Students on catering and hospitality courses at West Nottinghamshire College, Mansfield, began their new start at college with a sparkling twist.

The COVID Compliant Cocktail Challenges were organised for the Level 2 Food and Beverage Service students and the Level 3 Hospitality, Supervision and Leadership students, with a view to the top chosen drinks to be featured on the new menu for the college’s Refined fine dining restaurant.

The events, held on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 September, began with a cocktail masterclass, led by front of house trainer Lee Coupe, who gave students lessons in cocktail and mocktail making as well as giving them the history of where different cocktails originated from.

Students were then challenged to design and make their own cocktail or mocktail using a range of fresh ingredients such as fruit, juices, garnishes and alcoholic drinks. They were required to make three of each of their chosen drink, calculate the cost to make the drink, suggest a selling price and to create a recipe card and a tent card to market the product.

After a morning of preparation and development students were judged on their creations by members of the college’s executive team, which included the principal and chief executive Andrew Cropley.

Some of the imaginative names of the cocktails included Hard Bass Slav, Lemon Mojito Fizz, Pineberryade, Citrus Sunrise Kick, Amarula Sunset Safari and Atom Bomb Baby.

Charlotte King, 18, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, created a Fruity Twist Blitz containing pineapple juice, lemon, lime, orange juice, cranberry juice and vodka. She said: “It’s been really exciting and a great opportunity to mix a range of cocktails. It’s enabled us to try new things on our second year of college and it will help us to develop our skills and aspirations which could enable us to get careers all around the world.”

Lee said: “It’s brilliant to get the students getting creative with flavours and the designs of their cocktails. They have all tried really hard to impress the judges. The cocktail market is a huge part of our catering industry. This is an amazing start to the academic year.”