Danish Championships in Cocktails & Mocktails 2025 — the recap

The 2025 edition of DM i Cocktails og Mocktails was the strongest in the competition's recent history — a sold-out final, a doubled mocktail field, and two new national champions crowned in front of a packed Copenhagen room. Scandic Bar was on the floor as official barware partner, and this is our short, honest recap.

The cocktail category was decided by tenths of a point. The winning serve — a delicate aquavit highball, layered with Nordic herbs — proved that restraint and clarity still beat complexity at the top of the field. Every finalist worked on the Scandic Bar Nordic mixing glass and the Fjord shaker, with hand-blown coupes from our Bohemian glasshouse partners on the serve.

The bigger story was the mocktail category. Entries doubled year-on-year and the final was, in our view, the most technically interesting round of the night. The winning non-alcoholic serve combined cold-pressed sea-buckthorn, lacto-fermented honey and a clarified pine cordial — a Nordic mocktail that would hold its own against any spirits-led drink.

We left the night convinced of two things: the Danish scene is in excellent shape, and the non-alcoholic category deserves the same investment as the classics. That's why we're returning as the official partner in 2026 across both categories — with bigger prize kits, broader regional support and editorial coverage in the Journal.

Thank you to the organisers, the judges, the bar teams and every competitor who put their craft on the line. We'll see you in 2026. #FromBartendersToBartenders.