Giffard West Cup 2026: Belgium's Mathias Schäffer wins the Benelux final

A Brit who has spent six years living in Belgium and working behind a bar in Gent takes the regional cocktail crown for the Benelux and the Baltics. On 15 June, Mathias Schäffer of Soan Bar won the Giffard West Cup 2026, the regional final held at Under The Stairs, the bar inside the Corinthia Brussels. The win sends him to the international final in late September in Angers, the French home of liqueur house Giffard.

Schäffer (32), born in Aylesbury and based in Belgium for the past six years, won the judges over with a mix that rarely lines up in competitions like this: technical precision, balance in the glass, and a story that actually went somewhere. This year’s theme was “Sip The Moments”. The brief asked for two complementary cocktails, each capturing a different moment of the day. Not a single showpiece, but a pairing that had to hold together as a whole.

A bartender who loves the classics

Soan Bar in Gent is known for its contemporary approach and intimate atmosphere, and Schäffer fits that room exactly. His real love is the classic cocktail, and the Daiquiri above all. Three ingredients, nowhere to hide. Rum, lime, sugar, and everything rides on the ratio. Pour a good Daiquiri and you have shown you can handle balance, precision and restraint in a single glass. That this preference carries into his competition work is no accident.

In the Benelux-Baltic final he faced two other regional winners. Kevin Marchant of The Dublin House & Peacock Bar in Zwolle brought his fascination with whisky and cocktail history, served in a speakeasy register. Kristina Noreika of Nomads Cocktail Bar in Vilnius represented the fast-rising Baltic cocktail scene, a region that keeps gaining ground in contests like this one.

A heavyweight jury, and a host who matters here

The judging panel brought together Charlie Guilliams of Botanical by Alfonse in Namur, David Brumberg, founder of the Baltic Bar Show, internationally known bartender and entrepreneur Ran Van Ongevalle, and chef Christophe Hardiquest, founder of Menssa and Petit Bonbon. A group that covered both the bar side and the kitchen side of flavour.

Hosting duties went to Camille Vidal, an international No & Low Alcohol expert. And that is where this becomes a little more relevant to us than an ordinary cocktail contest. Vidal belongs to a movement that is reinventing the bar around less and alcohol-free, a theme we return to often here. That she is the one presenting this stage says something about where drinks culture is heading: craft and moment matter more than proof.

What Giffard is, and what comes next

Giffard was founded in 1885 by Émile Giffard in Angers and remains in the hands of the same family today. The house is known worldwide for its premium liqueurs and syrups, the kind of bottles you find behind almost any serious bar. The West Cup is its international bartender competition, with regional heats feeding into a single world final.

That final takes place on 29 and 30 September 2026 in Angers, on Giffard’s own ground. There Schäffer will compete against the winners of the other regions. Whether his loyalty to the classics holds up against an international field, we will only know at the end of September. For anyone following the Belgian bar scene, it is a name worth remembering either way.

For interviews with Mathias Schäffer or the recipes behind his winning cocktails, contact Alice Bown at [email protected].

Press release supplied by Alice Bown Agency (alicebown.agency). Photography: Giffard. VinoVonk has no commercial relationship with Giffard; this coverage is independent.