At a press conference held in Kaohsiung on Thursday, Kung Hui-chun (
To celebrate her success, the country's hospitality industry has renamed her award-winning cocktail from "Cool Stweetheart" to "Taiwan Sweetheart."
Kung is the first Asian to win the competition, held on Oct. 6, which is organized annually by the International Bartenders Association (IBA).
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
This year's competition took place in Thessaloniki, Greece.
The IBA, made up of the bartender associations from 52 countries, has been organizing the annual competition for 32 years in conjunction with the IBA Annual Congress. It also organizes the World Flairtending Competition.
Taiwanese contestants have previously done well in the flairtending competition, and this year, Taiwan's Yu Kang-hsien (
Taiwanese contestants have taken fifth or sixth place in the flairtending competition every year since it was established in 2000. However, no Taiwanese has ever made it to the finals in the cocktail competition before.
This year, the cocktail competion was fought out with "long drink" cocktails -- defined as a long refreshing drink in a 30cl glass. A maximum of five ingredients not exceeding 7cl of alcohol were allowed together with only one edible garnish. A total of 48 participants from as many countries went head to head in a three-round competition, which Kung won ahead of Stefan Stevancsecz from Austria and Tormanen Harri from Finland.
In a news clip broadcast by TVBS on Friday, the audience was seen rooting for Kung while competing with other contestants on the stage. Many non-Taiwanese in the audience were seen shouting "Taiwan! Taiwan!"
The ingredients for Kung's winning cocktail included: 3cl Bacardi Carta Blanca, 3cl Amade Choc-Orange, 3cl Monin Mojito mint syrup, 7.5cl fresh orange juice and 1.5cl fresh lemon juice. The garnish was a slice of lemon, a cocktail cherry or mint leaves.
The combination method used by Kung in the competion final, to paraphrase James Bond, was "shaken, not stirred."
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS