If you have an interest in cocktail culture, you may have heard of Ivy Mix, co-founder and hostess of the Speed Rack competition. Speed Rack seeks the fastest female bartender in the United States, and donates the proceeds from the competition to breast cancer research. In fact, the competition has raised more than $550,000 for the cause since its inception in 2011. Ivy Mix has also received recognition in the bartending world. Back in 2015, she won the Spirited Award for Best American Bartender of the Year. This award, given out at the Tales of the Cocktail festival in New Orleans, is highly-coveted and helped to bring Ivy Mix into the industry spotlight.
Ivy Mix is an ambitious woman, with great plans for the future. She has also had an interesting life, many aspects of which you may not know about. If you care to know more about this charismatic bartender, please read on to learn about Five Things You Didn’t Know About Ivy Mix.
She Got Her Start in Guatemala
Ivy Mix first entered the bartending world at a bar called Café No Sé, located in Antigua, Guatemala. The bar runs on an honor system, so the future Speed Rack hostess ran up an extremely large tab. The tab was so large that she actually ended up working as a bartender to pay off her debt. However, this wasn’t a bad thing — it gave her direction, as she finally knew what she really wanted to do! And the cocktail culture world should thank this little bar in Guatemala for giving her her start.
She Smuggled Liquor for the Founder of Ilegal Mezcal
Mezcal is a blue agave-based alcoholic beverage. When Mix worked at Café No Sé, there was a bit of a supply problem. The owner was having trouble keeping it in stock because very few Mezcals were labeled for export from Oaxaca. So, they got creative. Ivy Mix used to dress up as a missionary, and claim that she was bringing books across the border for the children. She never got caught in this role — no doubt due to her charm — and successfully kept up the supply of Mezcal for her favorite bar.
She Used to Be a Clumsy Bartender
Ivy Mix claims that she wasn’t always the speedy, gracious bartender that she is today. In fact, she has stated that she used to always knock things over and drop things. This is quite shocking coming from someone like Ivy Mix! Especially considering that she is now a world-renowned bartender with a competition built around quick and efficient serving of drinks.
She Runs with the Bulls in Pamplona
The celebrated bartender clearly has a bit of a wild streak. Besides smuggling liquor into Guatemala, she has gotten her adrenaline fix from running with the bulls. This celebration involves letting a pack of bulls loose in the streets of Pamplona, while the runners try to avoid getting mauled by the animals as spectators look on. Ivy has stated that she tries to make it out to the Running each year — proof that she is a bit of an adrenaline junkie!
Her Goal is International Expansion
Though she already owns a bar — Leyenda — in Brooklyn, Ivy wants to expand to other nations sometime in the future. Her end goal is to introduce cocktail culture to those places that haven’t yet seen it. For example, Madrid and parts of Argentina are among the first spots on her future list.
Ivy Mix is a fascinating woman with a bright future in the cocktail world. As her competition Speed Rack continues to increase in fame and prominence, we can hope that this woman will have more and more doors open up to her.
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