How it works

The Competition

Speed Rack taps top female and femme identifying bartenders across the globe and puts them head to head in timed challenges. First we start with regional competitions to whittle down the applicant pool, with 20 mixologists in each market vying for one of sixteen slots that will make it to the nationals.

Part 1

Online Applications

Bartenders first use an online application to apply throughout the country. Last year we saw an average of 150 women apply per region; this year we expect even more! The twenty most qualified and talented bartenders in each market are then carefully selected to compete in their regional competition. These competitors receive our official recipe book of classic cocktails featuring our sponsors that they need to know for the live competition.

Part 2

Qualifiers

The twenty selected bartenders compete in a qualifying round that we call Prelims. This tests not only their speed, but also their aptitude in making four quality cocktails. After this round concludes, the top eight fastest times after penalty adjustments will advance to the on-stage competition!

Part 3

‘Round Robin’ On Stage Elimination

These top eight bartenders are then placed into a bracketed round robin style competition. Competitors go head-to-head in instant elimination rounds. They will make a round of cocktails selected at random, culled from a list of 50 classic industry-standard cocktail recipes. The judges request their selected drink from each competitor and then evaluate it based on accuracy, taste and presentation. The swiftest and most skilled women move forward to the next round until the final showdown. There is only one winner.

Each local winner receives an honorarium to compete in the National Finals and the opportunity to be crowned the winner of Speed Rack.