THE 42 BELOW
COCKTAIL WORLD CUP
by Paul Horne
When I first got the call that I had been designated the
“perfect writer” to cover the 42 Below Cocktail
World Cup (www.cocktailworldcup.com),
I was both thrilled and offended. Thrilled because it
took place in New Zealand and I’d get to fly Business
Class on Air New Zealand (www.airnewzealand.com).
Offended because, well, apparently some editors think
I drink too much. Anyway, the thought of spending a week
watching the top bartenders in the world compete in the
land down under (and a little to the right) sounded like
nirvana. The 42 Below Cocktail World Cup is an annual
event held in “the adventure capital of the world,”
Queenstown, New Zealand. The event adds extreme competitions
to the art of bartending, so it’s like the X Games
for mixologists. Event creator 42 Below is not only an
award-winning premium vodka, it’s also an extremely
hip and irreverent brand. Our official guidebook advised
us not to get discouraged if we get banned from a particular
bar because there are plenty of other bars to move to.
Queenstown is the place that gave the
world bungee (or bungy) jumping, and it seems like every
other shop in this charming Aspen-like village is some
kind of adventure sports outfitter. You can skydive,
ski, jetboat, parachute, zipline, hike, raft, paraglide,
and the list goes on. Perched on Lake Wakatipu and surrounded
by enormous snow-capped mountains with awesome names
like “The Remarkables,” Queenstown is where
the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed, so “beautiful”
doesn’t really cut it. Spectacular, majestic, sweeping,
stunning...those get closer.
Shortly after my Sunday arrival, contestants
and media were whisked off to a traditional native Maori
welcome ceremony, where indigenous men and women performed
a haka, the traditional war dance given international
attention by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team.
After the haka and before the celebratory feast, all
the members of both parties rubbed noses together in
what is called a hongi or “sharing of breath.”
The muscular, inked, and very straight tribe member
I got to rub noses with was so hot I wanted to share
a lot more than breath with him, but I kept my lips
to myself. If only I had been able to hit the bar first…and
if only he hadn’t been holding a spear.
 Monday
brought the first competitive event, the Gravity Bungy
Shake off the Kawarau Bridge. Believe it or not, this
event has all 42 bartenders leaping off the bridge with
a bungy cord tied to their feet while holding a martini
glass in one hand and a shaker in the other. The object
is to make their version of a Cosmopolitan on the bridge,
plunge 143 feet over the edge while shaking the drink
on the way down, and then pour and present the drink
to a judge on a boat below while still hanging upside
down. The crowd screamed with every leap and Las Vegas
team member Anthony Alba assured their victory and stunned
the judges by finishing off his Cosmo with a favorite
trick of bartenders, the “flaming zest.” He
somehow managed to garnish his drink with a segment
of flamed orange peel he had cleverly taped to his arm
along with a lighter. These people are pros!
For the next competition, helicopters
flew us up to a snowy patch on the top of The Remarkables
for Red Bull Mountain Top Mixology. In this event, teams
had five minutes to create a world class cocktail using
an unseen box of mystery ingredients. The key here was
working as a team, under pressure, and against the clock.
The third and final extreme event was
the thrilling Jetboat Shaking. Here we joined the teams
on specially-designed jet boats racing more than 70
mph in water that was at times as shallow as three inches
through the narrow but spectacular Shotover River Canyons.
Teams were judged on their ability to make a drink and
present it to the judge onboard as the boat bounced
and slapped the water’s surface. Admittedly most
of their drinks ended up in our faces, but enough of
the drink did survive for the judges to declare a winner.
Continued
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