Bartender sets cocktail-mixing record

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A bartender with nearly a quarter-century of experience set a world record this week by mixing 253 cocktails in an hour during a trade show in Las Vegas.

Bobby "G" Gleason kept up a pace of more than four drinks a minute. He shattered the previous record of 179 cocktails an hour, set in 2004, before a critical audience at the Nightclub & Bar Convention & Trade Show.

Gleason, who got his start in the fast-paced clubs of South Florida and then moved to Las Vegas, is now master mixologist for Beam Global Inc., the Illinois company that produces Jim Beam bourbon and other brands of booze. During his speed run, he produced a series of different margaritas based on two of his employer's brands, DeKuyper cordials and liqueurs and Hornitos tequila.

"It's all in the balance," he said.

A representative of the Guinness Book of World Records, a book that got its start as a means of settling barroom arguments, was also in attendance.