Team China @ 42 Below Cocktail World Cup

At last year’s 42 Below Cocktail World Cup, Shanghai bartenders were grouped with a Japanese mixologist to compete as a polyglot Asian team. They made a Japanese-style drink and took sixth place. 2007 saw the debut of an all China team, with Beijing’s own Johnson Ren of Aria repping the northern capital. The final event of the six-day tournament was a seven minute shake-off spectacle in a public park in Queenstown, New Zealand. Hundreds of locals attended. Team China was on in the eleventh slot. Johnson, 26, watched the first ten teams. He was nervous. The other teams were old hands, in the industry their whole lives. The Las Vegas team didn’t have a single member under the age of 37. They juggled bottles and pumped up the crowd. Johnson was really nervous. As he waited and watched and sweated, he downed three cocktails.

Earlier in the week, representatives from towns scattered all over the planet converged on Queenstown for this extreme competition. Everyone broke new ground. The competitors mixed drinks while dangling from bungee cords. They bounced off waves in a jet boat while pouring cocktails. They took a chopper to the top of a mountain and invented drinks with mystery ingredients (China beat Las Vegas and the Irish contingent in this mini-competition). They made friends and attended seminars. “Everyone had different styles,” said Johnson later. “The thing I learned most is the different way of taking orders. In China, we will ask, ‘What would you like to drink, sir?’” (He works in a classy bar. They actually do ask politely at Aria.) “But many Western bartenders can look at a customer and guess what he will drink. They will suggest a cocktail for him. It is a different style of communication.”

Each team had a different style in the final mix-off event, too. Some teams filled the entire table with elaborate mixing equipment. The French dressed like teddy bears. The Las Vegas team, all showman, put on a hell of a performance. Johnson was the MC for Team China. All three Chinese were dressed in Beijing opera gowns, wearing opera masks. They had been concerned about their hairstyles before the competition. One of the Shanghai guys had long hair and a goatee. The other had a bowl-cut. Johnson’s hair looked like a bubble, or a mushroom. “We thought we could have one with long hair in the middle, and the other two should have a matching cut. We wanted balance,” said Johnson, so he and Bowl-cut went to a Maori barber. “I told him to make it look cool. He took his razor, and z-z-z-zp!” Johnson took the stage with a buzz-cut, racing stripes shooting past his temples.

The intro music for Team China was head-rush kung fu stuff. “I got on stage,” Johnson said, “and went crazy.” He forgot the recipe. He forgot what he was supposed to do. He just felt wild and high, and wanted everyone to be like him. In between whipping the audience into a frenzy, striking kung fu poses, and preparing the drinks, Johnson led the local crowd in a chant of “Chuan Chao”. That’s the name of the cocktail they invented. Chuan Chao (川朝) translates into something like Spice Dynasty, although others have called it “spice of life.” It was a wholly fresh invention. In the past, Chinese bartenders fiddled with tried and true cocktails, mixing and matching ingredients. Chuan Chao, to contrast, has no precedent. Like Athena from the head of Zeus, it spontaneously burst from the minds of the three mixologists representing China to the world (or at least to Queenstown).

The container for Chuan Chao was an imperial goblet known as a longzun (龙樽). Johnson got it at the Dirt Market before hitting Queenstown. “The audience had no idea what it was,” Johnson said. “I told them that only the emperor could drink from it. I told them how ancient it was, how much history was in only the container.”

At the end of the seven minutes, all three tenders tore off their gowns and masks, launched them into the crowd, and stalked off the stage.

New York cocktail king and tournament judge Dale DeGroff was blown away. “Really amazing,” he said. “Beautiful, and the tie of the spice and vessel were great. Asia is on the up.” 42 Below Professor Jacob Briars agreed. “China has come on leaps and bounds since last year’s contest. Their drink was off the hook. Kudos.”

Team China took fourth, beat only by Las Vegas, London, and the home team, New Zealand. “We got the potential to win,” Johnson told me, back in Beijing. “I should use my experience to advise the Chinese representatives next year. We can win the whole thing.”

‘Chuan Chao’
37 mls (1 ¼ oz) 42 Pure vodka infused with vanilla and clove
12 mls Navan
10 mls (1/3 oz) Lemon Z limoncello
1 barspoon of homemade vanilla sugar
1 barspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Fresh ginger
Fresh lemongrass
Pineapple chunks

Served in a ginger and honey-rimmed goblet, with a sichuan pepper and vanilla foam, garnished with a vanilla pod and cinnamon stick.