By Niamh Haszard, Bar Manager at The Fat Duck
Turns out travelling to Auckland with fermented plums is slightly more stressful than expected.
Last Monday, I headed north after being selected as one of six New Zealand finalists for the 2026 Monin Cup, competing alongside some incredibly talented bartenders from around the country for a spot at the Asia Pacific and Global Finals.
No pressure.
One of the best parts was getting to do it alongside my mate Stefani from The Langlands 360 Bar in Invercargill. It felt a bit like bringing a little piece of Southland up to the big city with us.
The whole competition was honestly such a good experience. Monin put on an awesome event, plenty of good energy, swag bags, nervous pacing backstage, and a free cocktail session at the end of the night that felt very well earned after a pretty nail-biting afternoon.
The cocktail I created for the competition was called Timeless Twist, a Japanese-inspired take on a classic gin sour.
The drink was built around lacto-fermented plums and Monin’s yuzu puree, inspired by umeboshi, those salty, punchy Japanese pickled plums. The idea was to take something familiar and completely flip it on its head.
Of course, deciding to use fermented produce in a cocktail competition comes with a few challenges. Between seasonality, prep, transport, and trying to keep everything tasting exactly the way I wanted it to, there were definitely a few stressful moments leading up to competition day.
But honestly, that’s part of what makes competitions fun.
I didn’t place this year, but for me that was never really the most important part anyway.
The best thing about competitions like this is the people you meet along the way. Spending time with bartenders from around New Zealand, sharing ideas, learning from each other, talking flavour combinations, techniques, and hearing everyone’s stories, that’s the stuff that sticks with you long after the trophies are handed out.
Hospitality can be a pretty small world, and those connections are genuinely invaluable.
I came home feeling a lot more confident in my presentation skills, my flavour concepts, and with a notebook full of ideas I’m excited to keep developing behind the bar.
Huge thanks to everyone who supported me along the way, especially the team for putting up with a few slightly chaotic fermented plum experiments in the lead-up.
