Beijing Boyce

A new Olympic event?

After taking top spot in the Beijing qualifier of the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup, Aria’s Johnson Ren teamed up with Cross Yu (Vault, Shanghai) and Alex Zhou (Volar, Shanghai) to finish fourth out of fourteen teams at the championships in New Zealand. According to a press release from Confucius Says:

Team China rounded out the top teams in fourth 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.

Congratulations Johnson, and hopefully we’ll be seeing that drink on the Aria cocktail list.

I owed myself a weekend of fun for ages and cashed in last Friday, Saturday and Sunday by attending five wine events. Here’s number two:

The Beijing Wine Club organized a full evening of fun – including a blind tasting, food and quiz – last Saturday night at Sequoia Cafe. Here’s what attendees received for the 220-kuai entry fee:

• A blind tasting of two whites
• A blind tasting of two reds
• Barbecued sausages, salad, beans, sauerkraut, brownies and more, accompanied by a nice Shiraz-Grenache
• Two quizzes with an excellent mix of questions ranging from easy to challenging: name three of the five biggest Chinese wine producers, name five whites and five reds, name the profession of the person who invented Champagne (conventional wisdom says it was Dom Perignon and he was a monk, though wine geeks will tell that it was the brainchild of the English).
• A chance to meet new people in a crowd that spanned what must have been nearly a dozen nationalities.

This was a well-organized, high-value event that not only was good fun but also boosted my knowledge of wine. It lived up to the invite – “From the savvy sauvignon blanc to the spicy shiraz, by the end of the evening you will know a little more wine.” Kudos go to the organizers.

You’ve read about it, now you can see what all the fuss is about. Thomas Crampton’s blog includes this interview with a Hooters executive on the opening of the restaurant chain’s first spot in Beijing and pushes the journalistic envelope by (briefly) putting the event in the context of traditional Chinese culture (a hat tip to danwei).