UK team secure a well-deserved third place, NZ come home in second.
To say that the week-long 42Below Cocktail World Cup final, held in Queenstown and Auckland, is epic and life changing is something of an understatement.
A full report on the week’s adventures will follow shortly (this reporter is currently on a remote Kiwi island with an internet connection dating from c1991).
However, to give you a brief flavour of the challenges faced, competitors were strapped to a rubber band and hurled out of a gondola over a 160 meter gorge within an hour of touching down at Queenstown airport… This was at the end of a 30 hour flight for many.
In short, the week was hardcore.
The American team, consisting of Steve Schneider-Hadzismajlovic (Employees Only), Bekaly Franks (Clyde Common) and Kenny Kodys (Breckenridge Brewery), in the final analysis, won pretty convincingly.
For several of the challenges, they were dressed in combat fatigues and led by Captain America (Steve), complete with Stars and Stripes shield.
Their performances in the punch and grand finale rounds displayed timing and co-ordination worthy of the military parade ground, and at all times during the week they were, in military terms, fully committed to the mission in hand.
If you were to sum up the USA’s performance as well drilled and disciplined, Team UK’s would have to be described as full of laughter and good chat.
Terry Cashman (Hoxton Pony), Simon Toohey (Callooh Callay) and Max Venning (Socio Rehab), had everyone in stitches for most of the week, and their Duelling Banjos-inspired finale performance was legendary. Their drink, ‘Poppy, Cider, 42 Reviver’, was also delicious and will hopefully end up on a menu or two in the UK.
In short, Team UK put in a proper ‘bartender’s performance’, and they can be very proud of securing third place over the well-fancied Australian and Startenders teams.
A full report on the 2012 42Below Cocktail World Cup will follow shortly. In the mean time, we bring you the competing teams’ Grand Finale round cocktail specifications.
Team USA
Formula 42
- 45ml 42BELOW Pure
- 15ml fresh lemon juice
- 7.5ml fresh lime juice
- 22.5ml passion fruit and Champagne vinegar shrub
- 5ml green chilli-infused Chartreuse
- 15ml black pepper-infused egg white
- Cucumber air garnish
Shaken and served in a small Rocks glass. Top with cucumber air.
Team New Zealand
42 Super Serum
- 45ml of ‘G. Honey’s Fresh & Strong component’
- 45ml of ‘Professor Passion’s Aperitif’
- 20ml of ‘The Kiwi’s Digestif’
Stirred over dried ice, and served in 250 mL boiling flask in a glass bowl, with a bed of dry & crushed ice. Served on a glass plate, with a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with an aromatic fog of 42BELOW Kiwi and Feijoa, mineral water and absinthe.
Element 1: Aperitif (Barney)
- 15ml 42BELOW Passionfruit
- 30ml Aperitif component (as below)
Aperitif ‘Component’
- 400ml Trinity Hill Viognier
- 360ml Man’o’War Riesling
- 160ml Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc,
- 4g lemon, orange and grapefruit zest
- 80g castor sugar
- Reduced by half on gentle heat.
- Add 25 drops yellow food colouring.
- Chilled.
Method: thrown between Boston tins, un-iced to mix.
Element 2: Digestive (Guy)
- 500ml of 42 Below Feijoa infused with orange skins
- 50ml 42 Below Feijoa infused with lemon skin
- 10ml 42 Below Feijoa infused with rosemary
- 10ml 42 Below Feijoa infused with thyme
- 20ml 42 Below Feijoa infused with anise
- 20ml 42 Below Feijoa infused with fennel
- 5ml 42 Below Feijoa infused with liquorice
- 600ml sugar syrup
- Blue food colouring
Per one serve:
- 20ml digestive component (as above)
- 2 drops Absinthe bitters
Method: Stirred over ice.
Element 3: Fresh & strong element (Gian)
Per single serve:
- 20ml 42 Below Honey
- 7.5ml 42 Below Pure
- 10ml lime juice
- 7.5ml orange juice
- One bar spoon of Kawakawa leaf
- 5 bay leaves
- Half a Hawthorn berry
Method: Shaken with ice.
Final Drink (3 components combined), stirred over dried ice.
Team GB
Poppy, Cider, 42 Reviver
- 40mls (1 1/3 oz) 42BELOW Feijoa
- 10ml Poppy liqueur
- 20ml fresh lemon juice
- 20ml spiced dry cider
Served in chilled medicine bottles on a bed of straw
Team Startenders
Mary Shelly Sour
- 60ml 42BELOW Pure
- 20ml Chartreuse syrup
- 15ml fresh lime juice
- 5ml absinthe
- ½ a free-range egg white
Dry-shake, then shake with ice. Double-strain into a chilled Cocktail glass. Garnish with aromatic absinthe fog.
Team Wildcard (Scotland)
Sa’blue’tage
- 20ml 42BELOW Feijoa
- 25ml 42BELOW Honey
- 20ml Aperol
- 15ml Chartreuse
- 2 dashes of lavender bitters
- 1 g citric acid
Garnished with Butterfly Pea Flowers
Team Australia
Punch My Passionate Smoking California Milk Tea
- 45ml 42BELOW Passionfruit
- 15ml Grand Marnier
- 15ml full cream
- 5ml burnt orange sugar syrup
- 5ml manuka honey
- 30ml water infused with cinnamon, cardamom, celery seed, star anise and Ida Valley saffron
Serve in an antique tea cup with lavender flower and a tea-infuser of dry ice.
Team Italy
Italians Do it Bitter
- 50ml 42BELOW Pure
- 30ml Martini Rosso vermouth
- 15ml chamomile-infused Rabarbaro
Strain into a glass rinsed with bitter solution, and garnish with Cynar ‘air’.