When Devin “DJ” Ballard heard his name announced as the winner of Elijah Craig and VinePair’s 2025 A New Era of the Old Fashioned Cocktail Contest, he had trouble believing what was happening.
“They call my name and I’m just like, ‘No, I must be mishearing this,” he says. “They’re handing me the trophy and I’m looking around. I’m just like, ‘Oh my God.’”
As one of just five finalists, Ballard knew he was up against some truly excellent bartenders.
“Everyone there was so good,” he says. “I remember trying one of the other contestants’ drinks and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really good.’”
The final judging in Kentucky on Feb. 26 marked Ballard’s first appearance in the medal round of a major cocktail competition after about six years working behind the stick. Called Ogun’s Blessing, his creation won the second annual competition’s grand prize of $15,000 and placement in Elijah Craig’s “Old Fashioned Week Cocktail Companion: Volume 2” recipe book.
It’s a remarkable high point for Ballard, who began his career in the barista world before moving on to bartending. Working with coffee helped initially develop his palate for drinks, he says, and it still influences his personal take on great hospitality.
“When you’re working behind a coffee bar, sometimes you’re only interacting with people for upwards of 30 seconds, but you still want to make their day, you still want to leave an impact,” he says. “That really helped me find genuine ways to make connections, even for a snap moment. Sometimes I’m too busy to have a full conversation, but I can still make you feel seen.”
After working at several D.C.-area bars, Ballard has spent the last two years mixing drinks and connecting with customers at a renowned cocktail bar. He came up with Ogun’s Blessing at home, conceptualizing the drink in the abstract before ever pouring a drop.
“I do a lot of theory crafting before I even buy ingredients,” he says. “Once I have a solid idea down, then I’ll start buying ingredients, experimenting around, and making adjustments.”
He describes his workspace as a long white table covered with “an assortment” of various bottles, acids, and powders.
“I like to be a very organized, well-balanced person at work, but at home I can be a little bit of a mess,” he says. “I’m tasting and blending as I go.”
The conceptualization process started with a careful consideration of his main ingredient, Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon.
“I really wanted to keep this central to Elijah Craig — my entire cocktail was basically a love letter to the bourbon,” he says. “I tasted through it a few times. And as I’m pulling through these flavors, I’m thinking about all the things that it reminds me of.”
Taking inspiration from Ogun, the Yoruba god of fire and blacksmithing, he considered the flavors in the spirit that evoked stories of fire-bearers from a number of cultures, while considering how to create what he calls “a big, fruit-forward take on the Old Fashioned” without making it overly sweet. This inspiration also closely aligns with the legacy set forth by Elijah Craig himself, who was the first distiller to char oak barrels to make what we call bourbon today.
“I wanted to push the boundaries of what an Old Fashioned [can be],” he says. “Instead of taking a tropical fruit and trying to round it out or make it more saccharine, I really wanted the brightness and juiciness of the fruit to stand out. It’s bringing this nice, beautiful snap and pop to it.”
In the place of traditional simple syrup, he created what he calls Solar Flare Syrup: a triple version composed of oak-smoked agave syrup, dragon fruit syrup, and pomegranate honey that plays on hints of red fruits in the bourbon.
“The dragon fruit is in there paying homage to the Japanese fire god Kagutsuchi. The pomegranate is another nod to Ogun, and the honey offers a soft florality to round out those flavors,” he says. “The oak-smoked agave ties into Aztec culture and how they would drink fermented agave beverages after a fire ceremony. And the oak smoke ties directly back into Elijah Craig and those Level Three charred barrels.”
For his third ingredient, Ballard infused classic Peychaud’s bitters with African kola nut.
“The Peychaud’s plays a bit with those red fruit notes that you get on the nose of Elijah Craig,” he says. “Infusing the kola nut allows the bitterness to bring it back down and keep it in that spirit-forward way that you expect when you’re drinking an Old Fashioned — you want to have a little bit of strength and depth to it at the end. The bitterness from the kola nut really tied that together.”
For his drink’s final element, Ballard considered various citrus expressions before settling on the dragon fruit that was left over from making his syrup. Using a food dehydrator, he created his own unique dragon fruit garnish. But home bartenders, he notes, can easily use a store-bought version.
“I made sure to source it out — you can buy dragon fruit snacks online,” he says. “I feel like a lot of times, garnishes for Old Fashioneds are strictly utility-based, which is cool. But an Old Fashioned is such a fun and tasty drink that it deserves a really fun presentation.”
From those four parts, the whole of a competition-winning cocktail was created.
For Ballard, winning the contest is just one aspect of a remarkable trip to Kentucky. Visiting the Elijah Craig rickhouses at Heaven Hill Distillery was particularly meaningful, he says, making an essential element of whiskey production something he would remember as a rich, personal experience. More importantly, he’s also taking plenty of inspiration back home with him.
“Elijah Craig’s passion for the product they put out and for building their community resonated really well with me and made me so much more excited to really dive into what I’m doing,” he says. “I was so excited to be there, but I was also like, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to get back home, because like I need this level of fire in everything I do.’”
This article is sponsored by Elijah Craig.
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