North Hyde Park restaurant Willa’s hosts its annual daiquiri competition next week

Each summer, Willa’s unites Tampa Bay’s cocktail drinkers and lovers of competitive culinary TV shows at its annual “Daiq Off” party.

This year’s rendition of Willa’s Daiq Off competition—sponsored by national spirits brand Santa Teresa Rum—returns to North Hyde Park on Tuesday, July 18, when Tampa Bay’s best bartenders compete to create the ultimate daiquiri.

The winner takes home a whopping $500 cash prize and the title of the “Fastest Tins in Florida.”

The competition is organized into three rounds: classic daiquiris, Hotel Nacional (typically made with apricot brandy and pineapple juice ) and Hemingway daiquiris (which feature maraschino liqueur and grapefruit), and the final round of “old fashioned” daiquiris, which seems like a creative combination of the two classic cocktails.

Willa’s says that these drinks will be judged by the criteria of flavor, washline, and time. The event is a tournament-style competition, where participants will go head-to-head until a winner emerges.

General admission tickets run for $15 each and include snacks and small plates from Willa’s and access to DJ AJ Hall’s bumpin’ tunes, while VIP tickets cost $30 per person but also come with two Santa Teresa cocktails of your choice. A cash bar will dish out beer, wine and craft cocktails all night.

All tickets can be purchased on Resy.com, where more information can be found about next week’s event as well.

For the latest information on this year’s Daiq Off, head to Willa’s Facebook or Instagram,  both at @willalovestampa. Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2023.