The contenders were under starters orders and the adrenaline was indubitably pumping as the team at the 5-star Soho Hotel Refuel Bar competed in a hi-octane broken clock vodka cocktail competition.
The contest saw a wide array of cocktail styles being shaken and stirred in the Kit Kemp Design studio styled surroundings of this plush classic-automotive themed brasserie.
Judges sipped on a tangy Broken Gimlet made with apple, sage and peas while the 16th-Century-inspired Sundial Royal was laced with lemon sorbet, watermelon, wood sorrel and elderberry tincture.
The line up also featured a deftly crafted Summery Strawberry Rhubarb Gimlet as well as Garden Delights; a supremely peachy summer punch.
But the winning cocktail by a whisker was the Timeless Bramble Twist, a colourful concoction crowned with homemade blackberry pearls and a striking lemon twist. Its complex recipe consisted of our awfully english vodka combined with apple, lavender, lemon juice, orange cordial and crème de mure.
The brainchild of Monique Chapman and @chai.t79 this more-ish creation is inspired by the hotel's cosmopolitan Soho neighbourhood - where the Bramble cocktail was invented in the 1980s - as well as the bucolic North Yorkshire moors, renowned for the fragrant purple lavender fields of the Howardian Hills as well as the idyllic English country garden at Shandy Hall where we gather the ingredients for our characterful vodka's recipe.
And if the thought of these tasty tipples has got your mouth watering then slip into gear and cruise down to The Soho hotel where the winning Timeless Bramble Twist will be available as a cocktail special for the rest of the summer
