New Zealand scored its best result yet by placing a close second at the 42Below Cocktail World Cup final on Friday.
However, Team USA was judged to have made a perfectly balanced and well-executed drink, and delivered a highly choreographed stage show.
In keeping with the event's "Lab Experiment" theme, the performance of Beckaly Franks, of Portland, Steve Schneider, of New York, and Ken Kodys, of Denver, was inspired by US comic The Incredible Hulk.
Team Great Britain came third at the grand finale, held in a disused aircraft hangar in central Auckland.
