New Zealand Team Chosen for 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup 2011

New Zealand Team Chosen for 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup 2011

Here at 42BELOW we take our job pretty seriously and no more so than when it comes time to find the three bartenders to represent the home of 42BELOW at our annual Cocktail World Cup.

So after months scouring the best bars, clubs and restaurants (basically an upmarket pub crawl), tonight we found our country’s three best who will be taking on the world at the 2011 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup. The team was selected from ten finalists who competed bartender against bartender at Wellington’s iconic Matterhorn Bar.

They are Timothy Martin and Hannah Waters from Mea Culpa in Auckland and from Wellington’s Hawthorne Lounge, Jonathan Almario. Timothy wowed the judges with his ‘Last Minute’ cocktail, which featured 42BELOW Passion, dry vermouth, lemongrass and ginger syrup and a black tea and chocolate tincture. His fiancée, Hannah presented, her ‘Cup of Jamshid’, a term taken from an ancient brew favoured by fortune tellers, and using 42BELOW Manuka Honey, bitters, Benedictine, cardoman syrup and chargrilled pineapple and served in wine glass topped with a dry ice ‘fog’. Jonathan is the youngest and least experienced of the trio but earned his place with his drink “Sweetened with Bittersweet’ a combination of 42BELOW Manuka Honey, Averna, Amaro Montenegro, fresh lime juice, egg white and orange peel.

42BELOW ambassador and judge Frankie Walker said Tim and Hannah set themselves apart with their “thoughtfulness, composition and flawless execution of their drinks.” Jonathan impressed them not only with his superb mixing ability but “he has the personality and charisma that if anyone can handle being the third wheel on the team, he can!.” Once they have finished basking in the glow of being crowned New Zealand’s best, they must start working together to plan their ‘signature’ drink for the competition.

Team New Zealand will roll up in Queenstown alongside six other teams from around the world for the 42BELOW ‘Carnival of the Cocktail’. The five day extravaganza is promising to the most outlandish, outrageous and spectacular in the event’s seven year history.

The winners will be decided by a panel of international judges after a series of grueling challenges, some of which we are unleashing on our unsuspecting contestants for the first time. The 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup will be held in and around Queenstown from March 14th with a spectacular grand final event being held under a big top marquee.

ENDS

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