Join Jacob Briars as he escorts you through the world of bitters, amari and vermouths. Yes, he is a Kiwi who has peddled both vodka and cachaca but love Fernet as much as Shawn does.

Who is Jacob Briars?
Jacob Briars is the 42BELOW ‘Vodka Professor’ and the 7th most famous bartender in New Zealand. In the course of nearly 10 years working in bars, drinking in bars and talking in bars... [read more]

Join Jacob Briars as he escorts you through the world of bitters, amari and vermouths. Yes, he is a Kiwi who has peddled both vodka and cachaca but love Fernet as much as Shawn does.

Who is Jacob Briars?
Jacob Briars is the 42BELOW ‘Vodka Professor’ and the 7th most famous bartender in New Zealand. In the course of nearly 10 years working in bars, drinking in bars and talking in bars (mostly the latter) over 6000 bartenders have learned things they didn’t really need to know about vodka, cocktails, and how to find New Zealand on a map so that it may be avoided in future. Jacob’s cocktails have been featured in the (Motueka) Guardian, the (Levin) Chronicle and the (Bangkok) Post. One day his cocktail training led the news on Fiji’s national television, but then it is a very small country. He also spent time in Casablanca, but it was spent at a police station for bringing too much vodka into a gin joint. Jacob is famous for being a mine of (mostly) completely useless information about spirits and cocktails and other pointless trivia, and he is the only bartender who can claim to love vodka and Fernet Branca equally.