NZ & AUS Tour: The Best Of The Bloodys

 

 

Mission: to find out if  New Zealand and Australia can do good Bloody Mary’s.

Mission accepted.

I am not going to rate all the Bloodys I drank on my tour as quite frankly nobody has the time to read them all, so I am only going to share my top 3 from my tour.

Queenstown, New Zealand. – The Grille by Eichardt’s

After a night on the town exploring what Queenstown had to offer, we were in need of a good breakfast and a bloody. We stumbled across The Grille by Eichardt’s, a very stylish boutique hotel overlooking the water.

Taste 5/5 – a very well crafted BM! The basil and horseradish mix was delicious

Sweat Test 5/5 Did a good job of sweating out the night before from the heat of the horseradish.

Glass 3/5 – good size but nothing special

Presentation 4/5 loved the horseradish and the tomato skins (never seen this before). The use of the cocktail stick was a nice touch also.

Garnish 3/5 – most of the garnish was inside the mixture which was very cool.  It could have done with some celery or cucumber perhaps?

Bonus 1–  the lady serving us was lovely (from Leeds as well!) Also the food was incredible.

Overall 23/25 – A very very very good Bloody from the South Island.

 

Sydney, Australia- Bar Luca

We had just landed in Sydney, it was raining hard, we had all our luggage and two things in mind: burgers and bloodys. So there we were running down the streets of Sydney, all our luggage getting drenched in the rain. Then we saw it…Bar Luca.

Taste 5/5 –the lady freshly squeezed the tomatoes as they ran out of  juice. Surprising it tasted amazing!!!

Sweat Test 4/5 Yup spicy enough, warmed us up in the rain.

Glass 2/5 – standard glass, nothing special. A kooky place like this can afford to do something wacky.

Presentation 4/5  It looked awesome-  freshly squeezed tomatoes juice and the well placed garnishes. Well done!

Garnish 4/5 – celery, olives and cucumber- very earthy garnish and all very fresh!

Bonus 2- the effort the lady went through to make these bloodys deserves one point. The second point goes to them as they gave away free umbrellas to the public

…something that will never happen in London.

Overall 21/25 – A great welcome to Sydney (despite the rain) … thank you!

O and here are our burgers… (more details on the burgers in the ‘Aus/NZ burger round up’ blog…coming soon!)

Brisbane, Australia- The Gresham 

Our last day of the tour. I had done some research and the Gresham was the place to go for a good bloody… It was an old quirky bar in the middle of the city, very cool indeed.

But did it live up to it’s Bloody’s reputation?

 

Taste 4/5 –Refreshing and well mixed- maybe a little less watery if anything.

Sweat Test 5/5 – The bartender asked how spicy it should be and offered to adapt it once I tasted it, but it was spot on.

Glass 4/5 – a great long glass, very elegant.

Presentation 5/5 – Classy! presented on Gresham coasters, with fresh, perfectly placed garnishes.

Garnish 5/5 – LOVE rosemary, and something you hardly ever see. There was also lemon and cucumber so well done!

Bonus 1–  the mixologist was very passionate in the making of these bloodys which is great to see.

Overall 23/25 – The Gresham lived up to it’s reputation, it was a great way to end my tour. Well done!