Bols Is Flying Malaysia’s Best Bartender To Amsterdam, Neon Nights And All

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There is a cocktail competition running in Malaysia right now, and the prize is a plane ticket to the Netherlands — an actual two-day trip to Amsterdam in September, hosted by Lucas Bols.

The winner trains at the Bols Cocktail Academy, visits one of the world’s oldest spirits distilleries, attends exclusive masterclasses and networks with the best bartenders from 20 countries — all courtesy of Bols, distributed in Malaysia by Luen Heng, one of Malaysia’s leading suppliers of beverages, wines, beers and spirits.

The theme this year is Neon Nights, and Malaysia is one of those 20 countries.

Bols has been running themed competitions for a few years — Disco in 2024, Blue Disco in 2025, where over 1,000 bartenders across 20 countries reimagined 1970s classics using Bols Blue Curaçao.

This year, the brief gets broader: Neon Nights is built around colour, nostalgia, nightlife and low-unit drinking, with the era entirely the bartender’s choice — the 1990s, Y2K, the 2010s, whatever party moment feels most alive to them.

The only requirement is that the drink looks like it belongs under a neon light and tastes like it was made for a night worth remembering.

Where Blue Disco locked bartenders into a specific colour and decade, Neon Nights hands them the whole dancefloor. (Pix: Bols)

The Rules In Plain Language

Your cocktail must include at least 20ml of any Bols liqueur, must come in under one unit of alcohol and should use no more than seven ingredients.

Submit a recipe, a photo and a short description through Difford’s Guide’s cocktail builder tool.

The one-unit limit deserves a moment’s consideration, as it is not the same as low Alcohol By Volume (ABV), which is a percentage showing how much alcohol is in a drink.

A cocktail can be low in ABV but still deliver a strong hit if the pour is large enough.

A low-unit cocktail measures the actual amount of pure ethanol in the drink — here capped at 18ml, roughly equivalent to a standard single shot of spirits.

Liqueurs are naturally lower in ABV than base spirits, which makes them the practical backbone of a low-unit build.

The challenge is using them to create something that still tastes like a proper drink; that is precisely the point. (Pix: Bols)

The range you’re working with

The Bols portfolio available for this competition is wide.

On the liqueur side: Lychee, Strawberry, Watermelon, Coconut and Peach for the crowd-friendly end; Elderflower, Maraschino, Crème de Cassis, Kirsch and both white and brown Crème de Cacao for the more technically adventurous.

Passoã and Bols Blue Curaçao round out the list.

Beyond liqueurs, the available range includes the Galliano line — L’Autentico, Espresso and Vanilla — Vaccari Sambuca, Bols Genever, Damrak Gin and Bols Vodka.

Local portfolio ingredients are welcome for the rest of the recipe.

The possibilities, as the competition brief puts it, are as wide as the range itself.

Bols Genever — the Amsterdam original, established 1575 — flanked by blue cocktails inspired by last year’s Bols Cocktail Battle. This year, the competition trades Blue Disco for Neon Nights, and Malaysia has a shot at Amsterdam. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

Taste Matters, But So Does The Show

Both the online heat and the live final use the same four criteria, each with equal weighting: taste and aroma, originality, visual presentation, and how well the chosen Bols liqueur comes through in the drink.

That last criterion is worth taking seriously.

Dropping 20ml of Lychee into a drink and letting five other flavours bury it is not enough.

The judges want to taste the liqueur, understand why it was chosen and see what was done with it.

A Bols liqueur that disappears in the glass is a quarter of the score gone.

At the grand final on 20 July, entrants have eight minutes to make four serves and present to the jury.

The presentation score rewards bartenders who treat those eight minutes as a performance, not just a service. (Pix: Bols)

From Kuala Lumpur To Amsterdam: Here’s How To Enter

The top ten finalists will be announced by 1 July, ahead of the Malaysia grand final on July 20.

But the online submission window is still open until 1 June; for bartenders who haven’t entered yet, there is still time.

The local heat — a Bols masterclass and battle event — already took place on 20 April at Vermut KL, a vibrant Spanish restaurant and tapas bar located in Kuala Lumpur. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

Win the Malaysia final, and you’re on a plane to the Netherlands in September 2026 for Cocktail Fever — two days that include training at the Bols Cocktail Academy, a visit to the Lucas Bols distillery, masterclasses, seminars and networking with winners from across the globe.

A practical note for anyone already thinking ahead: Malaysian passport holders require a Schengen visa to enter the Netherlands, and visa costs and arrangements are the winner’s own responsibility.

Other than that — make something that looks like it belongs under a neon light, submit it before 1 June, and see where the night takes you.

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Bols Is Flying Malaysia’s Best Bartender To Amsterdam, Neon Nights And All