Vault and Volar bartenders do us proud!

Our Shanghai champions that went to the finals of the Cocktail World Cup held in Queenstown, New Zealand, have come back and done us proud! Unshaken by an itinerary that included some really extreme cocktail shaking via bungy-jumping, on top of a mountain and on a jet boat, Cross from Vault and Alex from Volar (together with Johnsen from Aria in Beijing) emerged fourth after Teams Vegas, New Zealand and England. Okay, so they weren't tops but it appears they did manage to wow some of the biggest mixologists around like New York cocktail king Dale DeGroff.

Here's what we got from their press release:

Team China rounded out the top teams in forth place, and the intrepid threesome of Johnson, Cross and Alex impressed the world with the continuing rapid rise of Chinese mixology. Their “chuan chao” (mandarin for “spice of life”) brought together vanilla and clove infused 42 BELOW Pure Vodka with a mix of lemon, vanilla, ginger, lemongrass and pineapple, topped with a sichuan pepper and vanilla foam to form a uniquely Chinese flavoured concoction served in an ancient zun (樽).

Team China’s performance earned the team high praise. Judge Dale DeGroff described their cocktail as ‘really amazing, beautiful and the tie of the spice and vessel were great. Asia is on the up.’ While 42 BELOW Vodka Professor Jacob Briars said “China has come on leaps and bounds since last year’s contest. Their drink was off the hook. Kudos.”

Sounds like pretty high praise to us! Now that they're back in Shanghai, we hear from one of the organisers that:

... I guess Alex and Cross are now very good names to know if you are out drinking at Volar or Vault. If they are working and you mention the 42 BELOW Cocktail World Cup in the next couple of weeks you are guaranteed to get good cocktail treatment.

Photo of Alex and Cross shaking it up in Queensland at the 42 Below World Cup