Slow Boat Earns Fifth Title with 2021 Burger Cup Win!

The voters have spoken and a champion has returned: Slow Boat Brewery regains the title of Beijing’s Best Burger. Plus, with this being their fifth title, they continue their streak as most decorated winner in Burger Cup history!

This means Q Mex, who made it to the top with Slow Boat, ranks second best in Beijing. As for the runner up contest between Home Plate BBQ and Slider Nation, Home Plate has come out on top. This means Home Plate is Beijing's third best, while Slider Nation ranks fourth.

The path to the championship began with the Burger Fest. Crowds gathered around Slow Boat’s booth for all three days of the fest, where their top burger – the legendary Fryburger, a perfectly cooked beef patty with a slightly pink center, covered in melted cheese, beer battered French fries, Slow Boat’s signature “ayi-oli” sauce, all sandwiched within a sesame encrusted bun – remained the star of the show.

The question on everyone’s mind this year: would Slow Boat reclaim their title, would they lose again to 2020 winner Side Street, or would both be struck out by some unlikely underdog?

The Road to Victory

The Burger Cup kicked off with smooth sailing for Slow Boat as they entered the Round of 64 in a top seed. As the rounds progressed, they battled and sank a number of other quality burger slingers: Panda Brew, Miam Miam, The Local and Jing-A.

From the Sweet 16 onwards, though, there was a storm on the horizon. Upstart Slider Nation – who was no newbie to Burger Fest, having been there in previous years as Sliders by Henry – had taken out former champs Side Street in a surprising upset, before doing the same to Great Leap Brewing to advance into the Final Four.

Would this victory – which was shaping up to be a Cinderella Story – spell another loss for Slow Boat?

In a sudden turn of events, Slider Nation got knocked out by Q Mex, a bit of good news for Slow Boat. But now they’d be pitted against a fellow veteran and bitter rival, as Q Mex had stolen the crown from them back in 2017.

This boat’s engines are strong as hell, and Slow Boat pulled through in the end. To sum up the victory, co-owner Chandler Jurinka compares it to brewing a quality beer: "In brewing, we say to brew a great beer once is easy, but to brew a great beer over time takes a lot of skill", and much like that well-crafted beer, Slow Boat has come through with a well-earned Burger Cup win.

Burger Fest & Cup by the Numbers

It goes without mentioning, this year’s Burger Fest brought Beijing even closer to that heaven. 92 percent of voters we polled said they’d found a new place they’d never heard of before, while a whopping 88 percent said they went out and expanded their burgerizons by trying one or more of them.

Although this year’s winner has a familiar name, the Fest and Cup changed the hearts and minds of the people: 72 percent of those polled say they’ve changed their opinion this year on what burgers rank best.

Plus, in news that’ll surely delight local fitness instructors and gyms, 84 percent of our voters say they’ve eaten more burgers than usual over the past month, while 70 percent have consumed more beer. Time to hit the treadmill and get your diets in order too, because Pizza Fest is right around the corner!

To round off our caption contests, here are your takes on dialogue from yet more scenes from Korean drama Squid Game:

And this comic strip: