MixingSpirits
I
n 2008 he competed in the competition
Now a bartender for five years, Tajah attends Tajah says although he had two weeks notice
held as a part of the celebrations held
the Bar, making cocktails and serving them before leaving Antigua, the preparations
during the local Mango Festival, and
at the Hermitage Bay Hotel on a daily was exciting. “I had to get three drinks
he won with his ‘MAN-on-the-GO’ and
basis. “Being a bartender involves keeping together quickly,” he reminisced. He was
‘Frozen Mango Heat’ recipes. Later that
the guests happy. Everybody likes to drink able to pull it off in time to be entered
year he coped a bronze medal at the regional
and that’s where you find people coming in the competition, and he has not
level, representing Antigua in Puerto Rico.
a lot.” regretted the effort. “Being there, it was
like something else, people walked with
Tajah Phillip started bartending in 2002 at
“Its not just being at the bar and serving their garnish, prepped, melons carved into
the Grand Royal Antigua Resort. He found
them, you have to find a way to keep them lizards and iguanas and such,” he said.
a job as a bar porter while completing his
interested while serving them,” he adds. “There were some people who stood out,
secondary school education at the Ottos
but everybody was really there, it was really
Comprehensive School. Tajah worked
Tajah says the hardest thing about being a good experience.”
as a porter for two year before becoming
a bartending is that the work is never
a bartender. He describes his journey as
finished. “Every time you think you’ve Tajah says his level of bartending has
moving from simply filling a vacancy as the
served everybody, you have to go back and improved since taking part in the
bar porter to a deep love and respect for
ensure that you’ve prepared for the next competition. He continues to study at
bartending.
person coming.” home, experimenting with different flavours
and textures of cocktails. He loves when an
As a bar porter Tajah was responsible
Tajah’s favourite cocktails to make are idea that started in his head, becomes a
for getting all the stocks for the bar and
the rum based ones. He says he loves to tasty drink in the hands of a guest.
making sure everything was in place for
use local rums, like Cavalier and English
the bartender before he got in, as well as
Harbour Rums. This self taught bartender would love to
replenishing stocks while the bartender is
continue bartending, but not forever. Tajah
present.
Speaking of his experience in Puerto Rico, sees himself working in the hospitality
industry sometime in the future.
28 | BusinessFocus • Feb/Mar 2010
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