Here are the nom­i­nees for the Best Drink cat­e­go­ry for the 2nd Annu­al Welling­ton­ista Awards (2AWA).

When I am not hav­ing a mar­ti­ni, I like to drink a___

There are many many places offer­ing many many cock­tails in Welling­ton, but we want to know what the very best of them is. There’s a par­ty in our col­lec­tive mouth, and these drinks are invit­ed…

(nom­i­nees after the jump)

A. Maitai (in a pineapple if possible) at Imbibe

As the wise Mr. Beard once said, “You should nev­er have pineap­ple in a maitai, but it’s okay to have a maitai in a pineap­ple”. Imbibe know this bet­ter than most bars, who will throw in ran­dom fruit to dilute what should actu­al­ly be a drink so strong it’ll put spikes on your chest. They’ll remem­ber that you like your pineap­ples, and if you call ahead, they’ll even order one in for you. It’s as close to a Tiki Bar as we’re like­ly to get in Welling­ton any time soon, so I guess it’ll have to do…

B. Poached Pear Punch at Superfino

Tiny lit­tle Superfi­no on Ghuznee Street may be the new bar in town, but they’ve been open long enough to start soak­ing pears in vanil­la gin, and they’ll serve up whole chunks of pear to you in a glass brim­ming with such deli­cious good­ness that even boys won’t feel embar­rassed to be drink­ing such a pink drink.

WINNER!!!
C. Negroni at Hawthorn Lounge

The Negroni. Com­plex. Spicy. Bit­ter, although not over­ly so. The tini­est bit of sweet­ness to off­set that. It’s a drink to warm a cold breast. It’s a per­fect aper­i­tif, a drink to wake up your taste buds and shout “Ciao, ragaz­zo bel­lo! Come stai?”. And the colour! The rich brown and deep red tones seem to glow with soft light and autum­nal hues. Hold one near a light and your Negroni will erupt in orange novas. It’s the obvi­ous drink-of-Autumn for a Welling­ton­ista. They do a fair turn at the Hawthorn — apt, real­ly, with their fire­place, and moody mood-light­ing — and if you ask nice­ly, they’ll even make you one with their spe­cial man­darin-infused gin, no less. “Bene, gra­zie!”

D. Another Martini at Capitol

As a wise per­son once said, “Mar­ti­nis are like breasts on a woman: one’s not enough, and three are too many”. So for one’s sec­ond Mar­ti­ni, we hearti­ly rec­om­mend Capi­tol. Of the near­ly 70 bars that made it into the Welling­ti­ni book: last year, Capi­tol came out near the top of the list, and if it had­n’t been for their ten­den­cy to over­do the olives, it would have approached per­fec­tion.

E. Chimay Bleue at Leuven

We’re not all cock­tail snobs at the Welling­ton­ista: some­times we like to com­mune with the mass­es by enjoy­ing a nice cold beer. How­ev­er, since we *are* snobs, we’d pre­fer a beer that actu­al­ly _tastes_ of some­thing, rather than mass-pro­duced swill dis­tin­guished pri­mar­i­ly by adver­tis­ing cam­paigns aimed at cretins. And while there are plen­ty of excel­lent local bou­tique brews, Bel­gium is the spir­i­tu­al home of beer, and Leu­ven is our Mec­ca. An evening spent savour­ing Ver­bo­den Vrucht, Gulden Draak, Leffe Blonde and Delir­i­um Tremens would be very mem­o­rable (not that we remem­ber much of the last one). At the very top of the beer tree, how­ev­er, is the vel­vety gor­geous­ness of Chi­may Bleue.

For a handy map of where to get all these drinks, use the “best­cock­tail” tag on Zoomin. Go drink up before vot­ing opens on Novem­ber 19.