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Update, 8 October 2026: When I first wrote this article in September, I promised I would come back once the top five in each category was announced. It has been, so here is the honest version. This piece started as a celebration of being shortlisted, and I have rewritten it to show where Nectar actually stands now. The short version is that we are in the top five in five categories, we have two more decided at live finals on 14 October, and we missed out on one. Here is the f

I have written about Nectar's cocktail competitions before, and they have mostly been stories about getting close. Panos reaching the Bumbu Originals final. The jalapeno syrup that came out of preparing for the Patron Margarita Challenge and ended up living permanently in Warmth Within. Those articles were about the process of competing, win or lose. This one is different, because for once the story is not about how we did in a competition. It is about how we never actually g

A few weeks ago, a customer got in touch and asked something we had not been asked before: could Nectar would be willing to organise a Cocktail Pop Up in Edinburgh, for a private party, somewhere other than Broughton Street. We said yes. It was our first pop up, and I want to write about how it actually came together, because it closes a loop that has been sitting open since before we even opened the bar. Why having a cocktail pop up in Edinburgh has been on our mind since be