After a day of shaking and stirring, not to mention a few twists and a garnish or two, Dawadee Songprasert, affectionately known as “Dao”, was last week declared the winner of the Makro Thailand Creative Drink Challenge 2024.
Ms Dao was acclaimed champion, edging out mixologists from across the region, after her Sang Aroon and Aran Mahya mocktails won the hearts and tastebuds of the judges at the event, which was held on 16- 19 July in front of a live audience in Surat Thani, southern Thailand, and livestreamed on social media. She will now advance to the final of the national competition in Bangkok on November 3, 2024.
Dao said her winning mocktails, which she created herself, were the result of many years’ practice and experiment.
Her lip-smacking Sang Aroon is a stirred blend of homemade palm sugar, coconut sugar, lemongrass, ginger syrup, pandanus juice and ginger ale; while the Aran Mahya burns with a fiery bold flavour, enhanced by homemade stinging honey syrup, and complemented with roasted cashew nuts, sugarcane, rice syrup, soda and water.
Dao refined her mixology skills at various luxury hotels in Thailand before moving to Banyan Tree Krabi in 2023. She is now bartender at the resort’s Kredkaew Bar, which commands an idyllic location on the palm-fringed shoreline at Tubkaek Beach, where she and her associates shake martinis, blend daiquiris and stir sundowners for appreciative guests.
Among the locally inspired cocktails that are offered at Kredkaew Bar are the Tom Yum Cocktail, a zesty blend of vodka, lemongrass and lime, garnished with red chilli and galangal; and the coconut-creamy Tom Kha Cocktail, both of which are based on the eponymous well-known Thai soups, as well as the Khaw Niaw Mamuang Cocktail, with flavours reminiscent of the popular Thai dessert Mango Sticky Rice.
Tiered into a lush hillside facing westward towards the Andaman Sea and the sunset, Banyan Tree Krabi offers 72 pool suites and villas, among them seven two-bedroom options, one three-bedroom villa, and a majestic seven-bedroom beachfront Presidential Villa.
Facilities include two restaurants and a beach bar, a beach club, a kids’ club, a fitness centre, meeting rooms, and — in keeping with Banyan Tree’s wellness branding — a rainforest-themed spa.
