With less than a month until the 2010 42Below Cocktail World Cup returns to Queenstown, the New Zealand team has been decided, their goal being to impress the all-star line-up of judges in this year's competition - which includes a former Dunedin man.
The CWC will be held in Queenstown from March 22-25 before heading to Wellington for the 2010 final.
Judges spent a week trawling New Zealand's best bars, sampling innovative drinks from the country's top mixologists, evaluated on the ingredients they used, how well they went together and the overall taste and appeal of the cocktail.
The mixologists were narrowed down to 10 who were challenged in two parts in Wellington last week - first being grilled on their cocktail knowledge, before a cocktail competition gave them the chance to impress judges with their "signature cocktail".
The 10 competitors were narrowed down to three who will represent New Zealand next month.
The New Zealand team is James Groggin, of Racket, in Auckland, and Wellingtonians Josh Crawford (Hooch) and Calum Chadwick (Matterhorn).
Eight teams from seven countries will take part in the event, now in its sixth year.
CWC spokesman Jacob Pearson said the teams would be judged by an "all star line-up" of international judges.
Simon Difford, the "godfather" of the United Kingdom drinks industry, founded the influential Class magazine in 1997, now the leading style bar title in the UK.
Later, he launched his range of diffordsguides, most notably the cocktail edition, which contains 2500 cocktail recipes and went on to create his own elderflower liqueurs.
Mr Difford has been named as one of the world's best drinks and bar writers, most recently winning Drinks International magazine's Bartender of the Year.
Joining Mr Difford on the judging panel will be Jim Meehan, of the United States, who started mixing drinks to pay his way through university and went on to become one of the stars of the US bar trade.
Mr Meehan has worked in some of New York's top bars, including Five Points, Gramercy Tavern, The Pegu Club and PDT.
He is also the contributing editor of Food and Wine magazine's annual cocktail book, co-editor of Mr Boston's Bartender Guide, bartending columnist for Sommelier Journal and blogger for gq.com and liquor.com.
Last year, Mr Meehan was named American Bartender of the Year at Tales of the Cocktail.
Vernon Chalker, of Melbourne, is one of the founding fathers of the city's cocktail and bar scene.
Since opening Gin Palace in 1997, Mr Chalker went on to open Orders of Melbourne and Madame Brussels.
In 2009, he was named the most influential figure in the Australian bar industry.
Also on the judging panel is Jason Chan, originally from Dunedin but now living in Melbourne.
After moving to Australia, Mr Chan opened Batch Espresso, before moving on to bars, launching Seamstress/Sweatshop, a multilevel bar, restaurant, coffee shop and wine room.
Mr Chan won the CWC in 2005.
