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The world’s hippest vodka, 42 BELOW, has arrived in Hong Kong following award-winning launches in the United States and Europe. Named after the 42nd parallel in New Zealand where it was born, the super premium brand is already a storming success at top cocktail bars around the world including The Beverly Hills Hotel in LA, Bungalow 8 in New York, Victor Hotel in Miami, The Blue Room (Madonna’s favourite) at The Berkeley in London, Buddha Bar in Paris, M.O.S. (Ministry of Sound) in Singapore and Bed Supper Club in Bangkok. 42 BELOW has immediately been snapped-up by Hong Kong’s top bars and restaurants. It makes its debut at similarly fashionable venues in the city, including Blu bar at The Four Seasons, Felix at The Peninsula, MO Bar at Landmark Mandarin Oriental, JJs at The Grand Hyatt and OPIA at JIA Hong Kong, as well as chic late night hangouts in Lan Kwai Fong and SOHO, and such trendy restaurants as Lotus, FINDS and Va Bene. 42 BELOW has also been passing the lips of Hong Kong's who’s who at recent high-profile celebrity and socialite events, such as the relaunch of Lane Crawford Pacific Place, Diesel / I.D Magazine exhibition and G-Magazine's 2nd anniversary party. The leading choice for connoisseurs, 42 BELOW is also available at 14 Free Duty Hong Kong outlets at Hong Kong International Airport. “We are thrilled Hong Kong is embracing 42 BELOW, where it being mixed in passionfruit lychee martinis and muddled kiwi caipiroska in some of the great cocktail hotspots,” says international marketing spokesman, Todd Graydon. 42 BELOW is the brainchild of former Saatchi & Saatchi advertising executive, now self appointed chief vodka bloke, Geoff Ross, who hit upon the idea of a New Zealand vodka after reading about another new vodka from the United States. "I thought to myself, hold on, America is the home of bourbon and moonshine. Vodka has to come from cold countries doesn’t it? That’s when I started thinking about our climate and the idea of 42 BELOW was born," he says. It took Ross five years to perfect his vodka. The first bottle was opened in Wellington, New Zealand in 1999. New Zealand has the perfect environmental conditions to make a smooth, super premium vodka. 42 BELOW is distilled from natural spring water beneath an extinct volcano with the highest Aa purity rating in the world. The New Zealand air also sets a global benchmark for purity. The recipe contains GE-free wheat with four distillations. It is now the No 1 vodka in New Zealand, but exports 70% of production around the globe, with four distinct New Zealand flavours - Manuka Honey, Feijoa, Passionfruit and Kiwifruit – as well as the pure 42 BELOW. "The flavours are produced by gently heating the fruit and circulating a liquid pulp back in to the vodka to extract the very essence of the fruit. It is very similar to how perfume was made 100 years ago. This ensures that what you smell is also what you taste when you open a bottle," says Ross. The success story has grown from ‘one man with a dream’ to producing over 10,000 cases a month. The brand has also made a name for itself for cheeky marketing antics, including the slogan: “42 BELOW, drink it straight. Or gay.” International high-profile events promoting the brand have included flying 42 bartenders from around the world to an ice bar on a New Zealand mountain for last year’s inaugural Cocktail World Cup. The bartenders had to shake cocktails while bungy jumping, doing 360-degree spins in jet boats, and dangling out of helicopters. 42 BELOW was the most award-winning vodka in the international competition arena last year. Apart from scooping top international awards on its market debut, 42 BELOW is also being hailed by the world’s leading mixologists as a superb compliment to cocktails, introducing unique new flavours. The pure version won gold at the San Francisco Spirits awards and 43rd World Spirits Awards in Brussels, as well as first equal among 16 other super premium brands in a blind tasting by experts for The Independent newspaper. The flavoured versions were also prizewinners. The Manuka Honey, which has many medicinal benefits, won gold medals at the Beverage Tasting Institute awards in Chicago and S*IAL awards in Paris, plus silver at the San Francisco Spirit Awards. The Feijoa, a small fruit that tastes between guava and pineapple, was described by Time Out New York as one of the ‘best twelve treats’ for Christmas. 42 BELOW Passionfruit was judged “superb” by Wine Enthusiast. 42 BELOW’s most recent flavour, kiwifruit, has already won silver at last year’s 43rd World Spirits Awards in Brussels. President of US operations James Dale explains: “Mankind hasn’t been living in New Zealand for long enough to mess up the environment, so our air and water down there is the purest in the world, if you drink 42 BELOW all night you won’t get a hangover.” www.42below.com (information provided by their pr company)
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