Shaking all over
I was adamant I would not be doing the bungee jump when I read the invitation to the Cocktail World Cup back in my ground-floor London flat. But, after witnessing 32 bartenders from around the globe throw themselves off a cliff in New Zealand's South Island, many with cocktail shakers in hand, the thought crossed my mind that, if I didn't make myself do it, there would be whole areas of the earth where nobody would serve me a drink.
So, dear reader, I leapt.
| !](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/u1JlKVXTi6XxbhxmrzMw) | |
| Most cocktails don't require this much shaking - anyway, most bars don't have cliffs and bungee ropes |
On the long way down, I asked myself, in slightly more colourful prose, what exactly had brought me to this point. Of course, it was the drink that did it. A premium vodka to be exact, New Zealand's 42 Below, and its distiller's attempt to create a Cocktail World Cup competition that would produce a definitive drink the stylish would be supping in bars from Brighton to Brisbane.
I had arrived a few days before with the quietly confident UK team. Cocktail culture has exploded in Britain over the past five years and this group was being touted as the crew to beat. As unofficial captain Sam Jeveons, from Match Bar in London's West End, put it: "We used to look to New York for drink inspiration and talented bar staff, but that's no longer the case. We believe the UK can compete with the best in the world."
The rest of "the Brits", all London-based, were Natalie Hickey from Noble Rot, Scottish mixologist Barry Galloway from Alchemy, London, Mark Drew from Salvador & Amanda, Philip Harding from Chelsea's K Bar, and Ray Back from Electricity Showrooms in Shoreditch.
They met their rival bartenders from Canada, Australia, the USA and New Zealand at the official Maori welcoming ceremony in a house overlooking the beautiful Lake Wakatipu in picturesque Queenstown, the host city for the week-long event. This first night there was a lot of shouting, aggressive hand-waving and tongue-showing - but the bartenders eventually calmed down enough to watch the Maori dancing.
Even at this early stage, it was clear that this was not the usual cocktail competition. To find out more, I picked my way past a large clump of Polynesians and cornered Geoff Ross, the MD of 42 Below - or, as the laidback Kiwi crowd prefer it, "chief vodka bloke". I waved my itinerary at him and asked why he wanted to combine cocktail-making with jet boats, helicopters and bungee jumps.
"We wanted to hold a competition with a difference," he said, "something that captured the New Zealand spirit and energy. So we decided to be as extreme as possible and really put the bartenders through their paces, and then hold the competition on the side of a mountain, on an ice bar. Cocktail-making has two elements - there is the craft of experimenting with different flavours, and the stress of working under pressure. So we have weaved them both into the competition. Also, by getting some of the best mixology minds in the world in one place, this has provided a great opportunity to encourage experimentation and the sharing of ideas and flavours."
The ensuing days became somewhat of a blur as I dutifully followed the bartenders up and down mountains or in and out of helicopters as they mixed drinks. They leaned out of jet boats and bungee-jumped off cliffs, all without any apparent fear. (I, on the other hand, was suffering from a large dose of it.) Between times, the teams conferred conspiratorially in hotel rooms over their cocktail recipes.
The day of the competition proper arrived and, as we were all bussed up the Coronet Peak Mountain, I finally saw the bar crews looking nervous. The ice bar was ready, the music and MC were in place, and the assembled crowd was buzzing with anticipation and the circulating shots of 42 Below. Each team had its own music and a unique approach - for example, the New York girls showed more flesh than I've seen outside the Car Show (and probably more than was wise, in those temperatures).
The first UK team consisted of Ray Back and Phil Harding. They wanted to show how easy making a good cocktail could be, so Back duly blindfolded himself and proceeded to make the judges a Redcliffe. This was a mix of 42 Below Manuka Honey vodka, crŠme de mure, gomme syrup and squeezed lime. The humorous approach and subtle flavours impressed the panel, but it was the UK's second team everyone was waiting for.
The four of them duly burst on to the stage to a slice of hip-hop beats and some serious whooping from the audience. Galloway, in his customary kilt, grabbed the mike from the MC and thanked his hosts and fellow competitors before saying: "To misquote Braveheart, ‘We've not got all dressed up and come all this way to go home losers'."
They talked the audience through the drink, called the Fa fa feni, which was a combination of 42 Below Passion fruit vodka, apple juice, grenadine and home-made honey syrup, garnished with an apple fan, a passion fruit disk and a five-leaf mint sprig. The crew's combination of energy and humour, and the mix of flavours, seemed certain to win them the day.
But then came the Aussies. Sebastian Raeburn from Ginger in Melbourne, Ben Davidson, bartender at Attic in Sydney, and Regan Touama, working at Bambu in Melbourne, really put on a show. They told an involved but amusing story about the different ingredients of their drink and how it linked the world with New Zealand. Even I, reluctantly, clapped at the end. The drink got the thumbs-up from the judges despite, or maybe because of, the fact that it contained the German bitter liqueur Jagermeister. It also sported 42 Below Manuka Honey vodka, elderflower water and vanilla liqueur.
Davidson said: "I'm really happy and surprised to have won. We knew it was a good drink with nice complexity, but there were some very strong teams here. I now hope to see the recipe used across the world."
The UK team were charitable in defeat. "Fair play to them, they did a brilliant show and it's a good drink," said Mark Drew. "We have had a truly fantastic time here. We'd really like to give it another go next year." And what has 42 Below's "chief vodka bloke", Geoff Ross, got planned for 2005? He said: "I think we're going to have a go at doing it underwater."
Winning cocktails
Gold medal
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