The fifth annual Cocktail World Cup will begin in Queenstown on Tuesday.
42 Below "vodka professor" Jacob Briars reckons it is the "Olympics" of bar tending, not an event to be taken lightly.
The competition is intense and the events extreme and, for the first time, Queenstown will have two of its own representing New Zealand.
Debajo's Jason Clark and Eichardts' Dan Miles have been named in the Team New Zealand Kapai team, the third member being Wellington's Claire Harlick, who works at the Matterhorn.
Miss Harlick last year represented Scotland, but Cup rules state you cannot represent the same country twice.
For the Queenstown lads the pressure is well and truly on.
"It's one thing to represent your country, it's another thing to represent your country in the town you live, in front of all your friends and colleagues," Mr Miles said.
While New Zealand teams previously have not been able to resist the temptation to go "totally Kiwiana", which has been confusing for the panel of primarily international judges, the Kapai team would be offering something "completely different".
Just what will be revealed next week.
The team is hoping their recipe will help them be the first New Zealand team to win the cup final.
One of the New Zealand teams last year was runner-up to the Las Vegas team.
Mr Briars said the event was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity", not only for those who had never left their home country to travel to Queenstown, but for the chance to expose ideas to the best in the industry.
"We bring 45 of the best bar tenders together . . . you're going to get great electricity.
"A lot of ideas get exchanged, new ideas get exposed. Those ideas can end up [on cocktail menus]."
The competition works on a running tally after the completion of small challenges through the week.
Teams are judged on all the skills that go into bar tending, not the least of which will be showmanship. And rest assured, the cocktails will be in a class of their own.
