London Cocktail Week set to kick-off

London Cocktail Week is back and has promised to be bigger, better and longer than ever.

Here we run down the main events in the week:

The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show (7-8 October)

The Whisky Exchange is hosting its own show in London, after running two highly successful shows since November 2009 when in partnership with GE Publishing.

Hosted at Vinopolis next to Borough Market and open from 4pm until 9.30pm, its theme will be the art of food and whisky pairing

To accomplish this, renowned French “whisky chef” Martine Nouet shall be designing the menu.

The show places an “emphasis on older, rarer and more exclusive expressions of whisky in each exhibitor’s portfolio”.

To find out more or to buy tickets, visit: www.thewhiskyexchange.com/feature/whiskyshow/

Rumfest (15-16 October)

To mark the fifth anniversary of UK Rumfest, the largest rum and sugarcane spirits festival in the world, the show has added a brand new “Tropical Food Market” in Hammersmith Road, Kensington.

Opening from 12pm to 6pm, Rumfest boasts: “Cocktails mixed by the UK’s best mixologists”. There will be four hundred different rums to taste and you can watch demonstrations or go to master classes to learn how to make top-quality rum cocktails from leading industry experts.

This year, Rumfest is running two competitions. The first is open to all visitors, the “Rum Experience Chef of the Year”. On winning this, you will be “whisked off on an all expenses paid trip to the ‘Taste Festival in Barbados”.

The second, “Tiki Bar Tender of the Year”, is sponsored by Don Q Rum and is searching for the best baristas in London. This lucky winner will “be jetted off to Hollywood and receive a walk-on part in a A-list film”.

There will be live music all day including salsa, soca, reggae, zouk and samba.

To get tickets or find out more visit: www.rumfest.co.uk

Museum of Cocktails (7-16 October)

Eclipse cocktail bar has teamed up with Bacardi Brown-Forman to take over the top floor of Harvey Nichols with its Museum of Cocktails. Bartenders will take consumers back in time, recreating 10 of the “most iconic” cocktails from the last century. See the display of original bottles from Bacardi, Jack Daniel’s and Bombay Sapphire, along with antique glassware and cocktail shakers.

Highlights from the cocktail list include the 1910 Knickerbocker Martini, 1920 Manhattan and 1940 Mai Tai, moving right through to modern day classics such as the 1990 Cosmopolitan and culminating with The Eclipse, the bar’s signature watermelon cocktail.

Tapping into the trend for making cocktails at home, guests can also take part in masterclasses and take home copies of the recipes.

For more information visit www.museumofcocktails.co.uk

London Cocktail Week bus (10 -16 October)

200 venues have partnered with London Cocktail Week for its Cocktail Tours, taking place all over London.

All of the partnering bars involved have designed their own signature cocktail, each available that week for the Cocktail Tours at just £4.

The London Cocktail Week Bus will take a daily tour through the bars and pubs of a different parts of the city every day, from 6pm-midnight every fifteen minutes.

The buses are free of charge, except that you need to be at least 21 and wear a London Cocktail Week wristband to get on one.

The wristbands cost £10 and give you free access to the buses all week. To purchase one, just visit the website below.

You can pick the wristbands up at any time during London Cocktail Week from The Speakeasy at Gordon’s Bar, Selfridges in London.

To get a wristband or find out more visit: www.diffordsguide.com/london-cocktail-week

Founder of London Cocktail Week, Simon Difford, said: “London is the home of some of the world’s best bars and most skilled bartenders who will take centre stage for ten days in October as the most respected drinks professionals – from master distillers to brand owners and global bartending greats – descend on the city for a series of events, seminars and master classes.”