Team USA Smashes Competition: 42below Cocktail World Cup

Team Usa Smashes Competition On Day One Of The 42below Cocktail World Cup.

Team USA are quickly establishing themselves as the team to beat, winning back to back challenges on the first day of the 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup.

The team is made up of:
Beckaly Franks from Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon
Ken Kodys from Breckenridge Brewery in Denver
Steve Schneider from Employees Only and Macao Trading Company in New York.

The competition began today (Tuesday 4th September) with the seven teams flown by helicopter to a remote central Otago mountain top for the competition’s iconic ‘Mystery Box’ challenge. They were given just four minutes to make a drink using a minimum of six ingredients including truly obscure items like Persian fairy floss, mascarpone cheese, sheep yoghurt, fresh raspberry powder and dehydrated coconut black tea.

Team USA, who only met on the plane on the way to New Zealand, was declared the winners, with Team New Zealand coming a close second. Team USA’a Ken Kodys was ecstatic with the result, “it was a huge hurdle for us to win today’s challenge, and it has built a huge amount of trust and confidence. We have proved you can push egos to one side, we are not just three individuals, we are a team.”

The second challenge of the day is one of the competition’s most fiercely contested, the ‘Punch Challenge’. The teams had seven minutes to present their experimental and masterful creations to the four international judges. Team USA blew their competition out of the water with a highly choreographed and military inspired routine. The punch was titled ‘White Majesty Above Me’ and incorporated Krug champagne (opened using ‘Le Sabrage’ technique) 42BELOW Manuka Honey, a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and garnished with a strawberry covered in Pico Limon powdered sugar.

Judge John Lermayer, one of America’s most awarded bartenders, said their drinks and presentation exemplified what the competition is all about “bartending is about much more than mixing drinks, it’s about the entire experience. Team USA delivered on all fronts, they was poised, professional and produced beautifully balanced drinks under extreme pressure.”

The eighth annual 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup initiated its bartenders yesterday by throwing them 134 metres off the Nevis Bungy jump. The teams were then given a traditional Maori welcome before a lavish welcome dinner with food matched by 42BELOW cocktails.

‘Bottled Feijoa Shower’ (makes four drinks)

90 mls 42BELOW Feijoa

50 mls ‘Spiced Up’ Blood Orange Syrup (half a blood orange, 2 cubes cane sugar, 3 cloves, sprinkle of nutmeg, one barspoon lemon lavender syrup muddled together)

30 mls Lime Juice

Add ice and shake ingredients together,. Strain into 350 ml bottle top with 130 mls bitter soda. Cap bottle, put on ice and serve with side of small glasses.

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Images from each day can be downloaded at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42belowcwc/

Visit www.cocktailworldcup.com

ENDS

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