Mixology master: Happy Accidents’ Tammy Bouma wins national title

Happy Accidents bar manager Tammy Bouma is a national champion.

Bouma has been crowned Speed Rack Season 12’s national champion. Speed Rack is an exclusively woman and femme high-speed bartending competition designed to highlight up-and-coming talent in the cocktail industry and give back to those impacted by breast cancer, according to its website.

Speed Rack Season 12 benefitted several breast cancer organizations including SHARE, a nonprofit that supports women affected by breast, ovarian or metastatic breast cancer; Pink Agenda, a not-for-profit organization that raises money for breast research and care; Bright Pink, a nonprofit that empowers women to know their risk of breast and ovarian cancer and manage their health; and the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund that provides financial assistance to low income people battling breast cancer, according to the Speed Rack website.

Speed Rack has raised more than $1.75 million in the fight against breast cancer, according to a Speed Rack news release. All proceeds raised during Speed Rack competitions benefit breast cancer research and education.

Bouma said you must apply to be considered for the Speed Rack competition. Potential contestants give some background on their bartending background, their mentors and their relationship to or awareness of breast cancer as well as submit a short video about who they are.

Speed Rack Season 12’s national championship took place in New Orleans.

“It’s based on speed, but also technical skill and correctness,” Bouma said of the competition. “It’s not just how fast you can put out a drink, it’s how accurately and good tasting can you put out a drink.”

Bouma said the competition is a fun one with four regional events. She said about 30 girls compete per regional competition and are given a list of about 150 cocktails.

“When you show up, they’re going to call four of (the regional competitors),” she explained. “And you don’t know what (the cocktails) are until you walk up to the bar. Then it’s like, ‘Okay, do you know the specs? Can you put a drink out correctly, accurately, cleanly, without breaking anything?’ And then you are assigned four drinks and you can’t put like rum in your margarita because if you do, then that’s a time penalty.”

Bouma said the regionals were held in the spring in Denver and the national competition was held in New Orleans in July.

“The drinks I made on stage, I think there was a Queens Park Swivel, a Jungle Bird, a Paloma, a Vieux Carré,” she said. “I want to say, a corpse reviver, because there’s multiple rounds.”

Bouma added that two contestants at a time go head to head during the national competition. She said the two competitors make the same drinks that go the judge.

“They’re like, all right, are these correct? Are they done to spec? Are they delicious? And which one’s better?,” she explained. “They’ll assign any time penalties. And then the fastest girl goes on to the next round.”

She said being part of the competition and preparing for it was a “wild” experience.

“Bartending is very athletic or it can be,” Bouma explained. “For me, it was a lot of going into work every day and practicing pouring water out of bottles, researching specs with my partner and just thinking through what different combinations could be and how to strategically put things out and also practicing during work.”

Bouma has been part of Happy Accidents, 3225 Central Ave. NE, for two years and has been bartending for about eight years.

“I met the owners of Happy Accidents at one of our bar events, like one of the national conferences, and heard about all the things they were doing with Happy Accidents and the bar and how different it was,” she said. “And then they invited me to come try out, see if I liked Albuquerque, see if I wanted to work at the bar. And I did, so I moved from the East Coast to Albuquerque to work there.”

Prior to moving to Albuquerque, Bouma worked at college bars in Boston and later immersed herself in the cocktail community in Baltimore, according to the news release. She joined the Happy Accidents team as bar manager in 2022 under the guidance of owner Kate Gerwin, who has also made a name for herself by being recognized with several prestigious accolades and appearances on shows such as Netflix’s “Drink Masters.”

Now that Bouma has the national title, she said she will serve as an ambassador for Speed Rack.

“Because it’s a charity event and it raises money there’s not a grand prize,” she said. “It’s actually just uplifting a community and supporting the bar community, supporting female bartenders.”