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Ali Watts and Paige Garrett, mixologists at Harvey's, hold up a glass of Supernova — the drink that won them the "Best Cocktail" designation at Oxford's popular Iron Bartender competition. The gin-based drink, they said, is both an explosion of flavors and creativity, leading to its name.
The Supernova is a mix of Bristow Gin, lavender, butterfly pea flower tea, lemon juice and ginger beer.
Ali Watts and Paige Garrett, mixologists at Harvey's, hold up a glass of Supernova — the drink that won them the "Best Cocktail" designation at Oxford's popular Iron Bartender competition. The gin-based drink, they said, is both an explosion of flavors and creativity, leading to its name.
The Supernova is a mix of Bristow Gin, lavender, butterfly pea flower tea, lemon juice and ginger beer.
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TUPELO • More than anything, Ali Watts and Paige Garrett just wanted to have the same kind of fun they do every Saturday night behind the bar at Harvey’s in Tupelo.
"We knew, at the end of the day, we just wanted to create something together,” Watts said of the coworkers’ entry into Oxford’s popular Iron Bartender competition.
Neither expected to win. They just wanted to have a good time, create something delicious and represent Harvey’s and the Tupelo bar scene.
"We told each other going in that we were going to have a great time," Watts said. "We're going to treat this like every single Saturday night we have behind the bar."
Despite it being their first time competing, the bartending team scored Harvey’s its first win in the three years they have competed. Their drink — a gin-based beverage dubbed the Supernova — was picked as the night’s Best Cocktail … one of two prizes handed out during the competition.
Hosted annually by the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, the Iron Bartender competition tests local mixologists’ knowledge, creativity and skill mixing drinks by giving each team a random assigned liquor the week before the competition. The teams then have to concoct a unique, delicious drink, and then spend the night of the competition serving to both locals and judges alike.
Organizers describe the event as a take on the popular Food Network show “Iron Chef,” except with a drink-mixing twist. The event pits bartenders from across the area — mostly Oxford and Tupelo — against one another for one of two titles: Best Cocktail, which is selected by a panel of culinary professionals, and Crowd Favorite, chosen by attendees via tips to the bartenders.
The event serves as a fundraiser for the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council’s efforts to promote local artists through events, performances, classes and exhibits.
Besides the duo of Harvey’s bartenders, competitors this year included drink-makers from Tupelo’s Forklift and a number of popular Oxford drinking spots, including McEwen’s, Jinsei Sushi, Blind Pig, Uno Mas and Bar Muse.
Knowing they’d be going up against some of Oxonians’ favorites bars on their home turf, the Tupelo-based bartending team was nervous going into the event. Neither Watts nor Garrett truly expected to win.
“People were telling us, the week of the competition, that we wouldn’t win,” Watts said. “They said they’re not going to give it to anyone but an Oxford bar.”
Knowing the competition would be stiffer than the drinks being served, the duo practiced their drink-making skills for months leading up to the competition.
"We just wanted to be prepared," Watts said.
The duo also knew they’d have to create something out-of-this-world if they wanted to win.
A few days prior to the event, Iron Bartender competitors are assigned a liquor, which must be the basis for the cocktails they create.
Watts and Garrett’s assigned liquor was Bristow Gin, created by Jackson-based Cathead Distillery.
Although excited to be working with a Mississippi-born beverage, Watts said gin wouldn’t have been her liquor of choice.
"(Paige) is a lot better at gin stuff than I am," Watts said. "I was hoping for vodka or rum."
Still, creativity often thrives when given limits, and Watts knew she and Garrett work well together. It didn’t take the team long to formulate a plan … and an unusual beverage.
"One of the things in my garden this year is fresh lavender," she said. "I went to Paige and told her I really wanted to incorporate this lavender somehow. I thought it would go really well with the liquor."
The other key ingredient: butterfly pea flower tea. Created from a dry flower, the drink is known for its distinctive, bright purple coloration.
"If you mix lemon juice in it, it changes the color entirely," Watts said. "We wanted to kind of experiment with that and see what color we could turn our drink into."
Knowing that their competition would be tough, Garrett and Watts felt they had to create a drink that would be wholly unique and incredibly extravagant.
"We talked about layering the drink," she said. "So, on the bottom, we have the gin, the lemon juice, the lavender simple syrup and some ginger beer."
They then use a cocktail spoon to create an entirely new layer on top of the first. For this layer, they added some edible glitter into the butterfly pea flower tea.
The mix gave the drink an otherworldly look and, eventually, its name.
"It literally looks like outer space," she said. "It's really pretty."
They placed a lavender sprig on top of the drink to allow the drinker to mix the whole concoction together.
"When they mix it, they create the actual supernova," Watts said. "I think that's what gave us a big advantage; a lot of people liked that it was like a science experiment."
The team dubbed the cocktail the Supernova not only because of the explosion inside the glass, but because of the explosion of creativity which lead to its creation.
“Me and Paige are like a chaotic, hot mess put together, but it works so perfectly,” Watts said.
When their drink was announced as the night’s winning cocktail, the Tupelo bartending duo was shocked.
“It didn’t feel real,” Watts said. “We’re proud of the drink we put out, but we never thought people would love it as much as we did.”
And although neither Watts nor Garrett expected anything more out of the Iron Bartending competition than a chance to have fun and be creative together, perhaps that’s what made it possible for them to create their winning drink.
"A supernova is an explosion of stars; we explained our drink as an explosion of flavors," Watts said. "But, it's also an explosion of ideas. Combined ideas ... us together. It's an explosion of our chaotic (creativity) when we're put together."
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