

The graduates and their guests loved the cocktail and it was a great way to celebrate everyone’s success!

The Liverpool trainees with the ‘UK-rainian’ cocktail…