New Zealand. The land of the long white cloud, famed throughout the world for its zeals and their newness, and if there's any justice in the world, 42 Below Vodka: the world's most awarded vodka, according to, uh, 42 Below Vodka and hosts of the annual Cocktail World Cup.

The Cocktail World Cup. An annual cocktail competition open to bartenders all over the world which may or may not involve shaking a cocktail while being thrown off a bridge.

In fairness, they tie you to the bridge first. Apparently.

Entries have been open for next year's CWC since early July and the ednbrg inbox is appropriately full of reminders from both 42 Below and their corporate overlords at Bacardi, given that they close at the end of the month. The competition follows the now standard write-in/regional/national/global format, but is seemingly a little less restrictive in terms of ingredients. A lot of competitions specify a maximum number of ingredients or restrict brand usage, but the CWC seems to only request that drinks are made with 42 Below or one of their flavoured vodkas. While the Manuka Honey, Kiwi and Passionfruit vodkas are all pretty awesome, I opted to use the Feijoa, mainly because I like making my life difficult.

Feijoa is a fruit that is firmly planted in the exotic category. It has been adopted as New Zealand's national fruit (originating from South America and named for a Portuguese explorer), looks something like a lime and tastes something like root beer. It's a divisive flavour, like Marmite or Vegemite or anything else that ends in -mite. As for the vodka, it's all eucalyptus and menthol on the nose, with rich herbal flavours and a smooth mouthfeel. If you've never tried it, it's probably worth doing at least once.

Anyway, this one's in the electronic post to the Vodka University.

A walk in the clouds

60ml 42 Below Feijoa
1 barspoon Acacia honey
15ml lemon juice
An eighth of a Galia melon, diced
A third of an avocado, diced
10ml sparkling water

Muddle the diced avocado with the sparkling water in the base of a shaker tin until it forms a smooth paste. Muddle the diced melon with the vodka, honey and lemon juice in the base of a mixing glass. Add this to the puréed avocado and shake with ice. Fine-strain into a chilled coupette and garnish with a melon ball on a cocktail stick with a spear of spring onion.