Repeating is hard. Not to pick at the wound, but just ask

Repeating is hard. Not to pick at the wound, but just ask the Seahawks. So watching Angel Teta repeat as Miss Speed Rack Seattle on Sunday was damn impressive, even if it did mean giving the title to a Portland bartender for the second year in a row. As was the case last year, Teta managed to combine a frenetic pace with impressive accuracy, dispatching newcomer Holly Pugsley (of Seattle bars Anchovies & Olives and Tallulah’s) in part thanks to a gorgeous-looking tiki-ish creation and a deft hand with her garnishes. While the mostly partisan crowd might have been disappointed, it was hard to argue that Teta wasn’t a deserving champion.The real drama happened in the second semifinal, where Pugsley defeated Portland’s Mindy Kucan, who’d become a crowd favorite for her stunning exactness. In a competition where the judges love to assign time penalties for the slightest error, Kucan’s methodical approach resulted in a series of apparently perfect drinks. Unfortunately for her, Puglesy finished almost a full minute sooner, and even though her drinks were judged far more harshly, she managed to squeak into the finals.The challenge was upped this year, with a greater emphasis on new-ish classics and complicated drinks. After last year’s opening round featured relatively simple drinks like the Manhattan and the Martini, quarterfinalists this time around were separating egg whites and double-straining from the get-go. In all, a raucous crowd enjoyed fierce competition, a lot of drinks, and raised money for breast cancer research. Maybe 2016 will be Seattle’s year…