Comment permalink

Two Wanaka mixologists will be battling for top honours in Queenstown this week, during the final of the inaugural Cocktail Earth Cup.

Formerly known as the Cocktail World Cup, last held in 2012, the rebranded competition has a focus on environmentally sustainable practices in making cocktails.

Over the next three days five Australian teams and five New Zealand teams, including James Crinson and Chris Lehane from Wanaka’s Lalaland, will be put through their paces learning about waste elimination in bars and sustainable cocktail practices while vying for the crown of Cocktail Earth Cup champions.

Mr Crinson said the New Zealand team was made up of the best mixologists in the country so it would be interesting to see what the Australian team was made of.

"It’s going to be awesome ... we don’t know what we are getting ourselves into but it’s going to be a really interesting ride," he said.

To enter mixologists were challenged to create and submit and environmentally friendly and sustainable cocktail.

Entries ranged from "Infinity", which used pear cores that would otherwise be thrown away, "From Tank to Table", which used rain water, and "Let’s Get Tropical", which claimed to have a "negative footprint" by using ingredients that would otherwise be wasted.

A total of 37 teams from New Zealand and 42 from Australia entered and were narrowed down to five teams of two from each country.

Competition judge and Bacardi global trade advocacy director Jacob Briars said the revamped competition was the first step in "shining a bit of spotlight" on simple sustainable bar practices which could be done behind the bar but required support from bartenders and bar owners.

"We know there are a good few people in our industry out there doing some great work already, and were simply providing a platform to share learnings and ideas amongst a great young generation of bartending talent," he said.

The public will have a chance to watch the mixologists in action.

Tonight,  they will create their cocktails at The Sherwood and the teams will "take over" five CBD bars, yet to be revealed, on Wednesday night before the overall winners are announced.

All CO2 emissions from the Cocktail Earth Cup have been offset by credits from New Zealand’s first internationally certified rainforest carbon project, located on Maori land in Western Southland.