Beam Legendary Aperitivo Round in Auckland

Sunday night I went with three Italian friends to round three of the Grand Final of the Beam Bar Legend, New Zealand’s biggest bartending competition. This round was the Italian themed “Legendary Aperitivo Round”, held at  at Merchants of Venice in Wynyard Quarter.

The 6 finalists were required to make a drink using one of the Campari range including Campari, Aperol, Cinzano or Frangelico and match it to a Venetian Cicheti  (these are small dishes, a bit like tapas) created by Luca Villari.

There were 6 rounds with 6 drinks up for tasting, and at the end the 40 guests voted on their favourite to determine the winner of the evening. Our table was "the Italian Table", and we took our job very seriously 

:-) (well, we were the only Italians there, all missing our aperitivo back home!).

We started off with a Spritz (not included in the 6 to taste!) and by studying the tasting menu for aperitivi and cicheti

Bartenders busy at work and my Italian tasting team (Valentina, Ermanno and Jacopo) busy at... tasting!

The menu 

This was the winning aperitivo for the evening, but to find out who won the New Zealand's best bartender click here! 

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©