The calvados cocktail competition is back for another round. Episode 5, same energy, new constraint: it's the wheel that chooses your aroma.
Let's be honest: five editions is no small feat for a cocktail competition driven by an interprofessional organization around a spirit that, until a few years ago, would make anyone under 40 run away. The Calva Club has reached this point. And for this new season, the concept is refined with a simple yet effective mechanism.
The principle is in three steps.
You go to calva.club, you spin the Calva Roulette, and the algorithm randomly selects one of the 24 aromas (yes, the wheel has been simplified for you) of calvados from which you will have to build your cocktail. Caramel, honey, pepper, coffee, toast, jasmine, rose, orange blossom, cocoa, mint, cinnamon, tarte tatin... the aromatic spectrum of calvados is wide, and that's precisely the idea. You don't choose, you adapt (even if you can cheat if needed).
Once your cocktail is created around this aroma, you add the stickers received by email after your registration and post it on Instagram with the hashtag #CALVACLUB, tagging @drinkcalvados and @forgeorges.
Why it's clever.
The aromatic constraint is precisely what makes the exercise interesting from a creative point of view. You're not just asked to make a cocktail with calvados (that would be too easy), but to build a recipe that tells something about a specific aroma. That's the difference between a participation and a genuine applied tasting work. This format forces you to ask questions you don't necessarily ask yourself. It also allows bartenders to adopt this wheel of aromas and thus better discover calvados.
And frankly, 24 aromas, that's a heck of a palette. Calvados is one of the most aromatically complex spirits, with notes of fresh or cooked apple, floral, spices, and woody notes developed during aging. This diversity is precisely what the Calva Club has been aiming to popularize from the start.
A little history, for the newcomers.
The first edition dates back to 2021. It was Ugo Moretto who won this first edition with his "Globe-Bouilleur," a technical drink built around a maceration of Sichuan pepper strawberries, melilot-infused white wine, and Pays d'Auge calvados.
The 2022 edition saw things scale up, with the inclusion of Belgian bartenders through a partnership with the Brussels Cocktail Week: six French against six Belgians for the 12 spots in the Norman final. This edition crowned Camille Pila.
In 2023, calvados shared the spotlight with scallops. Colin Lach won the edition with his creation "Coquille coquette," which mixed Burgundy truffle, celery, and coconut.
For the 4th edition in 2024, the theme was the reinvention of Café Calva: 70 participants, 12 finalists gathered at the Manoir de l'Évêché in Lisieux. It was Julien Achille who won the edition with his cocktail "Petit goût amer," praised for its tribute to the Norman terroir.
Five editions, that means something.
This is not a one-off communication stunt. The Calva Club has been built over time, with a community of participants who return from one edition to the next. For the IDAC (National Interprofessional Bureau of Calvados), it is an activation channel that decidedly moves away from the institutional register, and that, that remains rare in the world of appellations of origin. The proof: each winner becomes an ambassador for calvados the following year. Not a trophy placed on a shelf, but real continuity.
Do you have your aroma?
Go to calva.club, spin the wheel, and show what you can do. The rest is up to you.
