This campaign will prove bartenders can change the world

【 This post is sponsored by Wild Turkey. 】

Every bartender knows how to relieve their guests from a bad day by simply serving them a drink, and that’s quite something. Whether it’s too much pressure from work or despair from seeing your favourite team eliminated in the World Cup, bartenders always have the cure. 

But now, they’ve been given the chance to help more than just their customers. In fact, they can now build a brighter future for the children in impoverished areas of China with their drink-making power!

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25 bars in different cities around China have been brought together for the Wild Turkey 101 Charity Challenge – an innovative campaign where they each need to create a cocktail with the world-famous bourbon in the name of love. These cocktails will be placed on their menu    for two weeks from July 13 to 27. A portion of the proceeds from each drink sold (30% minimum) will be donated to the QIN Education Fund, a Chinese Red Cross associated charity that works to give less privileged children in China’s rural areas a better environment to learn and broaden their horizons.

The goal of the charity challenge? To raise ¥101,000 in total (10.1% of that will be donated by Campari Group). QIN Education Fund will use this fund to build a 60 sqm “future classroom” in Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province. Equipped with books, computers and other resources, the classroom focuses on project-based learning and an estimated number of 200 to 300 children will benefit from it. 

To ensure the transparency of the challenge, the amount of money raised by each bar will be published on DRiNK’s official WeChat account during the two week period. Bartenders from the top five scoring venues will go on a two-day trip to Wuyuan to help finish building the classroom in August. In addition, the top two scoring venues will send one bartender each to join Wild Turkey’s Behind the Barrel event in October. They will fly to the Wild Turkey distillery in Kentucky and represent China in the global cocktail competition.

Echoing the theme of the challenge, our 25 bars have all come up with a Wild Turkey cocktail inspired by childhood memories, be it a song, a story or a film. For instance, Grandma’s Penghu Bay by Bouchees (Shanghai) is named after a popular song in the 80’s, while Janes & Hooch (Beijing) has come up with a drink called Poison Apple, inspired by one of our favourite fairy tales.

As the charity challenge will prove, the bartending community can do more than just make drinks – they can serve a higher purpose through their craft and better the world. However, they couldn’t do this without your support. Starting from this Friday, check out the challenge in the participating bar closest to you and contribute to the cause one drink at a time.

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