Fall or Spring?
While we are busy celebrating the harvest and the crisp, clean, fall weather the folks in the southern hemisphere are looking forward to all that spring and summer have to bring.
And those folks in New Zealand always have a special way to celebrate with just an extra layer of zaniness tossed in!
Just about a month ago Queenstown was the site of the Cocktail World Cup, a competition with 42 bartenders on 14 teams and, this should not surprise you, sponsored by 42 Below, the New Zealand distillers, as we reported back in May.
The competition was a week long but the grand finale was where all the exciting action took place. The bartenders had to shake a Cosmopolitan while bungy-jumping and create a mystery cocktail on top of the Remarkables while in a helicopter, among other challenges. However, 85% of the final score came down to each team’s shake-off performance on an ice bar at Earnslaw Park.
The winning team was the UK London 2 team comprised of Kevin Armstrong, Jose Da Rocha and Tim Fitz-Gibbon. They created a hot cocktail based on an old recipe but slightly updated it to take advantage of the 42 Below line of spirits.
Friar Briars? Sack Posset
- 2 eggs
- 1 heaped teaspoon honey
- 80ml cream
- 80ml 42 Below Manuka Honey Vodka
- 80ml Speights Old Dark Ale
- 20ml Tahiti Dark
- 5ml Benedictine
- Dash Angostura bitters
Whisk all ingredients and warm on a stove, then char with a red hot poker. Serve in a teacup.
