How to braai a winning cocktail

He’s strong, he’s fit, he talks a lot, is “a bit of a psychologist for guys in need of a drink” — and now he is the creator of the Joburg-inspired “chakalakita” — silver medal winner in the 2024 Cointreau Margarita Challenge. 

Mixologist Patrick Rowson, 25, a bartender for the upmarket global Peruvian fusion restaurant chain Coya, spends his time between Coya Dubai and Coya Mykonos, putting in 12-hour shifts doing what he loves. 

And now to top it all, he has developed a drink that has not only grabbed global attention, but features on the Coya cocktail menu — in Dubai you can order one for Dhs72, the equivalent of about R360.

“But you can’t really convert these things because that’s the standard price for a decent drink in Dubai, it’s not even expensive,” Rowson told the Sunday Times this week, back home after his big win last month at the competition finals in Paris. 

Rowson was born in Johannesburg and started bartending in 2017 when he got a job at Love Me So, a small bar in Melville. He “bounced around at a couple of other places” and eventually joined Liquid Chefs. 

“One day I saw an advert for a bartender in Dubai, so I sent in my CV and ended up moving there in 2018 to work on a cruise ship that had been remodelled into a bar called the QEII.” 

Rowson worked at various restaurants in Dubai and entered dozens of cocktail competitions, anxious to get his name out and his skills recognised. 

“It took me a while to find the perfect fit, but then I got into Coya Dubai through a seasonal job I got with Coya Mykonos in 2022.”

I was really excited when I discovered that chakalaka was invented in Joburg and the name means ‘to all come together’

—  Patrick Rowson, mixologist

 In February this year he won the Dubai leg of the 2024 Cointreau Margarita Challenge — this year’s theme was “Capture the flavour of your city”. 

“It was quite difficult because in Dubai you have people from everywhere — from Indonesia and Russia and South America, and here I was from Joburg, which I think is quite boring in comparison. I started researching stuff but Joburg is not known for any kind of fruit or particular flavour.

“I mean Cape Town has fynbos, but I needed something from Joburg that I could talk about because in a competition you have to talk about your inspiration and tell a story. So I was really excited when I discovered that chakalaka was invented in Joburg and the name means ‘to all come together’,” he said. 

And so it all came together; he won the Dubai stage and made it through to the world finals in Paris.

So what’s in the chakalakita?

“There’s tequila, some mescal for smokiness, Cointreau obviously, tomato juice, some red and yellow pepper, citric acid, some coriander seeds and then salt and pepper,” Rowson said. 

“Then you mix it all up, shake it around and serve it in a glass over a giant ice cube. I would have a kind of mini-braai next to me where I would grill peppers while making the drink and then serve it with a baby pepper on top.”