Team USA Wins The 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup 2012

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- After leading the points table all week and winning the first two challenges of the competition, Team USA has won the 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup 2012.

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Team USA is:
-Beckaly Franks from Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon
-Steve Schneider from Employees Only and Macao Trading Company, New York
-Ken Kodys from Breckenridge Brewery, Denver, Colorado.

Team USA made not only a perfectly balanced and well executed drink but delivered a highly choreographed stage show. In keeping with the event's theme 'Lab Experiment', their performance was inspired by American comic 'The Incredible Hulk', the ultimate scientific experiment gone wrong.

"Winning is one thing but even being here is another. Getting the chance to meet other bartenders from around the world and of this caliber is an amazing opportunity. I've learned so many new bartending methods and made friends for life," says Steve Schneider.

In an incredibly tightly contested final, Team New Zealand took out second place with Team Great Britain coming in third.

The judges, including New Zealander Jacob Briars, UK's Tony Conigliaro, Australian Marco Faraone and American's most awarded bartender, John Lermayer, saluted Team USA for their superb drinks, performance behind the bar and extraordinary ability to work as a team. "They are three very different individuals but they had a lot of national pride. They managed to take three different styles and morph them together. They were the tightest team of the week and it stood out," said Lermayer. Even more extraordinary given they only met at the airport on the way to New Zealand!

Their win is extra special as Beckaly is the first female bartender to ever win the competition, "I feel amazing. I normally don't think that women should be isolated out, but it really feels good to bridge the gap."

42BELOW Cocktail World Cup is one of the world's most unique and challenging mixology competitions. Twenty one of the world's best bartenders spent three days in Queenstown, throwing themselves from cable cars, flying in helicopters, riding the Shotover Jet, competing in terrifying challenges and listening to seminars from some of the industry's most influential tastemakers.

The final event of the 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup was held in a disused aircraft hangar in central Auckland.

SOURCE 42BELOW